Real news An international newspaper that honors God for Churches of Christ Vol. 78, No. 8 | August 2021 www.christianchronicle.org Foster care ministries praise ruling SUPREME COURT’S UNANIMOUS decision is a win for religious liberty, agency leaders say. BY KENNETH PYBUS | THE CHRISTIAN CHRONICLE immy Moore had been waiting for months for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide Fulton v. Philadelphia. The nation’s high court had heardJ oral arguments in November over whether the City of Philadelphia could refuse to certify a Catholic foster care agency unless the charity agreed to place foster children with same-sex married couples. To Moore, president and CEO of The Children’s Home of Lubbock, and to leaders of dozens of other child services STANLEY MADIKI ministries associated with Churches of Christ, the question was crucial. Preachers shoulder burdens and hope in India “It was about whether With a Bible in one hand and a bag of rice in the other, a minister in India heads home during a deadly wave of the they could contract with COVID-19 delta variant. The virus shut down businesses and suspended church services, so many preachers have no the city and still hold income, said Dr. Stanley Madiki, a physician and preacher for the Agraharam Church of Christ in southern India. The church hosted 150 rural preachers for a socially distanced devotional. Afterward, the ministers received Bags of HOPE Moore on to their closely held religious beliefs,” said (Healing Oppressed People Everywhere), which include a month’s supply of rice and medical kits. Madiki said he Moore, whose organization places as encouraged the ministers “to march ahead, looking unto Christ during these tough times of pandemic.” many as 50 children at a time in foster homes in West Texas. Finally, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the Catholic Ministries emerge from pandemic with hope foster care agency. As soon as the recent decision came down, one of the BY CHERYL MANN BACON | THE CHRISTIAN CHRONICLE to be winding down. Businesses are schools and publishers associated Lubbock nonprofit’s directors emailed open again. In most with Churches of Christ walked Moore with the news. ll our plans were wrecked, parts of the country, the pandemic gauntlet of remote “I remember — I was at an eye exam but God still used it.” masks are less work, sick employees and layoffs. that day when I heard,” Moore said. Ryan Lee, director common. Schools But now, most are emerging with “So to see 9-0 in the vote, I’m like, of One Kingdom, was are preparing to renewed, though altered, focus. ‘Wow!’ Talk about eye-opening.” describing how the disaster relief reopen this fall to Let’s Start Talking, which focuses Like Moore, many leaders of faith- ministry he leads responded to a in-person instruc- primarily on international missions, based adoption and foster care agencies global pandemic. But he spoke for tion. Recovery is took big hits, financially and to its had watched the case and were antici- many when he said, “We were on happening. staff. However, LST is in “a really Lee pating the outcome. Several told The our heels a little bit in 2020.” For over a year, good place,” said Craig Altrock, See FULTON, Page 8 The ravages of COVID-19 seem flagship nonprofits, Christian See MINISTRIES, Page 12 2 THE CHRISTIAN CHRONICLE AUGUST 2021 Earn your Master of Biblical Studies today! Practical Emphasis Affordable Quality Generous Transfer Policy Professional Development Personal Growth Personal Fulfillment Master’s Degrees in Biblical Studies and Spiritual Leadership and Graduate Certificates in Leadership and Church History Sunset International Bible Institute • 800.658.9553 • www.sunset.bible AUGUST 2021 THE CHRISTIAN CHRONICLE 3 The right person to join Assassination can’t stop VBS our news staff IN TROUBLED HAITI, a mission team keeps working with kids after president is killed. BY ERIK TRYGGESTAD AND CHLOÉ FRANKLIN t age 8, Audrey THE CHRISTIAN CHRONICLE Jackson gained her first reporting efore leaving on a weeklong trip experience. to Haiti, a Tennessee mission She produced a one-page, team prepared for possible emer- handwritten “newspaper” gencies — from road-blocking about Bprotests to an outbreak of COVID-19. Inside Story happenings But a presidential assassination? in her fami- Not so much. ly’s neigh- The 15 teens, college students and borhood. adults from the Clear Creek Church A decade of Christ in the Chattanooga suburb later, when of Hixon were four days into the trip Jackson when they got the news. In the capital PHOTO PROVIDED BY PATRICK RUSSELL enrolled at of Port-au-Prince, 125 miles south of Members of the Clear Creek mission team tell Haitian children stories about Jesus. Harding where they were conducting Vacation Bobby Ross Jr. University Bible School, Haitian President As airports in the Caribbean Haïtien, they continued to host a sum- in Searcy, Jovenel Moïse was killed during a nation shut down and political lead- mer camp and VBS for about 150 kids. Ark., she majored in art. middle-of-the-night attack at his home. ers debated who was in charge, the “It was a blessing for the children But just briefly. “I was shocked,” team member mission team prayerfully decided to who came to the camp,” said Bonnie The pull of storytelling — Patrick Russell told The Christian soldier on. Working with See Him Ray, one of the team’s leaders, “because through words and images — Chronicle. Ministries, a church-supported non- they were able to leave their homes and was too strong. She changed But on his fourth mission trip to profit that operates a medical clinic, an not have to hear their parents talking her major to print journalism. Haiti, the 17-year-old said he had eye center and a microloan program about the assassination.” “The world is full of untold come to expect the unexpected. in the northern Haitian city of Cap- See HAITI, Page 16 stories, and I like to live my life between the written lines,” says Audrey, 22. I’m thrilled to introduce Audrey, who graduated from Harding in May, as The Dedicated to the incarcerated Christian Chronicle’s newest staff member. Starting Aug. LOUISIANA CHURCH MEMBER brings the Gospel and much-needed consistency into the lives of prisoners. 2, she’ll serve as associate editor for print and digital. BY KYLE PEVETO | THE CHRISTIAN CHRONICLE women. Tate committed herself to Besides being a talented the unpaid position for more than 20 writer, Audrey — who was BATON ROUGE, La. years, managing more than 40 groups finishing first grade when ver four decades, the inmates and 500 individuals who volunteer I joined the Chronicle staff of the Louisiana Correctional with the state’s female inmates. in 2005 — brings strong Institute for Women have This fall Tate will leave Baton Rouge photography and newspaper counted on Glenda Tate. and her ministry. Her husband of design skills. OTate, 73, began volunteering with 53 years, Bob Tate, died following a “Audrey is a very skilled, the South Baton Rouge Church of stroke last year, and she has decided versatile journalist and Christ prison ministry more than 42 to move to Oregon and live near her photojournalist. She can years ago, leading Bible studies on two daughters. tackle investigative assign- Tuesday afternoons and worship ser- She cannot be easily replaced, said ments, and she is also gifted vices on Sundays. KYLE PEVETO Gary Sumrall, a senior chaplain in the as a storyteller,” said April “We were always there,” Tate said Glenda Tate reviews one of the Bible Louisiana Department of Public Safety Fatula, Harding’s student of her visits to the prison. “We didn’t lessons she shares with inmates. and Corrections who worked with Tate publications adviser. “She cancel at the last minute. When the at the women’s correctional institute. has a natural curiosity about attendance got down to one inmate on by working in the prison chaplain’s “I still haven’t figured out why God the world around her.” Tuesday afternoon, we still went.” office as the assistant volunteer coor- allowed our paths to cross,” he said, See AUDREY, Page 4 She took her ministry a step further dinator at the state’s only prison for See INCARCERATED, Page 29 4 THE CHRISTIAN CHRONICLE INSIDE STORY AUGUST 2021 Come Join Our Mission! Houseparents The Albuquerque Christian Children’s Home is a ministry that is passionately dedicated to fostering at-risk children. We are looking for a faithful married couple who love children, model their faith, and want to serve full time in our ministry as Houseparents. STANLEY MORALES Audrey Jackson is a 2021 graduate of Harding University in Searcy, Ark. AUDREY: New associate editor joins team FROM PAGE 3 Chronicle’s founding editor, the late Noah Darnell, a Harding Olan L. Hicks, in her story. instructor of communication, “Christian Chronicle is to be built praised Audrey’s journalistic talents on character,” Hicks wrote in 1943. and her personal traits. “It means to stand for right and “As a person, she is that friend truth, for fairness and impartiality, that intentionally sets reminders to for zeal according to knowledge. It is call someone she hasn’t talked to in a newspaper and is to be conducted a few weeks just to check on them,” on the principles of news reporting. Darnell said. “She is intentional with We mean to maintain not only the everything she does.” highest ethics of the newspaper The Arkansas native’s parents, profession, but also of Christianity.” Chris and Carol Jackson, are Harding Chronicle President and CEO Erik alumni. The family owned an Ozark Tryggestad has a clipping of that Mountains resort for many years.