This week, Freddie Freeman hit his first homerun as a Los Angeles Dodger in his first at bat against his former teammates. What a storyline! Right after the World Series, Atlanta Braves fans anxiously awaited the Braves and first baseman Freeman’s agreement on a new contract allowing him to finish his career as a Brave. It didn’t happen.  

Winds that are expected to intensify through the end of the week have been a major obstacle for firefighters battling blazes across the Southwest. Resources are tight, and fire managers are scrambling to get crews on board. Hundreds of residents have been evacuated because of multiple wildfires. One of the largest outside of Flagstaff, Arizona, more than tripled in size Wednesday. Firefighters haven't been able to get ahead of it because of erratic winds that have grounded air resources. One incident commander on a fire south of Prescott, Arizona, says conditions are some of the worst he's seen in nearly five decades of firefighting.

ATLANTA – Highway projects across Georgia are being squeezed by the increasing cost of construction materials brought on by the war in Ukraine and other inflationary pressures, a state Department of Transportation engineer said Wednesday.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces tightened the noose around the defenders holed up Wednesday in a mammoth steel plant that represented the last known Ukrainian stronghold in Mariupol, as a fighter apparently on the inside pleaded on a video for help: “We may have only a few days or hours left.”

“Ministry is the toughest job you will ever love,” W. Thomas Hammond, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, said a chapel message at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary last week.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinians fired several rockets into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip early Thursday as Israeli aircraft hit Gaza militant sites soon after an earlier rocket strike that was the second such attack this week.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — An Arizona wildfire doubled in size overnight into Wednesday, a day after heavy winds kicked up a towering wall of flames outside a northern Arizona tourist and college town, ripping through two dozen structures and sending residents of more than 700 homes scrambling to flee.

MONROE, Ga. (AP) — Opponents trying to derail a $5 billion, 7,500-job electric truck plant in Georgia dominated a state meeting this week that was meant to gather suggestions on how to design the plant to mitigate any impact on the environment.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — After spending weeks with no electricity or water in the basement of her family's home in Ukraine, Viktoriya Savyichkina made a daring escape from the besieged city of Mariupol with her 9- and 14-year-old daughters.

LONDON (AP) — Tennis players from Russia and Belarus will not be allowed to play at Wimbledon this year because of the war in Ukraine, the All England Club announced Wednesday.

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Dede Robertson, the wife of religious broadcaster Pat Robertson and a founding board member of the Christian Broadcasting Network, died Tuesday at her home in Virginia Beach, the network said in a statement. Robertson was 94. The statement did not provide her cause of death.

DULUTH, Ga. – The Georgia Baptist Mission Board is launching an initiative to help congregations during those stressful first weeks after pastors resign or retire. “The first six weeks can be difficult,” said Mark Marshall, assistant executive director at the state Mission Board. “The first few weeks without a pastor can be difficult for a church. There are a number of questions of what to do next.”

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia assaulted cities and towns along a boomerang-shaped front hundreds of miles long and poured more troops into Ukraine on Tuesday in a potentially pivotal battle for control of the country's eastern industrial heartland of coal mines and factories.

DALLAS, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia mother and father have been arrested on murder charges in the death of their 4-week-old baby by alcohol poisoning, authorities said Tuesday.

NASHVILLE (BP) – The cost of the investigation into alleged mishandling of sexual abuse claims by the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee has reached $1.7 million since being commissioned last fall, according to invoice summaries provided to Baptist Press. The budget provided by Guidepost Solutions, the firm contracted to conduct the investigation, originally projected the investigation to cost between $1.3 million and $1.6 million.

I had the most encouraging note from Barb Coffan down in Peachtree City the other day, talking about how much she is enjoying receiving the top news headlines from The Christian Index each morning.

ATLANTA – The Georgia Chamber of Commerce is pulling together local chambers from cities across Georgia outside of metro Atlanta to focus on issues of interest to those communities. The new Hub Chamber Council will advocate on behalf of chambers of commerce in Albany, Athens, Augusta, Brunswick, Columbus, Dalton, Macon, Rome, Savannah, Valdosta, and Warner Robins.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Days of violence in Jerusalem and an exchange of fire in Gaza overnight have raised the possibility that Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers will once again go to war, as they did less than a year ago under similar circumstances.

Moderna hopes to offer updated COVID-19 boosters in the fall that combine its original vaccine with protection against the omicron variant. On Tuesday, it reported a preliminary hint that such an approach might work.

Freddie Freeman slugged his first home run in a Dodgers uniform and Los Angeles beat the Atlanta Braves 7-4 for its seventh consecutive victory. Freeman didn't wait to tee off against his old team. He homered in the first inning off Huascar Ynoa. The sellout crowd of 52,052 saluted Freeman with chants of “Freddie! Freddie!” Before the game, an emotional Freeman spent time in the Braves clubhouse, reliving memories of delivering Atlanta's first World Series title since 1995 last year. Guillermo Heredia and Ozzie Albies had solo shots for the Braves off Clayton Kershaw. 

NASHVILLE (BP) – Chairman Rolland Slade announced Monday (April 18) that the SBC Executive Committee will hold a special called meeting Thursday, April 28. The meeting is being called primarily to discuss the relocation of the 2023 SBC Annual Meeting currently slated to be held June 13-14, 2023, in Charlotte, N.C.

LEXINGTON, Ga. – Easter brought the largest crowds in at least two years to Georgia Baptist churches, a clear indication that people have put the COVID-19 pandemic behind them and have returned to in-person worship. “The hand of God was on our churches this year for Easter in a special way,” said Scott Smith, director of communications for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board.

NEW ORLEANS (BP) – The board of trustees at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Leavell College approved a $12 million plan to make critical campus renovations including updates to student housing, the cafeteria and the student center during its spring meeting April 12-13.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The U.S. special envoy for North Korea said Monday that Washington and Seoul agreed on the need for a strong response to North Korea's recent spate of missile tests, though they remain open to dialogue with the country.

BOSTON (AP) — Reigning Olympic champion Peres Jepchirchir capped the celebration of a half-century of women in the Boston Marathon with a finish to top them all.