ALBUQUERQUE (BNM) - Eleven volunteers from nine different churches served alongside five Baptist Convention of New Mexico staff members to prepare church resource packets for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. The packets, which include prayer guides, donation envelopes, and posters, will be sent to churches around New Mexico.

ORLANDO, Fla.  — Hundreds of Florida Baptists at the 2024 Florida Baptist State Convention annual meeting honored Tommy Green and his wife, Karen, for their years of faithful leadership in the Sunshine State. Tommy Green retired Aug. 16, 2024, after serving as Florida Baptists’ executive director-treasurer since June 2015.

ROAN MOUNTAIN, Tenn.  — Two weeks after Roan Park Baptist Church, a congregation of about 15 members, reached into their savings account and spent approximately $20,000 to pave its parking lot, flood waters caused by Hurricane Helene washed it away.

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — The Venezuelan man who entered the country illegally and was convicted in the killing of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Once again, we look forward to the opportunity during the 2025 Legislative Session to pass The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). This legislation is important because it provides people of faith with the same protections from state and local government actions that they now have from federal government actions.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Biden administration will allow Ukraine to use American-supplied antipersonnel land mines to help it slow Russia’s battlefield progress in the war, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday, as the U.S. and some other Western embassies in Kyiv stayed closed after a threat of a major Russian aerial attack on the Ukrainian capital.

SEATTLE (AP) — A major storm swept across the northwest U.S., battering the region with strong winds and rain, causing widespread power outages and downing trees that killed at least one person.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s upper house of parliament on Wednesday endorsed a bill banning the adoption of Russian children by citizens of countries where gender transitioning is legal. The Federation Council also approved bills that outlaw the spread of material encouraging people not to have children.

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization has authorized the first mpox vaccine for children, a decision experts hope will help make immunizations more widely available to one of the hardest-hit populations during the ongoing outbreaks of the disease in Congo and elsewhere in Africa.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The U.S. government recognized Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González as the “president-elect” of the South American country on Tuesday, months after President Nicolás Maduro claimed to have won the July election.

Once upon a time, a mother and her 4-year-old daughter were making their way through an outdoor market in the town where they lived. Spotting the little child staring at a large display of oranges, the generous vendor took one from the table and gave it to her. 

BEIRUT (AP) — A United States envoy said an agreement to end the Israel-Hezbollah war is “within our grasp” after talks in Lebanon on Tuesday. There was no such optimism in the Gaza Strip, where armed men looted nearly 100 aid trucks and worsened the food situation.

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday formally lowered the threshold for Russia’s use of its nuclear weapons, a move that follows U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russian territory with American-supplied longer-range missiles.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine fired six American-supplied longer-range missiles at Russia’s Bryansk region, Moscow said Tuesday, in what would be Kyiv's first use of the weapons inside Russia in 1,000 days of war.

The Apostle Paul writes to the local church at Philippi of his joyful prayers for them due to his partnership with them. He states in Philippians 1:3-5, “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.”

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Spencer Lawton Jr., a former Georgia district attorney who worked to expand the rights of crime victims and prosecuted a Savannah killing made famous by the book “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” has died. He was 81.

While Paul made use of sea travel in his missionary endeavors, his longest journey by ship was the journey from Caesarea to Rome. Luke’s description of Paul’s journey is one of the most detailed nautical accounts in ancient history.

I hope as you read this that the temperatures will be cool, the leaves will be on the ground and the mornings will be bright. The hot days of summer are behind us and for the next few weeks, we observe various holidays and special times with family members and friends. Of course, we know that gratitude should be perpetuated daily in the believer’s life.

​I am not a fisherman. I fished as a child, but I was always scared to touch the fish and get it off the hook because I didn’t want it to cut me with its fin. And after about age 11, it was just pathetic to have my dad get the fish off the hook, so I quit fishing.

STATESBORO, Ga. — At the 202nd annual meeting of the Georgia Baptist Convention last week, W. Thomas Hammond, Jr., executive director of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, celebrated the work of Mission Georgia. Mission Georgia is the GBMB’s state mission offering, and it is the only offering designed and committed specifically to reaching the state with the gospel.

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Testimony resumed Monday in the trial of the illegal immigrant accused of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley with police officers describing searching the man's apartment and questioning him and others who lived there.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania's state Supreme Court on Monday weighed in on a flashpoint amid ongoing vote counting in the U.S. Senate election between Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and Republican David McCormick, ordering counties not to count mail-in ballots that lack a correct handwritten date on the return envelope.

STATESBORO, Ga. — Georgia Baptists adopted last week a 2025 budget that calls for more than $62 million to be given through the Cooperative Program and other offerings. That money, a 2.5% increase over the current year, will fund gospel-sharing efforts around the world, and across the nation and the state.

ATLANTA – The state is laying the groundwork for a private-school vouchers program by launching a website with details on the initiative.

PHILADELPHIA (BP) – The Bible protects against what the U.S. surgeon general has termed an “epidemic of loneliness” as harmful to health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, the American Bible Society said in releasing its latest chapter of the 2024 State of the Bible.