Tobin Perry/Southern Baptist TEXAN

BOGOTÁ, Colombia (BP) -- It's tough to overstate the trauma the Venezuelan people have experienced over the last decade. The price of oil, the country's chief export, cratered. Hyperinflation at one point hit 10 million percent. The country's power grid failed, leading to massive power shortages. An unpopular dictator defied an election. More than 4.6 million people fled the country from 2016 to 2019.

AUSTIN, Texas (BP) -- Mitchell Johnson, The Austin Stone Community Church collegiate pastor, has addressed the nation's racial turmoil by offering his students biblical insight on the topic. Johnson, along with other church leaders throughout the United States charged with leading and mentoring college students, hasn’t had the option to ignore racial topics over the last month. Students have often been at the forefront of the protests that erupted after George Floyd’s death on May 25.

As churches regather for in-person worship amid the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders grapple with whether to require worshipers to wear masks.

ARLINGTON, Texas (BP) -- Despite a couple of minor technical difficulties, Tate Springs Baptist Church pastor Jared Wellman calls the church's nationwide Minecraft Easter Egg Hunt an evangelistic success. Wellman says the Gospel was shared with around 1,000 people during the event. By Monday (April 13), 13 people had responded by saying they wanted to know more about accepting Christ.

BEAUMONT, Texas (BP) -- The Disaster Relief Ministry of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention now has three incident command units set up in East Texas to help churches minister to residents impacted by last week's historic Tropical Storm Imelda. "We have three incident management teams in place and are getting things organized," said Scottie Stice, the director of disaster relief for the SBTC. "We have assessors in place, and our teams will begin to arrive this weekend or early next week and everything will be in full swing."

GRAPEVINE, Texas (BP) -- Unprecedented testing and trial confronted Shane and Kasi Pruitt in 2013. After years of dreaming about adopting a child who would one day run and play with their two daughters and maybe star on a Texas gridiron, God answered their prayers in a completely different way.