HONOLULU (BP) – The front desk workers and bellboys. Food service. Concierge. Restaurant staff. Custodians. Maintenance workers and lifeguards. Surfing instructors.

SPARTANBURG, S.C. (BP) – Some homeless women may have a place of their own soon as First Baptist Church, Spartanburg, S.C., begins constructing a small village of tiny houses.

HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – Since Long Hollow Baptist Church began experiencing what Pastor Robby Gallaty calls “a genuine move of God” last month, some 283 people have travelled to its Tennessee campus from all over the country to be baptized.

CLEVELAND, Ga. (BP) – One of my top ten life-changing books is Andrew Murray’s classic "With Christ in the School of Prayer." First published in 1885, it has been continuously in print for the past 136 years. Murray was a Dutch Reformed pastor in South Africa whose preaching and writing was a catalyst for revival in his own country in the 1860s and the great revival that began in Wales in 1904 and reverberated throughout England and the United States.

RIO DE JANEIRO (BP) – It’s 6 p.m. and Fernando Brandão, executive director of the National Mission Board (JMN) of the Brazilian Baptist Convention, heads into the most important meeting of the day. This standing event occurs Monday through Friday for one hour, with the exception of the last Friday of every month, when six hours are blocked off. Brandão and the JMN team are there to pray.

CORDOVA, Tenn. (BP) – A few years ago, a church member’s mother from North Carolina visited our church in Tennessee. When I introduced myself, she asked, “Pastor, do you remember a woman named Lois Pendley?” I replied, “Yes, I do. She was a member of my first pastorate.”

NASHVILLE (BP) – As Christians, we have a responsibility to pray for the leaders of our nation. Regardless of the president's political party or positions on various issues, I have been faithful to pray for each president and vice president for decades. Our first and highest allegiance is always to the lordship of Jesus Christ and then to the words He gives us in the Bible, the Word of the living God, regarding how to live.

EL CAJON, Calif. (BP) – King Solomon ruled the nation of Israel in peace for 39 years during the mid-tenth century B.C. At that time, the borders of Israel extended from the Euphrates River to the edge of Egypt.

Even sinners will extend mercy to the merciful, but Jesus calls His followers to be merciful towards enemies. The way we treat others opens the door for God to work in that person’s heart, making us an extension of God’s mercy.

RICHMOND, Va. (BP) – Online participants representing Southern Baptist churches joined IMB leadership and missionaries in the eighth annual Missions College Jan. 6-7. The two-night event, hosted by IMB’s American Peoples Affinity, included encouragement for churches to stay focused on the task of reaching the lost through short-term missions opportunities and becoming effective in training and sending missionaries.