The setting sun cast a warm glow over the bustling streets of New Orleans as a group of SBC chaplains made their way to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans on Monday, June 12.

With its rich historical significance, the museum provided the perfect backdrop for the nearly 300 chaplains who gathered.

Ryan Schneider serves as pastor of Saranac Lake Baptist Church in upstate New York near Lake Placid, home to the Olympic Training Center where elite athletes come to train as they pursue their Olympic dreams.

Even with full effect quarantine measures and complete personal protective equipment (PPE), SBC hospital chaplains answered the call risking constant exposure to pandemic patients. They served diligently to ensure people had hope and care amid all the challenges and fears COVID created.

Most people can hear chaplain Jeff Renken make his way to serve others. After all, there’s a lot of interest in the American V-Twin bike that he rides to places where he conducts counseling, preaches, baptizes and makes himself available in any capacity to serve in the community.

The pastor’s message on this particular Sunday morning had opened a floodgate of emotions my fourteen-year-old self had so carefully kept at bay. “He loves you—exactly the way you are!” I could hardly keep it together, so I made my escape.

Please stop crying.

Dr. Mark L. Bailey served the Seminary for over thirty-five years, the last nineteen years executing the mission of the Seminary and the recruitment and oversight of the staff necessary to fulfill the mission to “glorify God by equipping godly servant-leaders for the proclamation of His Word and the building of the body of Christ.”

It’s hard—to feel grateful especially when we find ourselves in the middle of suffering. Many of us who understand suffering and pain often carry the scars to prove it.

Description goes hereI recently attended a convention that inadvertently brought me much needed rest. For the first time—ever—I traveled away from my husband and kids for more than two days. I chose, over the course of my family’s life, not to stay away from them for over forty-eight hours at a time. Call me crazy, but I don’t regret it. Not. One. Bit.