Baylor, BGCT Celebrate Cooperative Efforts in Literacy

Baylor University and the Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT) celebrated nine years of cooperation in literacy missions during a recent ribbon cutting ceremony for a new Literacy Mission Center building on the Baylor campus.
Dr. James Semple, director of the state missions commission of the BGCT, said Baylor's efforts to work cooperatively with the BGCT in this literary endeavor are a confirmation of the university's commitment to excellence.
"This is an expression of the relationship between Baylor University and the BGCT," Semple said. "Whatever Baylor does she does well and we are appreciative of our partnership. We are partners at many points and this is another."
Literacy is another way Baylor can realize its Christian commitment, said Dr. Donald Schmeltekopf, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Baylor.
"Helping the whole person seems to me to be a mature expression of the Christian faith," Schmeltekopf said. A mature faith expresses itself in a variety of ways. Literacy missions seems right at the heart of a Christian university.
The joint literary effort is the only one of its kind in Texas. Maurine Frost, coordinator of the center since 1992, said the cooperation between the two institutions is what makes it so successful.
"Texas has one of the best literacy missions programs in the country because of the close relationship between Baylor and the BGCT," Frost said. "Neither of us could do alone what we are doing together."
Since the center began, the program has helped more than 100 churches across the state develop literacy missions programs. The program uses the Bible in teaching English which contributes to numerous professions of faith, Frost said.
More information, contact Frost at 755-3854.