Trail Life growing in US; Survey on church and travel sports; New Nile River discovery sheds light on pyramids, Israeli enslavement

Good News for Today

Trail Life USA was founded in 2013. Mark Hancock, CEO of Trail Life, and others formed the organization to offer a Christ-centered alternative to BSA.

Since 2019, Boy Scouts of America has experienced a significant decline in membership, losing over half of its members, influenced by policy changes, a sex abuse scandal, and COVID-19. In contrast, Trail Life has grown steadily, with over 1,200 troops and nearly 60,000 members across the United States.

Trail Life emphasizes a Biblical approach to scouting, focusing on boys' development within a Christian framework.

Highland Church in Merdian, Mississippi was one of the first to adopt Trail Life, seeking a biblically-based scouting program. Pastor David Hopkins supports the program, highlighting its positive impact on both boys and men in the church community.

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A Lifeway Research study of both U.S. Protestant pastors and churchgoers found most in both groups believe it’s OK to miss church occasionally for a kid’s game or travel sporting event, but those in the pews are more lax on the issue than those behind the pulpit.

More than 1 in 3 U.S. Protestant pastors (36 percent) say it’s never OK to skip a weekly worship service for kids’ games or travel sporting events, but almost 3 in 5 (58 percent) see at least some allowance for missing in those circumstances. Around 3 in 10 (29 percent) believe it’s acceptable once or twice a year. A quarter (26 percent) say a few times a year, while 3 percent say many times a year. Another 6 percent say they aren’t sure.

Pastors 65 and older (43 percent) are among the most likely to say it’s never acceptable. Evangelical pastors are more likely than mainline pastors to say never (40 percent v. 28 percent). Those at the smallest churches, less than 50 in attendance, are also more likely than pastors at the largest churches, 250 or more, to believe skipping for sports is never OK (38 percent v. 24 percent).

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The discovery of a former branch of the Nile offers clues to the construction of the pyramids and Egyptian culture when the Israelites were in bondage, Southern Baptist Archeologist Jim Parker told Baptist Press.

Using satellite imagery, geophysical surveys and sediment samples in the Nile Valley, researchers led by University of North Carolina Wilmington Professor Eman Ghoneim made the discovery announced May 16 in the Communications Earth and Environment journal. While experts have suspected for some time that the Nile had shifted, the new research is the first confirmation of the former riverbed.

The abandoned branch, about three miles west of the current Nile’s location, would have flowed between 2686 BC and 1649 BC, researchers said, overlapping with when the pyramid were erected between 3000 and 2300 BC, as well as during the Israelites’ enslavement that began in the late 1800s BC and continued about 400 years.