Grace Thornton/The Alabama Baptist

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BP) – Robert Smith Jr. said his mother was protective of him when he was growing up. People would tell him that they thought he was going to be a preacher, and she didn’t want them telling him that.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BP) – Shu Huang said when he moved to Alabama in 1978, he heard the Gospel — and immediately rejected it.

CRAIG, Alaska (BP) – There’s a piece of land nestled next to a lake in Alaska, and Tommy Bishop said when he’s there, he thinks of somewhere else.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BP) – Kathryn Barnhill knows she was an answer to prayer. But not her mother’s. Her great-aunt’s.

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (BP) -- Nate Brooks said his church went through a rough stretch around the time the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and now their congregational theme is “rebuild.”

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BP) -- When Richard found out his girlfriend, Jasmine, was pregnant, he was nervous — he’d been a husband and a dad before, and he didn’t feel like he’d done very well.

CAMP HILL, Ala. (BP) – James Smith had just heard about the mass shooting in Dadeville that killed four and injured 32 in mid-April when he called Tallapoosa County’s Emergency Management Agency director to see how he could help.

DADEVILLE, Ala. (BP) – “Say that again.” Ben Hayes’ phone had rung moments before, waking him up, and he was trying to understand what he had just heard. He didn’t feel like it could be real, so he asked the caller to repeat herself.

Seven days a week, Terry Long’s morning starts with an 8 o’clock phone call to Fred Lunsford, a 98-year-old retired pastor in North Carolina.

AUTAGA COUNTY, Ala. (BP) – Josh Pendergrass was at home Jan. 12 watching storm coverage when he saw the meteorologist draw a circle around the exact place where his church sat.