Heather Hahn
Stories by Heather
Jeffrey Dale Dawson
posted: 04/12/2009 3:38 a.m.
When Dale Dawson first visited Rwanda in late 2004, he encountered families living in tiny mud huts with no electricity, running water or sanitation, and children dying of diseases long forgotten in the United States.
Dialogue focuses on Pharisees, Passover
posted: 03/28/2009 2:39 a.m.
As Rabbi Eugene Levy sees it, Christians and Jews owe a debt to the Pharisees.
Living words
posted: 03/21/2009 3:50 a.m.
The first 10 years of his life, John Karolson endured the raining bombs of World War II and then rickety military barracks in postwar Germany.
Driven flock
posted: 03/14/2009 4:54 a.m.
More than 20 people surrounded Becky Bolder's red, souped-up Buick Regal, clasped the sides of the car and bowed their heads.
From sighs to songs
posted: 03/07/2009 4:33 a.m.
It's Sunday night, and more than 100 men in prison yellow are swinging to some Christian jailhouse rock.
LR church honors its fallen soldier
posted: 03/02/2009 5:22 a.m.
When Bingham Road Baptist Church's family life center needed renovations, Brad Marshall was among the first to volunteer his help. He joined the building committee and spent hours painting the center's more than a dozen roof beams a brilliant white.
African dinner to help Zimbabwe hospice
posted: 02/28/2009 3:34 a.m.
Three United Methodist churches hope to drum up support tonight for the people of two of Africa's most troubled countries - Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Mardi Gras events add to Lenten traditions
posted: 02/21/2009 3:55 a.m.
What began more than a half century ago as a fun snack for a men's ministry is now a Mardi Gras tradition that draws hundreds of people to St. Mary's Episcopal Church in El Dorado.
Filled with compassion
posted: 02/21/2009 1:58 a.m.
As an orphan in Ghana, Thomas Awiapo watched two of his brothers slowly die of starvation. Only the food he got from Operation Rice Bowl, he said, kept him from sharing their fate.
Biographers debate Lincoln's religious views
posted: 02/07/2009 3:43 a.m.
Abraham Lincoln "will always be remembered as eminently a Christian president," one of his first biographers declared in 1866.
Pair bring bands to Eden's Edge
posted: 02/07/2009 3:41 a.m.
When a big-name Christian rock band wants to make a stop in central Arkansas or a local praise group wants to reach a wider audience, Derrick and Karen Horne know how to make it happen.
Winds of change
posted: 02/07/2009 1:47 a.m.
A tornado tore through the two most important buildings in pastor Fairel Pierce's life May 2, wiping away his uninsured dream home and tearing apart his church in a matter of moments.
Members of church gain van, building
posted: 01/31/2009 2:06 a.m.
In a ruling that likely will influence church-property disputes across the state, the Arkansas Supreme Court sided Friday with a tiny Pulaski County congregation in its battle with the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Meeting bishop changed businessman's life
posted: 01/31/2009 1:44 a.m.
Dale Dawson never dreamed he'd be an African banking mogul and a presidential adviser. Then the Little Rock man met the Right Rev. John Rucyahana, an Anglican bishop from Rwanda, who was raising money in Arkansas to build a new high school that would largely serve young people orphaned by genocide in the east African country.
Betting on faith
posted: 01/24/2009 3:35 a.m.
Rick Mann is a chaplain with horse sense. Every day, he ministers to people who make their living and often their home on the backstretch of Oaklawn Park racetrack.
Justices hear church feud over who owns what
posted: 01/23/2009 3:33 a.m.
A tiny Little Rock congregation and a leading Protestant denomination wrangled over a white, concrete-block church building and a 10-year-old van during a hearing before the Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday.
Worshippers see Obama as fruition of King's dream
posted: 01/19/2009 5:21 a.m.
Black and white worshippers at Winfield United Methodist Church in Little Rock opened their service Sunday afternoon with a litany that would make the President-elect proud.
Churches plan to celebrate inauguration
posted: 01/17/2009 5:46 a.m.
For the Rev. Hezekiah Stewart, watching Barack Obama be inaugurated Tuesday as the 44th president of the United States will be a sacred as well as historic moment.
Handwritten holy writ
posted: 01/10/2009 5:23 a.m.
Lubavitch of Arkansas has commissioned a trained scribe to carefully transcribe each of the Torah's 304,805 letters.
Arkansas churches aid troubled Congo
posted: 01/03/2009 1:53 a.m.
More than 40 years ago, Arkansas Methodists sent seed packets to the Congo to help hungry people there grow crops. Now they're building wells. Episcopalians are aiding war refugees. And an Assemblies of God church is paying to provide medical care and a new Bible translation.
Scott Louis Marczuk
posted: 12/21/2008 3:26 a.m.
While other boys his age played cowboys and Indians, the young Scott Marczuk always preferred a quieter form of make-believe - playing church.
Wise men traditions stray from the Gospels
posted: 12/20/2008 5:25 a.m.
For many churches, it's a December tradition.
Music Reviews
posted: 12/20/2008 5:24 a.m.
Contemporary Christian artists have released a stack of Christmas CDs this year. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's religion writers reviewed a few that are on the market. Peace on Earth Casting Crowns You won't find Santa, Frosty or Rudolph on Casting Crowns' new Christmas CD. The album ignores the North Pole and focuses on Bethlehem instead.
Community effort saves food boxes
posted: 12/13/2008 2:58 a.m.
Little Rock Church of God volunteers transformed their church gym Friday morning into a brisk assembly line to pack boxes of food for at least 400 needy families.
Women in Ministry
posted: 12/13/2008 2:48 a.m.
Thumbing through this year's Arkansas Baptist State Convention directory, the Rev. Carolyn Staley noticed a discrepancy between how male and female ministers were listed.
Group vows to mend its storm-ravaged Haiti schools
posted: 12/06/2008 2:35 a.m.
The El Dorado-based Haiti Education Foundation has shifted its focus from school construction to disaster recovery since summer's deadly weather.
Star City shines with singing Christmas tree
posted: 12/06/2008 1:54 a.m.
STAR CITY - Decking the halls at First Baptist Church takes 16,000 watts of electricity, 4,000 feet of wiring, 2,200 colored light bulbs, 1,200 pounds of steel and 600 feet of synthetic, flame-proof greenery.
Dwindling Disciples plant a new church
posted: 11/29/2008 5:51 a.m.
In a place usually associated with death, a new church is coming to life.
An Exodus in our time
posted: 11/22/2008 5:19 a.m.
In years past, Arkansas Catholics have heard their bishops deliver recorded Christmas greetings or pleas for charitable contributions.
Pardonable SIN
posted: 11/15/2008 5:57 a.m.
When Laura Waters Hinson visited Rwanda in 2006, she was stunned to see the survivors of genocide living side by side in peace with people who had murdered their friends and family.
New college program welcomes Rwandans
posted: 11/15/2008 5:56 a.m.
Gilbert Ndayambaje was about 5 when genocide erupted in Rwanda in 1994. He lost uncles, aunts and cousins, and the rest of his family, a mixture of Hutus and Tutsis, managed to survive only by fleeing to a United Nations refugee camp.
Pastor conducts symphony of sermons with a Web site
posted: 11/08/2008 3:52 a.m.
Growing up, the Rev. Derick Easter loved to listen each Saturday to a variety of preachers share the Gospel on Little Rock community radio station KITA-AM, 1440.
State Obama backers roar
posted: 11/05/2008 4:33 a.m.
Over beer and platters of fried chicken at Sticky Fingerz, Little Rock-area Democrats cheered as CNN news anchors called one state after another for Sen. Barack Obama on Tuesday night. But the crowd's loudest response came when the broadcast announced that Obama would be the next president of the United States.
4 activists arrested at college
posted: 11/04/2008 4:42 a.m.
CONWAY - Four gay-rights activists were arrested Monday afternoon immediately after they set foot on the Central Baptist College campus.
Gay-rights activists face arrest at Arkansas schools
posted: 11/01/2008 3:10 a.m.
Gay-rights activists will be arrested next week if they set foot on one Arkansas college campus and could face arrest if they step outside of their designated area at another university, officials said.
Missionary surgeon went from Arkadelphia to India
posted: 11/01/2008 3:05 a.m.
From the time she was 13 years old, Dr. Rebekah Naylor says she has had a calling to heal bodies and save souls as a medical missionary. But she was at first hesitant to tell her parents.
Rwandan archbishop sees crisis of faith, leadership in the West
posted: 11/01/2008 2:59 a.m.
The Most Rev. Emmanuel Mbona Kolini has ministered under two brutal dictatorships and in the shadow of the Rwandan genocide.
Rwandan archbishop to visit Little Rock
posted: 10/25/2008 5:41 a.m.
The archbishop who leads more than a million Anglicans in Rwanda and North America will visit with three Christian groups in Little Rock next week.
Ministering to chaplains
posted: 10/25/2008 3:13 a.m.
The Rev. Beth Darling has comforted dozens of traumatized parents in her years as a pediatric hospital chaplain.
O hear O hear Immanuel
posted: 10/18/2008 5:52 a.m.
Whenever tunes came on the car radio, the 4-yearold Lyndon Finney used to stroke his fingers across the dashboard just like he was playing a piano.
Meeting of Catholic order begins Friday
posted: 10/11/2008 4:02 a.m.
A Catholic chivalric order that dates to the First Crusade nearly 1,000 years ago will hold a regional gathering in Little Rock next week.
Taking A GAMBLE
posted: 10/11/2008 3:59 a.m.
Since summer, anti-gambling activist Larry Page has been visiting evangelical churches across the state to share his simple message: Vote no on a state lottery.
Gift to help students find true callings
posted: 10/07/2008 6:49 a.m.
With a $1 million gift from the Fort Smith-based Miller Foundation, Hendrix College in Conway plans to help students find their true callings in life.
New worship leader brings color to singing - and pews
posted: 10/04/2008 3:28 a.m.
When Chuck Monan first took the pulpit of Pleasant Valley Church of Christ, he preached to a booming west Little Rock congregation that was almost entirely white.
Boothbuilding 101
posted: 09/27/2008 5:50 a.m.
Temple B'nai Israel in Little Rock is getting help with its celebration of the Jewish festival Sukkot from a major home improvement store. The main symbol of the sevenday festival is a sukkah (pronounced sue-KAH ) - a temporary dwelling or booth. During the holiday, Jewish communities often will hold services in a sukkah built on a synagogue's grounds.
Return of the Prodigal
posted: 09/20/2008 5:39 a.m.
After years of dealing and using drugs, Reginald Smith found himself behind bars and brought to his knees in prayer.
Gospel inspired entries by Disney animator
posted: 09/20/2008 5:37 a.m.
As a Disney animator, Mark Henn has drawn some of the movie studio's most famous leading ladies including The Little Mermaid's Ariel, Beauty and the Beast's Belle and, most recently, Enchanted's Giselle.
New Orleans bishop to speak on adversity at faith gathering
posted: 09/13/2008 6:14 a.m.
His New Orleans church had managed to survive the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina, and then, in July, a three-alarm blaze left it a smoky husk.
UCA student finds Christ, loses his country
posted: 09/13/2008 6:09 a.m.
When a foreign exchange student converted to Christianity in Arkansas a year ago, his Muslim father disowned him and banned him from his home in Uzbekistan.
Low-cost housing seen as LR need
posted: 09/11/2008 3:54 a.m.
The founder of Habitat for Humanity International said he hopes to build more low-cost housing in Little Rock, but he will need local support.
