2007 Program Theme - "Suffer the Little Children to Come Unto Me"

Rt. Rev. Leo Frade has served as the Bishop of the Diocese of Southeast Florida since 2000. He was born in Havana, Cuba, and he grew up in a staunchly Methodist home. In 1960 the church sent him to Asbury College in Kentucky. As a result of his civil rights activism, he lost his scholarship at the end of his junior year. He went to New York, where his family had moved, to work. It was there that he found the Episcopal Church. Subsequently, he attended Biscayne College in Miami. A few years later, he attended the School of Theology of The University of the South, where he received his Master of Divinity degree. He was ordained to the diaconate in 1977. In 1980, while serving as a parish priest in New Orleans, he and another Episcopal priest, risking arrest and personal safety, defied both the Cuban and American governments and delivered over 400 emigres to freedom during the Mariel Boat Lift on a boat named "God's Mercy". Beginning in 1984, he served as the Bishop of Honduras for almost 17 years. He was involved in social and justice issues as well as a strong commitment to evangelism. He was instrumental in the founding of Our Little Roses, a home for abandoned, abused and orphaned girls in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. He serves as Chairman of Our Little Roses Foreign Mission Society.

Chris Newlin is the Executive Director of the National Children’s Advocacy Center (NCAC), based in Huntsville, Alabama. NCAC is dedicated to modeling and promoting excellence in child abuse response and prevention by providing training, prevention, intervention, and treatment services to fight child abuse and neglect. Serving as a beacon of hope for more than 250,000 child abuse victims every year, NCAC's innovative team approach has been adopted by programs across the country. The center has trained workers since its opening in 1985. Chris is an Episcopalian and the father of a special needs child. He has a B.S. Degree in Psychology and a M.S. Degree in School Psychology. He has worked in a variety of child maltreatment settings during his career, including serving as a Clinical Therapist in a residential treatment program for adolescent males, serving five years at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital in a specialized treatment program for incestuous families where he provided therapy services for sexually abused children, their non-abused siblings, non-offending parents, and incest offenders, working at Children’s Advocacy Services of Greater St. Louis where he provided therapy for sexually abused children and children exposed to domestic violence, serving as the Executive/Clinical Director of the Northwest Georgia Child Advocacy Center in Rome, Georgia. He has been the Executive Director of NCAC since July, 2005.

Scott C. Howard, MD, MS is the Director of Clinical Trials for the International Outreach Program at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Huntsville, and his Master of Science degree in Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics from the University of Tennessee, College of Health Sciences, in Memphis. His professional interests include translating state-of-the-art pediatric cancer treatments to countries with limited resources, treatment and research for children with Hodgkin lymphoma and acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and prevention and treatment of complications of cancer therapy in children. His publications include "Strategies to Improve Outcomes of Children with Cancer in Low-income Countries" (2005), "Development of a Regional Flow Cytometry Center for Diagnosis of Childhood Leukemia in Central America" (2004), "Unsafe and violent behavior in commercials aired during televised major sporting events" (2004), and "The natural history of moderate aplastic anemia in children" (2004).

Picture of Jesus and the children is of the 16' X 9' fresco, "Suffer the Little Children", painted by Master Fresco artist, Benjamin F. Long, IV, and located in Sloop Chapel on the campus of The Crossnore School, Crossnore, NC. Nestled in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, The Crossnore School is a 93 year old ministry serving as a home and school for abused, abandoned and neglected children ages 1 to 21.  For more information, visit the school's website: www.crossnoreschool.org. Crossnore School