Rolland Slade had a busy year. He’s the longtime pastor of Meridian Baptist Church in El Cajon, Calif. And of course, he’s been mentioned quite a bit in these pages for his role as chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Executive Committee, which kept him pretty busy this year. But one of our favorite things about Pastor Slade is his role as administrator of California Little League’s District 66.

And that was just one of our favorite stories of the year. We rejoiced as two men were led to Christ through a translation app. We watched as people took a few minutes away at a busy SBC annual meeting to memorialize their friend with a game of catch. We learned about a Florida deacon who found out he’d been sold on the black market as a baby.

Some stories were fun, some were inspiring, some were heartbreaking. But all of them were a part of keeping Southern Baptists informed. Here are some of our favorites from the year.

• Translation app leaves eternal impact
• Southern Baptists minister to Music City Center workers during annual meeting
• One family, three generations, 100 years of missions in Brazil
• Broken people welcome, say The Garage co-pastors
• As baseball administrator, Slade’s impact is anything but ‘Little’
• SBC baseball ‘Toss’ honors church planter killed in accident
• Social, yes; media no: MLS player makes his faith, relationships personal
• Bowden saw his players as more than a jersey, says longtime FSU chaplain
• 86-year-old’s baptism inspires others to be baptized
• ‘Because He Lives’ still resonates 50 years later
• Florida deacon among hundreds of babies ‘Taken at Birth,’ sold on black market
• Sailor’s remains found and buried in plot bought long ago in hope of his return
• With son in last days of cancer, parents proclaim God’s sufficiency
• The hope we carry: pastor with cancer walks 100 miles with the cross