By JIM NICHOLS Fellow Spirit of Abilene contributor Nancy Patrick recently referenced the book Hind’s Feet on High Places. It is a story following the character Much-Afraid as she encounters guidance from God. Hearing about that book I had read long ago, I searched our bookshelves at home and found our yellowed copy. As I opened the cover, I was
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By CAROLYN NEWMAN On Sundays we would go to a Gospel Sing. Mama would fry chicken and often slipped me a wing. Then she baked a cake with raw eggs in the batter. I got to lick the beaters, uncooked eggs did not matter. First the preacher preached, then we sang and sang. My stomach started wanting “nana puddin” with
Read moreNote from Marianne Wood: My mother, Marjorie Andrews, passed in 2018, but her legacy continues as I now download books from Hoopla, Kindle, or Audible, enjoying the delight of opening up a new world via the written word. And I have a warning for parents who read to their children: books may so inspire them that they wish to travel,
Read moreBishop Michael Sis of the Catholic Diocese of San Angelo offers ways to practice corporal acts of mercy even in a time of social distancing. Offering to take food to neighbor and donating blood are among his suggestions.
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By LORETTA FULTON It looked like a drive-in movie and sounded like a pep rally, but once the service began, there was no doubt that the National Day of Prayer was being observed in Abilene. Instead of on the lawn at City Hall or in a park, the service took place on the parking lot in front of the Abilene
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By LORETTA FULTON A local National Day of Prayer service will be held this year, despite the COVID-19 shutdown, but it will look a little different. Instead of worshippers holding hands, hugging, singing and praying next to one another, participants will be asked to stay in their vehicle and listen on the radio. 1-Kingdom, an organization of local pastors and
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By LORETTA FULTON Not long after the word “coronavirus” started popping up in the news, Brian Massey called social workers at Hendrick Medical Center to see if he could help. Some people are just like that–looking to help, not looking to hunker down. Massey, founder of Houses for Healing, is one of those. Over the past few years, he has
Read moreBy NANCY PATRICK As a young mother with a thirteen-month-old baby boy, I lived in northern Illinois with my pastor-husband and our infant son. Other than the first five years of my life spent in my birthplace of Arkansas, I had never lived outside Texas, my adopted home state. Adjusting to my role as a new mother, a first-time pastor’s
Read moreBy JIM NICHOLS That question was implied in a devotional item I was reading, and it caused me to wonder how I would answer it. My first connection was an ecology illustration that I have mentioned before. Ecology considers how forms of life relate to and interact with their environment. Their environment consists of the other organisms plus the physical
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