By LORETTA FULTON Pioneer Drive Baptist Church’s new ministry for families with special needs children is up and running with the selection of Courtney Todd as director. Todd previously served as the preschool minister for another Baptist church in the Abilene area. She started her new position as director of Embrace Ministry Oct. 2. “I am very grateful to step
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By LORETTA FULTON Halloween, Dia de los Muertos, All Saints Day and All Souls Day will be observed in the coming days, with plenty of fun mixed in with solemn religious traditions. For the second consecutive year, Pioneer Drive Baptist Church is commandeering Cypress Street for a fun-filled festival Wednesday, Oct. 26, and everyone is invited. Hours are 6-8 p.m.
Read moreBy DANNY MINTON “The Blue Butterfly” is probably one of those movies where you keep scrolling down the menu after seeing the title. It’s not an exciting movie, with few action scenes and no violence. But it is a love story. It’s the story of a mother who wants her ten-year-old terminally ill son to be able to travel to
Read moreTHE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury Okay, I confess. I am–as many retailers know–a sucker of the first order. I’ve ignored pleas of loved ones and friends warning me about buying items at greatly reduced prices. I want to do better, but can’t help it if adrenaline jumps into overdrive upon my noticing signs like “drastically reduced” or
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By LORETTA FULTON St. Paul United Methodist Church is remaining united. The congregation voted Sunday, Oct. 16, by a margin of 80 percent to 20 percent to remain affiliated with the United Methodist Church, rather than disaffiliate and either align with a conservative denomination or go independent. The new pastor of St. Paul, Benji Van Fleet, saw the vote as
Read moreBy DANNY MINTON Growing up, I played a lot of sandlot baseball. In the summer, every week, we’d get a group together and head to the field behind the old high school building. Sometimes we’d have a dozen or so, and other times we’d have only seven or eight. In those days, we had so few players, we’d play scrub
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The new main building at Hendrick Home for Children will be open to the public for tours on Sunday, Oct. 23. Guided tours will be held 2-4 p.m. Light refreshments will be served in the ballroom. Hendrick Home for Children, founded by Thomas Gould Hendrick and Ida Nations Hendrick, opened at the corner of Treadaway Boulevard and South 27th Street
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The Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney, a scholar, pastor, preacher, and activist, will be guest speaker for the Fall Religion Lectureship at McMurry University. The Abilene Interfaith Council also will count the two-day event as its October meeting. Lectures will be held at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 24, and at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 25. Both events will be in Matthews
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By NANCY PATRICK For many years my husband and I did not lose any close family members to death. In my early sixties, I still had both my parents and both in-laws. The closest relatives I had lost were my grandparents. That status quo began shifting during my late fifties. My parents began having multiple health issues, including cancer for
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Spirit Of Abilene 