By LORETTA FULTON The first time Mike Wurman undertook a monumental endeavor, he came back with “A Sketch & A Prayer.” This time, he finished with a number of sketches and a bunch of prayers. Wurman is the father of Brittany Pigott, a student in the physician assistant program at Hardin-Simmons University. Each spring, first-year students go on a mission
Read moreBy JIM NICHOLS One of my favorite movies of recent years is “Hidden Figures.” In this 2016 film, the setting is the early 1960s and the exciting “space race” between the United States and Russia. The movie traces the lives and contributions of three African-American women, each of whom makes brilliant contributions to the eventual NASA launch of John Glenn
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By LORETTA FULTON New Beginnings-Big Country, a ministry that provides transitional housing and enrichment programming for women who are leaving incarceration, needs help to meet a challenge grant that will allow the ministry to purchase a house it currently rents. An anonymous grant of $75,000 will be given to New Beginnings if a matching $75,000 is raised by February. Total
Read moreBy NANCY PATRICK I know many people favor fall—the end of long, hot summers and return of cooler weather and beautiful, colorful foliage. Although I do enjoy the brief autumns we have in West Texas, I do not happily anticipate the imminent winter. It’s not the cold weather I dislike but rather the absence of green leaves, blooms, sunshiny days,
Read moreBy DANNY MINTON Churches are made up of all kinds of people, people with various social status, people with a wide variety of financial stability, inherently kind-hearted people, people who worship God on Sunday and the ways of the world on Monday, spiritually strong people, people who struggle with their faith, people who are needy and asking for help and
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(Editor’s Note: Five people were stabbed during a Hanukkah party in New York on Saturday. During Sunday morning services, two members of West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement were shot to death by a gunman, who also was killed. Cliff Stewart, president of the Abilene Association of Congregations, provided the following comments.) By CLIFF STEWART President, Abilene Association
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By LORETTA FULTON A large stone with the engraving, “Jesus, For You,” seemed an appropriate keepsake as an old garage was cleared from land recently acquired for an expansion of Brian Massey’s Houses for Healing. Massey had been looking for land to add 16 more tiny houses to the four already built on North Hickory Street. As it turned out,
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By LORETTA FULTON At 35, DeOri Newman may seem a little young to preach a Watch Night service, a tradition in predominantly African-American churches dating to the days of slavery. But Newman grew up attending the service, and its history and significance were passed on to him. “We would all go as a family,” Newman said. This year’s service will
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By LORETTA FULTON Churches joining forces to solve problems, the death of First Baptist Church stalwart Virginia Connally, the reassignment of a longtime priest at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, the return of medical missionary Kent Brantly and his family to Africa five years after he contracted the deadly Ebola virus there, a national humanitarian award, and women preachers popping up
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Spirit Of Abilene 