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
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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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Editor’s Note: The following column first was published at dougmendenhall.com and is reposted here with permission. By DOUG MENDENHALL Early last May, I wrote about the abduction of one of our two frilly, raspberry-colored dianthus plants from just outside the picket fence. It was tiny but beautiful, and I mourned its kidnapping. I wondered if the hole left in the
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The pre-recorded Sunday Mass from Bishop Michael Sis of the Catholic Diocese of San Angelo has a new look–everyone is wearing a mask. The diocese sent the following email explaining the new look: When your parish is able to return to offering public Mass in the coming weeks, you’ll notice a few changes. Among other safety precautions, all clergy, staff,
Read moreBy DANNY MINTON It was the middle of September 1973, and I had just left the principal’s office and a discussion on a class problem when the school receptionist told me I had a call waiting. When I picked up the phone, it was Kathy, and she was obviously upset and in tears. I informed the principal that I had
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