Religion

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me. Psalm 23:4 By Dennis Rainey I know a man whose son has battled a serious illness his entire life. His whole family has been shaped around the requirements of this boy’s chronic care.

I heard the story recently of a couple who, by their tenth anniversary, had been unable to conceive any children. Those of you who have experienced this heartbreak can readily relate to the frustration they felt, the void that remained so senselessly empty in their lives. On days when they allowed themselves to think about it, they’d ponder what they might name a child if they were ever to have one.

Government has the muscle and manpower for quick rescue in the crisis phase of a disaster, a regional panel agreed Saturday, but after that, it is our churches that have the greater power to care for people and to put them back on their feet over the long term. The regional panel on churches as disaster shelters was sponsored by the Blanco County Disaster Response Group, and met at the First United Methodist Church in Johnson City to review how church shelters worked in this and other hurricane seasons, and how they can work better. The problem, said Mike McEuen of Broadmoor United Methodist Church in Baton Rouge, LA, is that no one church can do it alone.

Good Shepherd Catholic Church held their traditional Mexican dinner, bake sale and raffle on Sunday, October 5th. Good Shepherd thanks the community for their participation for a successful fundraiser. The raffle winners are as follows: 1. Two Night Stay at La Quinta Inn of Kerrville, Dulce Lopez; 2.

On Oct. 11th and 12th Trinity Lutheran Church of Stonewall will be hosting Jay West from Bellevue, Nebraska. On Saturday from 9 AM until near noon with a break for fellowship, Jay will explore the basics of Kingdom Dynamics. This will be a great time to see Jay up close and personally as he shares what the Lord has been opening up in his life and those of others he is with.

Tim Kimmel, who along with his wife, Darcy, is a frequent speaker at our Weekend to Remember marriage conferences, remembers the two of them going out to eat sometime around his fortieth birthday. As they were waiting for their meal to arrive, he began doodling a crude picture of a casket on his paper napkin. Turning it around to face his wife, he asked, “Darcy, how many people does it take to carry one of these things?” “I don’t know,” she answered.

“Do you recognize me?” a woman asked following a service at her church. “I know I should,” I replied, trying to remember her name. “I’ve lost ninety pounds since you were here last,” she announced proudly. No wonder I hadn’t remembered her. What made her success in slimming possible? Self-control.

Checking out the new wheels — and seats — and windows — on the new 15-person bus at the First United Methodist Church are, left to right, Pastor Sid Spiller, Youth Director Leandy Pletcher, and Mickey Little, who chaired the committee that selected and bought the bus. The primary users will be existing church groups which have been using the old van, but Rev Spiller has asked members to be creative in coming up with new ways to use the vehicle to serve additional people and purposes.

This is a true story. In the 1870s, when the citizens of Swan Quarter, North Carolina, began looking for a piece of property for a new Methodist church building, their sights fell on a nice piece of elevated land where the structure would be reasonably protected from coastal flooding.

The Religious Education classes are going to begin on Wednesday September 24th at 6:00 pm. Please come a little earlier that day to register your child for the 2008-2009 program year. Grades Pre-K through 8th are from 6:00 to 7:00, and High School grades are from 7:30 to 8:30 every Wednesday.