November 18, 2024 - Monday, November 11, was Veterans Day. I am not a veteran—but like everyone in the United States, I know many veterans. When I was pastor at Joaquin First United Methodist Church, the lay leader of our church, Richard Wharton, was a veteran of WWII. He participated in the landing in Italy and later was among the first GIs to liberate a Nazi concentration camp. His twin brother was killed in the Pacific.
December 20, 2023 - I come from a very athletic family. I was the odd duck, sort of roly-poly and not good at sports. But I did and do love baseball. I especially love the Chicago Cubs. I always told my congregation that I would know I was in Heaven when the Cubs won the World Series and I could sing with a strong melodic voice! Well, the Cubs did win the Series in 2016, but I am still waiting on my singing talent.
October 7, 2023 - It has been a little while since I retired from the ministry. I certainly miss studying and working on sermons, writing news articles for the local news outlets, and other associated endeavors—but most of all, I miss the folks at Paxton Methodist Church. I decided to ask the various news outlets if they would print an article by me every once in awhile about this and that. This will be my second attempt. The first article was from when I broke my hip.
August 28, 2023 - On May 21, 2023, I fell and broke my hip, after a local dog attacked one of my leashed dogs. We were on our way to Joaquin City Park, and I fell behind Feed Trough Cafe. To make matters worse, I feel on a fire ant mound, and they were none too pleased. I was in a lot of pain and couldn’t move. Within seconds, people from the park and the cafe came to help. Someone called my wife, another good soul grabbed the leashes holding my two dogs, and one sweet lady went to get the mayor, who is an experienced EMT and ambulance driver.
