Author: HB Auld, Jr.

I am a Christian grandfather, married to a wonderful woman since February 2, 2002 (that’s 02/02/02), and yes, we were married at 2:02 p.m. I have two wonderful sons and daughters-in-law, a step-daughter and her husband, and a step-son and his wife. These four families have blessed me with 16 grandchildren. I retired as a Senior Chief Journalist August 31, 1987, after 22 years of active service in the US Navy. During my naval career, I was stationed in Adak, Alaska; Okinawa, Japan; Pensacola, FL; Syracuse, NY; Indianapolis, IN; Naples, Italy; and Washington, DC. Lest someone think I was “shorebound,” I also served temporary duty on various ships, including: HMS Hermes, a Royal Navy Aircraft Carrier; and the USS Ticonderoga, a US Navy Aegis Cruiser; among others.

Our Church

Our church, Fellowship Baptist Church of Longview, Texas, continues to grow.  Lots of new families have joined our church in recent months, many of them young couples with very young children.

I firmly believe that without new members with growing families, a church is destined to die.  I am so grateful that our church is attracting new young (and older) members.

I think a great deal of the attraction to our church is our young, forward-thinking pastor, Reverend Galen Herrington. Galen and his talented wife Angie and their two young children are the type of people who attract other like-minded worshipers. Angie created and maintains our church website, Fellowship Baptist Church of Longview.  Additionally, we have two terrific young couples, Jason and Kimberly Kingston who are our Youth Directors and David and Liz Londeau who are our Children’s Church Directors. That, coupled with a variety of music that includes the old gospel favorites and contemporary Christian songs provided by our Music Director, Reverend Dennis Harris, all contributes to a growing church.

Our older members are well-cared for also.  Our Pastor Emeritus, Reverend Ben Clayton, is our Pastor to Senior Adults and leads our monthly “Young At Heart” meetings, consisting of songs, a program, and a potluck lunch the second Tuesday of each month.

One of the things I especially appreciate is our church’s decision to now offer the Sacrament of Holy Communion the first Sunday of each month. It’s good to be able to plan on when Communion will be offered and to be able to depend on being able to receive this important Sacrament frequently.

Our church offers Sunday School for all ages each Sunday at 9:15 a.m. Morning worship follows at 10:30 a.m. Children’s Church is held during the second half of Sunday morning church services.   Sunday evening worship is at 6:00 p.m. Wednesday night Prayer Meeting is at 6:30 p.m.  Wednesday nights is also the time for our youth meetings, including Royal Ambassadors (RAs), Girls in Action (GAs), and two Mission Friends groups,

Looking for a dynamic, growing faith-oriented church in the Longview, Texas, area?  Give Fellowship Baptist Church, located at 1818 Spring Hill Road a try.  We think you will like what you see.  See you there Sunday.

 

The New Insurance Mandate

Yesterday, June 28, 2012, SCOTUS, the Supreme Court of the United States, upheald as constitutional, MOST of the “Affordable Health Care Act,” commonly known as “ObamaCare.”

The Court said that the President of the United States (POTUS) CANNOT mandate that US citizens MUST buy health insurance, BUT the President CAN charge a “tax” (fine, levy, choose your own synonym) upon citizens who do not purchase health insurance!

What?????

You can’t make me buy it, but you can tax/fine me if I don’t?  That sounds like double-talk to me. Am I missing something here?  Is that John Roberts’ way of having his cake and eating it, too?  John Roberts, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, said, in effect, “You can’t make people do this, but if they don’t you can tax them for it.”

That just does not make sense to me.  It appears at least some of the people will skip purchasing health insurance for themselves or their families, and let the US tax them…depending on how much the tax will be.

We live in interesting times, do we not?

Our New Church Pastor

We at Fellowship Baptist Church in Longview, Texas, are blessed with a new pastor.

Galen Herrington and his wife, Angie, and son, Luke, joined us in mid-December, 2009.  Galen was a US Army Chaplain, serving at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, when our church called him to shepherd us.  Galen previously served overseas as a Chaplain in Iraq.

He and his wife have been such a blessing in our church. Galen doesn’t preach to us; he talks to us. His sermons touch our hearts and it is obvious that he is a man after God’s own heart. Everything he does is for the furtherance of the Gospel.

His wife, Angie, has taken over maintenance of our church website and is in the process of updating it at:

http://www.fellowshipbaptistlongview.com/index.html

We hope if you are in the East Texas area, you will visit us at 1818 Springhill Road in Longview, Texas.  Sunday School for all ages is at 9:15 a.m. Sunday morning services follow at 10:30 a.m. Sunday evening services are at 6:00 p.m.   Wednesday evening Prayer Meeting, Youth Group, Mission Friends, Royal Ambassadors, and Girls’ Auxiliary all meet Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m.  Additionally, there are various other ministries, including Study Groups throughout the week and a special service for teens and young people every other Saturday night.  Come visit us.

Today is Inauguration Day, 2009

Today is Inauguration Day, 2009, and as I watched the comings, goings, and finally the Oath of Office on television, I was struck by one unarguable fact:

Today’s ceremonies showed, once again, that the United States is among the few countries on Earth which regularly changes its leaders peacefully and as a matter of course, according to its laws.

Whether you voted for the new President or not (and I did not), I hope you will do as I have done: wish him well and pray for Godly leadership for him and for guidance in his tenure in the White House, and most of all, pray for our beloved Nation.

May God bless us all and may God bless our Nation.

Phone call from granddaughter, “Re”

I haven’t been here in quite awhile, not since our kitty, Maggie May, died on December 12, 2008.  That is FAR too long! In 2009, I am going to post more often.

I got a cool telephone call last night, just before midnight.  My oldest granddaughter, Marie “Re” Lianne called me out of the blue!  We talked for about 45 minutes, just catching up on “stuff.” It was great hearing from her. You can check out her Weblog in the Links section on the right.  She’s a freshman at George Mason University and a terrific young woman! I’m very proud of her, as I am all of my grandchildren.

Thanks, Re, for the call. Phone me anytime!

Our Kitty Died Today

Our youngest cat, Maggie May, a six and a half year old solid black longhair, died in our arms today. She had cancer.

We had known for several months that the end was coming. She began losing weight in April and the Vet performed every test known to veternary medicine on her, eliminating all the likely culprits like feline AIDS and feline leukemia. He finally diagnosed her with either stomach or intestinal cancer. He said he could do nothing more than open her up and do an exploratory surgery, but that would only confirm his diagnosis, not cure her and it would be horrendous on her. We chose not to put her through that.

She was with us to the end, but earlier this week it was evident the end was near. My wife, Jannie, and I dug a small grave in our front yard for her. Yesterday, she became incontinent and could no longer stand up on her own. She just lay in Jannie’s arms and looked up at her, staring at her with those big green eyes of hers, telling Jannie it was alright to let her go.

We took her to the Vet and he confirmed that she was unresponsive to stimuli and severely anemic and it was “past her time to go.”  He gave her a sedative and then an euthanasia shot and we held her as she slipped from this life into the arms of our loving Lord.

Do pets go to heaven?  I certainly hope so. We have hopes of holding her and chasing after her once again in heaven one day.

But today we are saddened. We have lost our dear Maggie May, and even though we still have two older cats: LilyPoo and Chloe, we will miss our little Maggie May.

May God bless everyone who has ever lost a pet.

Wounded Warrior Project

From a shipmate:

Wounded Warrior Project

Surface Navy Association

GreaterWashington Chapter

For the past two years, the Greater Washington Chapter of the Surface Navy Association has conducted a campaign to assist our wounded shipmates recovering at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD.  We collected more than 800 DVDs for the Sailors and Marines to enjoy during their recuperation.  The following year we collected funds and donated 155 portable DVD players.

This year we want to do something very meaningful for those of our shipmates limited in their ability to get out and around the Washington area during their convalescence.  We have determined that Operation Second Chance provides many valuable services to military men and women, and would greatly benefit from a conversion van equipped to transport wheelchair patients in and around the D.C. area to attend sporting events, concerts, and otherwise get out and about.

This is an expensive proposition, but very important for those men and women who are virtually stuck in the hospital.  We have carefully looked at Operation Second Chance and are very impressed with the organization and the services it provides.

Therefore, SNA GWC is seeking to help OSC raise $30,000 to purchase a conversion van modified by Adaptive Mobility Systems, Inc. (AMS Vans).  If interested in making a donation, please commence your contribution at the SNA website:

https://www.navysna.org/Events/OperationSecondChance.asp

After completing the SNA form, you will be directed to the OSC website fundraising page for donations.  (When prompted “How did your hear about OSC?” click on Surface Navy Association.)  Your donation will be made directly to OSC, but we want to track our progress so we can follow our progress to attaining our $30,000 goal.

Our goal is to help OSC raise the $30,000 by December 15th.  If we exceed the $30,000, the additional funds will be available to OSC for insurance, registration, maintenance and operating costs for the van.

Please share this appeal with others who share our concern for those shipmates who had made a very great sacrifice in service to their nation and security and freedom everywhere.

For information about SNA, visit  www.navysna.org

For information about OSC, visit http://www.operationsecondchance.org/About.htm