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Candidate’s wife coming to Lawrenceville this month
TOP-NOTCH HOOPSTERS Daily Post unveils its Super Six for boys, girls basketball. • Sports, 1B
Gwinnett Daily Post THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2015
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Vol. 46, No. 30
Feds: Local man tries to buy child sex online By Joshua Sharpe
joshua.sharpe @gwinnettdailypost.com
A 32-year-old Lawrenceville man is facing charges after the 9-yearold girl he thought he was meeting for sex turned out to be a federal agent, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in
Atlanta announced Wednesday. Leonard Nathaniel Peragine Jr. was arrested by the agent in Suwanee, where the defendant had condoms in his car and child pornography on his cellphone, the news release said. “Peragine is accused of
shopping online for sex with children,” said U.S. Attorney John Horn. “Such conduct is as dehumanizing as it is dangerous. Predators may feel safe in the anonymity of the Internet, but this case shows that we will find these predators and bring them to justice.”
The suspect is accused of responding to a classified advertisement that purported to offer “sexual access” to a child. The ad was posted by an undercover agent as part of a Federal Bureau of Investigation operation. Peragine sent child pornography videos to
the undercover agent, thinking he was communicating with the seller, who would persuade the child into sex, Horn’s news release said. “Peragine later spoke with who he thought was the child and asked the child whether she had seen the videos, and whether she
wanted to try those activities with him,” the news release said. “After the child said she might be interested, Peragine arranged to meet the undercover agent and the child” on Sept. 29. He has been arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Judge Russell G. Vineyard.
Unterman honored for bill on sex trafficking By Curt Yeomans curt.yeomans@gwinnettdailypost.com
Pastor Frank Cox poses for a portrait at North Metro Baptist Church in Lawrenceville on Wednesday. On Sunday evening, the North Metro congregation will celebrate Cox’s 35 years of ministry during a special service. (Staff Photos: David Welker)
God’s work By Keith Farner
North Metro Baptist to celebrate pastor’s 35-year anniversary
keith.farner@gwinnettdailypost.com
LAWRENCEVILLE — In the mid-1980s, as formerly rural Gwinnett County began a transformation, the church Frank Cox pastored was faced with some mindset changes. As everything about its community seemingly changed around the congregation, the one constant people looked for was the church. Their pastor, however, in those days on Pleasant Hill Road, needed support himself after his 27-year-old wife, Debbie, died of a brain tumor. In the years since, the church Cox has now pastored 35 years has grown exponentially and is now North Metro Baptist Church, has grown from five acres in those early years, to 55 across across three parcels and uses 155,000 square feet of building space. Yet following that growth, Cox looks back on the time that caused him to write a book about what God taught him through grief, and what he believes is a lesson to show his congregation through tough times. In his office on Wednesday, Cox said about every six years, everyone goes through a period of loss of some kind. “The church at that point rallied around me, and loved on me,” Cox said. “Over the years I’ve had opportunities to go do other things and serving the Southern Baptists, and had other opportunities to go to other churches. But because my people loved me during that time, it just kind of wed-
A Collins Hill football helmet sits on the desk of Pastor Frank Cox at North Metro Baptist Church in Lawrenceville on Wednesday. Cox serves as a chaplain to the football team and the coaches for the duration of the season.
ded us together, and I love my people. I think that’s the key to any pastor staying anywhere a long time. If you don’t love the people you’re serving, you’re in trouble. Our church just makes it easy to love.” Through that suffering, Cox said he learned to rely more on his salvation, his faith in Jesus, and how Jesus gives people strength to go through life. “It shaped me as a person,” he said. “Everything I preached, I had to start living. It’s comforting and it’s trying at the same time.” Larry Wynn, a longtime friend of about 40 years, recalled a well-known and often-repeated quote about how people who God uses greatly have also been broken deeply. “He was already very caring about people, it’s taken that to another level,” said Wynn, a former pastor at Hebron Baptist
Church who met Cox at Mercer University. “He identifies with people when they’re hurting.” Cox has learned that in times of tragedy, he doesn’t have to have answers. He used to visit funeral homes and deliver scripture. Now he simply brings a hug. “The scripture comes later,” he said. “They just want to know you genuinely care.” Cox’s personality and commitment to the church will be celebrated at a special service at the church on Sunday evening when several speakers and video messages are planned. The longevity of one pastor in a Baptist church serving with the same church is unususal to the point that there’s believed to be just 30 pastors to reach 35 years with the same church in the history of the Georgia Baptist Convention. John Drake has served on
the staff at North Metro for 23 years, and added that Cox is a gifted preacher and a man of integrity. “He preaches with power and conviction, true to the scriptures,” Drake said. “He’s the type of person that feels like education is a continuing thing, and he’s contantly studying, not only Biblically, but leadership.” Drake recalled the move from Pleasant Hill Road in 1995 when the church was land-locked and felt that a relocation was needed and the leadership Cox provided during the move. Those close with Cox have said his reach in the community goes beyond the sanctuary. One of those contributions is as the chaplain for the Collins Hill High School football team, See COX, Page 6A
State Sen. Renee Unterman, R-Buford, was honored recently by the Georgia Chiropractic Association for her work on legislation designed to protect children from sexual exploitation. The group presented its Humanitarian of the Year Award to Unterman on Oct. 23, during its annual fall conference and convention in Atlanta. An Renee Unterman announcement issued on Wednesday cited her Safe Harbor and Rachel’s Law bill which was signed into law earlier this year. “This is a very, very special award,” Georgia Chiropractic Association legal counsel Aubrey Villines said in a statement. “All of Unterman’s accomplishments, before she even ever got to the legislature, are absolutely amazing. She’s
See UNTERMAN, Page 6A
Browns thank community for support From Staff Reports The family of late Dacula High students Jared and Jaison Brown announced a scholarship fund in their honor on Wednesday and thanked the community for the outpouring of support in their time of sorrow. “Thank you for allowing God to show us His grace and mercy through all that you have done for our family during this very difficult time,” a line in the obituary said, adding that the parents, Paul and Merrill Brown, and other family members offered their “sincere gratitude and appreciation for all the acts of love and kindness shown to their family.”
See BROWNS, Page 6A
The parents of Jared and Jaison Brown, above, thanked the community for its support after the boys were killed in a car crash on Friday. (Special Photo)
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