The Journey - Winter 2008

Christmas Edition 2008 Celebrating the “Reason for the Season” in Watauga County.

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was fortunate to grow up in a loving home with parents who were strong disciplinarians. We went to church regularly and they instilled good values in me, including a strong work ethic. I guess you could say I grew up good.

Because I went to church, I knew about Jesus and God and I even got baptized. But, as I think back on it now, I wasn’t really saved. I knew about being good, but I really didn’t know God in a personal way. Now that I know Jesus as my Lord and Savior, I’ve come to realize that there’s just enough difference between being good and being saved, to spend eternity in Hell. That realization is one of the things that motivates me to use my influence to share with others, the difference a real relationship with God can make in a person’s life.

As I have thought about my life and upbringing, one thing I’ve come to appreciate is the impact that other men have made upon my life. There have been key people along the way who didn’t just teach me about football, but taught me about life and set a good example for me to follow. Because of that, I want to be the same way for those young men who God brings into my life. In other words, I don’t just want to coach a winning football team, I want to have a positive impact on the souls of the young men who play for ASU. You don’t just accidentally win championships, and I think that a key ingredient to our success has been our concern

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Born To Coach

Photo by ASU Athletics/Keith Cline

Coach Jerry Moore

for our players as people and not just their athletic ability.

The first man, besides my dad, who made a strong impression on me was my high school football coach in Bouham, Texas. His name was M.B. Nelson and he became my coach after my freshman year when my team went 0 and 10. We were so bad, about the only thing we had to be excited about was winning the coin toss. Even though I started my freshman year, I didn’t know one thing about discipline, hard work and technique until Coach Nelson came along. He was more than a coach, he was like a father to all of us on that team. He was so good at what he did, he molded us into a team that was undefeated my Junior and Senior years.

High School football in Texas is huge, so that was no small accomplishment. From the time Coach Nelson came into my life, it solidified in me the desire to be a head coach some day. As I think back on my years in football, I honestly think he was the best I’ve ever seen at teaching the fundamentals and instilling the type of values in us as young men that it takes to win.

He was more than a coach, he was like a father to all of us on the team. Besides this, he set a great example for us in the way he lived his life.

He was my Sunday School teacher and a leader in our community. He didn’t just change the (Cont. on Pg. 3)

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team, he changed the school of and the town. director obviously didn’t feel the same way, because he called me into his After high school, I went to Baylor University where I played wide office before our last game to inform me that I wouldn’t be coming back receiver for the football team. This was another positive experience for for the next season. This was a devastating blow to me, my coaching staff me in terms of determining my future in football, but the very best thing and our families. Though I immediately got offers to coach at other about Bayer was meeting a beautiful girl named Margaret Starnes. She places, I turned them down because Margaret and I didn’t want to move used to sit beside my roommate in chapel and when I began to show our daughter from her school. interest in her, she let me know real quick that if I

For 18 months, I was completely out of was going to date her, we were going to go to football. I got a job in real estate development church. When I went home with her to meet her where my responsibility was to travel all over the family, their commitment to Christ really made a U.S. to find contractors to build developments. positive impression on me. It wasn’t long before As part of courting these potential builders, we I realized that this was the girl I wanted to marry would treat them to golf at some of the finest and we did so in the springtime of my Junior year clubs around. Here I was making more money at Baylor. than I ‘d ever made in coaching, playing golf at After Baylor, I tried out for the Dallas some of the best courses you could imagine and I Cowboys where I was cut by coach Tom Loudry. was miserable. There were times that I would It was then that I got a call from my high school literally cry myself to sleep thinking how I wasn’t position coach who wanted me to be his assistant like Coach Nelson anymore. at Corsciana High School in Corsciana, Texas. I

Margaret saw how miserable I was and went from there to assistant coaching at Southern she encouraged me to try to get back in coaching.

Meth. University in Dallas and from there to the I called Coach Osborne and some other football University of Nebraska where I was privileged to folks to get my name circulated again. That’s be with another very positive influence in my when Coach Hattfield of Arkansas called to ask life, Coach Tom Osborne. In my seven years me to be a volunteer coach for him. Being a there, I learned a lot about football, but I was also volunteer coach means you don’t make any impressed by Tom’s example and by his demeanor money, so you can imagine how apprehensive I with the players. I had originally met Tom at a was about that. But Margaret, who is a great Fellowship Christian Athletes meeting that I school teacher, said, “I can teach and we can went to when I was at SMU. He was the first make it.” So, with her encouragement I took the coach who I had seen offer devotions for the job, got paid nothing, but had the thrill of being Photo by ASU Athletics players who wanted it. In fact, it was at that FCA

a part of winning the South West Conference conference, where I met Coach Osborne, that I experienced something Championship with Arkansas that year. Because of that, Coach Hatfield profound in my relationship with Christ. The effect of being around so was going to offer me a paid position, but that’s when ASU called. many men who loved God and were openly devoted to Him challenged The athletic director at ASU back then was Jim Garner. He knew me me. I remember coming home from that conference, getting on my from our days in the same staff at Texas Tech. Though I’d never heard of knees in my bedroom and asking God to take complete control of my ASU and didn’t know where Boone was I jumped at the chance to be a life. When I got off my knees I knew something had happened deep in head coach again. I honestly felt as if this was my last chance in coaching. my heart and ever since that time I’ve tried to be as much of a servant as Little did I know how things would turn out here in Boone. I look back I could. and it’s interesting to see how God put all the pieces of the puzzle together My first head coach opportunity came when I was offered the job at to allow us to do what we’ve done here.

North Texas, this in turn opened the door from me to become the coach I could talk about beating Michigan or about winning 3 national at Texas Tech where they were struggling to rebuild their football championships, but I can honestly say that my greatest thrill in coaching program. I was there from 1981 to 1985 and was pleased when the is seeing young men develop and grow and change for the better. To progress we were making. We were just a few bad breaks away from have some kind of role in being a godly example and influence to those having a winning season and we played very well against some tough players and others is an honor and a privilege for which I’m extremely teams. Because of this, I was excited about our potential for next year grateful. and felt we were on the verge of a break-through. But, the athletic ASU Coach Jerry Moore, Boone

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Merry Christmas A-1 Vacuum Solutions.......................... 29 All American Hearing Center................21 Appalachian Brian Estates.......................7 Appalachian TV.....................................28 At Your Wits End Vacation Rentals........13 Audiovision...........................................29 Beverly Guy Accounting........................21 Blue Ridge Electric................................15 Blue Ridge Insurance Service.................19 Blue Ridge Mountain Rentals................25 Boone Ford............................................31 Boone Meat Center................................26 Boone Paint & Interiors........................14 Boone Rent-All.......................................9 Burger King............................................8 Castle Auto Repair.................................23 Changes Salon.......................................13 Cheap Joes Art Stuff..............................11 Chick-Fil-A.............................................7 Classic Homes.......................................19 Closet Design Center..............................6 Conrad’s Coffee.....................................24 Cornerstone Christian Bookstore..........25

From These

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High COuntry Businesses

Dan’l Boone Inn................................24 Denton Insurance................................1 Dogskin Automotive..........................20 Dr. Pepper..........................................11 Factory Housing.................................26 Flooring Outlet..................................12 Foggy Mountain Gem Mine................8 Full Circle Wealth Management..........8 Ger-Shel Kitchen & Baths...................3 Goldsmith.........................................30 Grace Lutheran Church.....................19 Hardee’s.............................................10 High Country Cabinets.....................16 High Country Signs...........................23 High Country Stone............................7 High South Realty...............................2 Highland Landscape Supplies............28 Howard’s Creek Baptist Church........24 Incredible Toy Company...................27 Jeff’s Plumbing..................................24 Jesus is King.us..................................30 Jo-Lynn Enterprises, Inc....................15 Los Arcoiris.......................................28

Magic Video...............................................21 Martin Real Estate.....................................26 Morgan’s Jeweler........................................26 Mount Vernon Baptist Church...................20 Mountaineer Insurance..............................27 Mountaineer Sheet Metal...........................10 Mystery Hill...............................................23 Nationwide Insurance- Andy Harkins........18 Nationwide Insurance- Park Terrel.............14 New River Surveyors..................................14 Pet Place.....................................................13 Precision Printing.......................................22 Pro Finish...................................................28 Riverchase Homes......................................13 Rock n’ Walls..............................................17 Shepherd’s Heart Ministries........................21 Stick Boy Bread Company............................4 Studio K Youth Ballet...................................4 Suburban Propane......................................12 Subway.......................................................23 Suddenly Showing Maternity & Nursing...25 University Nissan.......................................32 Watauga Building Supply...........................26

At this time of year, when our thoughts turn to Christmas this publication is released to turn our attention to the real “Reason for the Season, Jesus Christ.Whether you’re a Christian or not, I believe you’ll be refreshed by the good news that’s conveyedthroughthestoriesofpeoplefromourcommunity. Pleasetakenoteof anddo business withtheadvertisersinthis magazine, because without them this publication would not be possible. -Ben Cox, Owner Main Street Marketing

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December 2008

The Roller Coaster Ride of a Coach’s Wife

eing married to a football coach is a lot like riding a roller coaster. It has its ups and downs, twists and turns and just when you think it might be slowing down, off it goes at breakneck speed.

I was reared in a Christian home in Mineola, Texas. Mother was the organist at the Baptist church and Daddy was a Methodist.

All I ever knew was church life. When I was six years old, my pastor called me into his office and walked me through the plan of salvation. Although I was so young, it really took with me. The next Sunday, my Methodist father walked me down the aisle and we were baptized together.

I was discipled in my church by loving Sunday school teachers and youth pastors.

My Christian walk was consistent and I escaped the baggage of teenage rebellion.

Mother had always prayed that God would send me the right husband. I met Jerry at Baylor University and fell in love with him on our first date. Mother’s prayers were answered. We dated three years and after graduation we were married. A Christ centered home was my fervent goal, not as a duty but out of a sincere desire to honor God. I loved Jesus and I loved Jerry. Texas Tech offered Jerry his first major head coaching job and off we went to Lubbock, Texas.

In retrospect, Jerry says it was the only job he didn’t pray about.

They called, dangled the carrot in front of him and he accepted the offer. We were there five years. I got a teaching job; we bought a beautiful house on a golf course. We went to church, but never really got involved for lack of time.

The move was hard on our teenage children.

They missed their friends and schools.

Jerry was gone constantly.

The entire football program had to be rebuilt from the ground up. It required long hours. At one point, our daughter thought her parents were separated because she never saw her daddy. I became bitter.

I felt the whole responsibility for family weighing on my shoulders.

By this time my father had died and my mother had Alzheimer’s disease so we had moved her to be near us.

In my bitterness, I deliberately walked away from my relationship with my Lord. I decided to do my own thing and I felt God folded His arms and said, “I’m here when you decide to come back.” I literally went through adolescent rebellion in my forties. Though I felt guilty and miserable, I was also desperately lonely. I filled my life with parties and anything else society had to offer. I was never unfaithful to Jerry, but I stopped being the loving, supportive wife he needed. I no longer honored God in my life, my home, my marriage or in being a godly mother.

I couldn’t see that it wasn’t Jerry’s fault that our family was suffering.

He was trapped.

Bum Phillips once remarked, “There are two kinds of

coaches. Those who have been fired and those who are going to be fired!” The school hired a new Athletic Director and Jerry was fired for not having a winning season. He felt he had not only let our family down but also the families of his assistant coaches. When the head coach gets fired, his assistant coaches usually lose their jobs, too.

Jerry went to work for a company in Dallas making more money than he ever thought possible, but he was miserable. I stayed in Lubbock for a year so our daughter, Elizabeth, could finish high school. God was no longer the center of our lives. We were out of His will. He was allowing us to run our own lives. We moved to Mt. Vernon, Texas, about an hour from Dallas and I got a teaching job.

Jerry was unexpectantly transferred to Atlanta, Georgia. I finished the semester at school and then joined him. We both realized we needed to re-examine our lives.

We were out of God’s will and we desperately needed Him back in control. On his knees, Jerry called out to God. “If you really want me to coach, put me where I can be a spiritual force in the life of my players.” This is where we began to feel God leading. Jerry called Ken Hatfield at Arkansas and put out the word he wanted to get back into coaching.

“Would you be interested in doing some volunteer coaching here in Arkansas? We can’t pay you but we sure could use you.” With three kids in college, we accepted and once again I got a teaching job. I will forever love that coaching staff and their families. They were all believers.

They took us in and loved us back to life.

God restored our Christian lifestyle and reminded us how sovereign He is.

This was indeed His plan for us.

We were only there a year when a position opened at ASU. Jim Garner, the Athletic Director, called to ask if Jerry would be interested. We prayed and with our faith rebuilt, we stepped out in faith. We didn’t hear God say yes or no. The afternoon before Jerry was to be introduced as the new coach at ASU. Ken called and offered him the position of Offensive Coordinator at Arkansas. It would have meant total security and was hard to pass up.

Once again, Jerry was on his knees. The Lord gave us the option.

We could stay or launch out. We came to Boone in 1989.

Since our time in Arkansas until now, God is indeed the center of our lives. We have learned our lesson well. Never again will we neglect our quiet time with the Lord, prayer for His direction or His written word. More necessary than our daily food, they provide the strength and confidence that keep our lives on track.

Margaret Moore, Boone

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Living the Good Life

uring my schooling at ASU, I was privileged to play football for Coach Jerry Moore. I consider him to be one of the people who greatly influenced my life at that time.

His consistent Christian walk both challenged and inspired me to be bold for the Lord on campus and contributed to the building of my character.

“Leave family, friends and all that is familiar and follow Me.” My uncle, Andy, heard this call and served in Nigeria, Africa, for fifteen (15) years. My cousin, Sara Beth, heard this call and went to China. My dad, Dan, heard this call and went on short-term mission trips for a couple of weeks each year.

I didn’t fully understand how they could just pack up and leave their lives behind until I heard this call.

I had gone on some short-term mission trips with my Dad and had taken a trip to Mississippi and New Orleans with Campus Crusade for Christ after Hurricane Katrina. In 2005, I took a mission trip to Hawaii with my mother and brother. I graduated in December from ASU and planned to return to Hawaii for a three month mission trip in February. However, in January I went to Nicaragua for a week’s mission trip with my parents and granddad. I expected to play with the kids there and help out for one week. As we were leaving and saying our farewells to the congregation, I had a strong impression I would be back. I even voiced to them I would return. On the flight home, they were all I could think about. Within twenty-four hours, I knew I was headed back for a minimum three months. Three weeks later, I returned not for three months but indefinitely. I joined New Song Mission Nicaragua full time and began working with the youth.

On short-term missions I had been somewhat limited on what I could achieve because of time restraints. We could only deal with immediate problems, but as a full-time worker I can now make plans and projects that will affect not only this generation but generations to come. Primarily, I work with young people twenty-five years of age or under. As youth pastor I have to build a foundation of love, letting them know I love them and Jesus loves them. The concept of love is foreign to them. Survival they understand, but not love.

This village was built to house field workers by San Antonio Sugar Cane Plantation. Ninety percent or more of

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the men in the village work the cane fields for next to nothing.

Pesticides used in that work have affected their health and wrecked their kidneys. Men are dying at thirty and thirty-five years old due to renal kidney failure. The majority of the kids here are growing up without fathers. There is a hospital here, but it only serves to try to keep the men alive. It does nothing to prevent the cause of kidney failure. The choices are limited for these men. They can stay and work the cane until it kills them or abandon their families and head for Costa Rica where there are more job opportunities. Our goal is to stop this cycle. We want to show them that a loving God wants more for them than this lifestyle.

The work is always evolving and we sense God giving us new strategies to break both physical and spiritual poverty. To address their spiritual needs, we offer Bible studies and church services geared to their age group. We are teaching and living before them, Christian values and morals. Our aim is to build healthy, growing communities of Christians who love God and each other.

We push education because without it they are trapped into repeating the same dead-end life their parents and grandparents endured. We want to enable them that they might find employment that will raise their standard of living. Our strategy for this is linking them to families in the USA who will sponsor them financially, families willing to contribute to their needs of pencils and paper, notebooks, clothing and medicine. Living in unsanitary conditions, they are often ill and miss weeks of school.

They get behind in their school work, become discouraged and drop out. We also enlist families able to support students we need to go on to college in order to achieve their goals and dreams.

In the nine months, I have been in Nicaragua, God has allowed me to establish relationships that are life-changing, both theirs and mine. I’ve been in Boone for a week visiting family and friends, but this isn’t “Home” anymore. I can’t live anywhere but there. I no longer fit into this culture and God assures me daily I was created to serve the people of Nicaragua. My passion for them increases as I’m about the call assigned to me. I’m in the center of His will and nothing compares to that. As far as I’m concerned, I’m living the “good life”-the only life!

Jim Bob Norman, Nicaragua

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The Wonder of God’s Peace

grew up with my mother taking me to a Baptist Church every time the doors were opened. When I was seven years old, I accepted Jesus as my Savior and was baptized. I was at the church several times a week and participated in every aspect I could. I dreamed of being a missionary somewhere in the darkest jungle. Church was my refuge.

My home, however, was not a place of peace or rest.

My brothers and sister and I would tiptoe around our parents, and we were abused emotionally, mentally and sometimes physically by a controlling, manipulative mother and a father who never found his way in life. My mother was always angry and many times I was her target. My father was absent and eventually gambled and lost our beautiful house in a card game.

There were good times, but my home atmosphere was not nurturing, loving, supportive or encouraging in any way.

At seventeen, my parents were divorcing and the little home life I did have was falling away. I lost my virginity to date rape by a young man I had dated for over a year and trusted. I stayed in that abusive relationship because I couldn’t bear the loneliness and despair of losing one more relationship. I believe this is the plight of many abused women.

I got married young and lived many years in an unhappy relationship. A wonderful outcome of this relationship was the birth of my two daughters. At a very young age, I determined not to be the parent my parents were to me. I know now that Jesus was protecting and guiding me. I know that in those primary years of going to church and accepting Jesus Christ that Hope was born. God provided an ever present nurturing spirit in me that allowed me to raise my children in a home where love was spoken, shared and taught.

For many years, I lived with a huge amount of anger. I felt unlovable and shameful and disgusting. I became dangerously depressed. Every single day I thought about suicide multiple

times, but God stayed my hand and protected me during this time. I began taking antidepressants and experienced some relief, but not a true sense of peace.

In September of 2000, Franklin Graham held Festival 2000. I was curious about Franklin Graham, so I went. I remember choirs singing hymns from my childhood. I remember listening attentively, but I don’t remember anything said. There must have been an altar call because I remember flying down concrete steps to the field. Jesus had me where he wanted me. What happened was unexplainable. I was transformed immediately; it was supernatural. The wonder of God’s peace came upon me instantly and nothing else mattered, not the past, not the present or concern for my future.

I was brought into His presence by His love and made alive and whole in Him. I deserved nothing. I was given everything.

Since the Franklin Graham crusade, God has brought much healing to me.

At a recent retreat called The Walk to Emmaus, I realized that the enemy set up a wall to stand strong against what God wanted to accomplish in me. I asked for prayer from the minister and the walls crashed down as God’s living water surged in. Again, a time of great deliverance touched my life and soul.

It is amazing how God can take something that appeared to be hopeless and breathe hope into it. He uses things that are awful and he turns them for good. I believe I’ve now been given a heart for women’s ministries because of my experiences. God uses our worldly experience for His glory.

God continues making a new person out of me, and I consciously allow Him to do it every day. I am finally at peace.

My life is filled with joy only available through faith in my Lord Jesus Christ. I am learning to wait on His timing because I know His plans for me are perfect.

Jane Higgins Didier, Boone

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December 2008

“What do you want, Lord? What do you want?”

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y late husband Dwight and I were publishing Christian books to be distributed in prisons and jails and although it was a fruitful ministry, we sensed God had something more in store for us. So, we turned off the t.v. and began to seek His direction-“What do you want, Lord?”

During this earnest seeking we were invited to the dedication of the Nelson Bell Building through Samaritan’s Purse.

Nelson Bell was Ruth Bell Graham’s missionary father who spent many years spreading the gospel in China.

As part of the ceremony, each guest was given a copy of Nelson Bell’s book entitled “Foreign Devil in China”. This book fired Dwight up and a passion for China began to grown in his heart.

Just after this, we visited Alliance Bible Fellowship during a service when they were sending one of their missionaries back to China. Kim Packer was a single woman and that night she shared her heart and her love for China. When she had finished, Dwight rushed to the front and bombarded her with questions.

We were warmly invited over to her parent’s home where we watched a video of her life there in China.

God was speaking and Dwight was stirred. Kim suggested Dwight contact University Language Services and Inter-Christo Job Placement. It seemed he was too old and over-qualified for Inter-Christo, but the door swung wide open at University Language Services and he was offered a teaching position.

Dwight and I immediately began looking for someone who could teach us to speak Chinese. We checked ASU, but they weren’t offering Chinese that term. However, there was a Chinese exchange Professor who needed housing, so we invited Bao Hui Nan to live with us in exchange for lessons. That day we also found out we were expecting a baby!

University Language Services had wanted us to come for the winter term. I was sure if I had to deliver this baby in China, I would die.

Thankfully, after considering our circumstances, University Language Services decided it would be best if we had the baby before we went to China. Our departure was postponed until the following August.

Anna was born April 29, 1992 and four months later the three of us were standing on the Great Wall of China. People flocked to the fair little blonde with her blue eyes and fat little cheeks. She was the perfect magnet.

Our primary purpose in China was “seed sowing”. Dwight’s classroom was composed of practicing lawyers, practicing prosecutors, with a few judges thrown in for good measure. At the China University of Political Science and Law, he could discuss anything pertaining to American law. Our friend, attorney Lynn Pace of Blowing Rock, helped Dwight prepare an outline entitled “The Laws in America as Found in the Bible”. This outline was handed out to his students as reference material.

Immediately, the students began to ask “What is this Deuteronomy, this Leviticus?” Dwight was wearing a long coat and began unbuttoning it as he replied, “I’m so glad you asked”, and he began pulling Chinese language Bibles from his pockets. As his pupils began to reach for them, he announced these were also reference books for the class.

Dwight and I served our Lord in China from August 1992 to December 1996. During that time, we had the opportunity to show all of his students the “Jesus” film distributed through Campus Crusade for Christ. Many of these students responded to the invitation to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Shortly before Dwight died in December of 1999, he returned to China with a group of men from Campus Crusade for Christ to bid a final farewell to his beloved China.

Candace Waters, Boone

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A Strange Encounter of the Supernatural Kind

he devil takes particular pleasure in going after pastor’s kids.

Raised in a pastor’s home in Asheville, N.C., I went from my high school graduation in 1972 into a lifestyle of drugs and alcohol.

For the next seven years I wasted my life. However, a faithful God answered the prayers of my parents and in 1979 I had a “head-on” encounter with Jesus. He totally delivered me from that dark pit and I have not touched alcohol or drugs for the past twenty-nine years.

I married my wife, Karen, and together we started to live the ordinary Christian life in Boone, NC. I was in the construction business building houses and custom cabinets. We were active in church, serving the Lord through mission work and disaster relief. As I began to go deeper in my relationship with the Lord, He began to go deeper with me. He began stirring up feelings of discontent but I couldn’t figure out what He wanted from me. I talked to my pastor and this was his counsel, “If this is a call to ministry God will make it plain to you and prepare a place for you.”

At this point, I received a call from my mother. My dad had a heart attack and was in stable condition in the hospital. She asked me to come to Asheville. The next morning I got in my pick-up truck and headed for Asheville. As I drove, I prayed “God, today I need to know what it is You want from me. I’m a simple man and I need a simple answer.”

Riding on U.S. Hwy 70 near Old Fort and Marion, up ahead of me I saw a hitchhiker. In his hand he held a little white sign that read JESUS SAVES in red letters. My immediate thought was “What kind of fanatic was that?!” God’s immediate response was, “In as much as you failed to do it to one of the least of these, you failed to do it unto me.”

(Matt. 25: 34-46).

I pulled off the road, turned around and came back. As he approached the truck he looked at me and said, “I knew you couldn’t drive by. Brother, when you passed me God told me this is the man you need to give the message to. Where are you heading?” I told him I was going to Asheville and offered him a lift. As we rode he told me, “God sent me to see a man in Asheville and give him a message. God says today He is calling you to preach His word.”

For the next 45 minutes to an hour this man shared things about my life and family he could not possibly know apart from revelation from God. As we approached Black Mountain, he asked me to pull over so we could pray. He placed his hand on my knee and I felt God’s anointing to preach flow through my body. When we reached Asheville he said “This is a pretty big town. Do you suppose we could find a thrift store somewhere? A ways back I stopped at a place to use the bathroom and when I came out, someone had stolen my suitcase. I had my clothes and my Bible in it.”

We found a Salvation Army Thrift Store and I let him out. He got out of the truck and said, “God may use me to start a revival here in Asheville. Pray for me.” He started across the parking lot, and then turned back toward the pick-up. “Wait a minute, I forgot my sign! The peace of the Lord be with you.” I never saw him again. God made clear what He wanted from me. My father had four by-pass surgeries and was 84 his last birthday. He still rejoices that God answered his prayers and saw fit to call his son into His service.

I went to school, got a theological degree, and was called to pastor at Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Banner Elk, N.C. in 1991. For nine years the Lord placed a burden in my heart for my congregation and

the community of Banner Elk and I served Him there. But the burden began to shift. I found myself being drawn to “street people”. When I walked the streets, these wandering souls pierced my heart. They were like sheep without a shepherd. I shared with my wife, Karen and asked her to pray.

Our church had a relationship with the Hebron Colony in Boone. Quarterly, our men would ask their guys to join us for food and fellowship. Their Director, Tom Knowles, and his family would join us occasionally for worship and our church supported his outreach financially. During this seeking time, I decided to visit Tom just to see how things were going. At some point in our conversation, he commented that the Lord was redirecting their Assistant Director into another ministry. Laughingly, he asked me “Why don’t you come and take his place?” “That may not be as far out of bounds as you think,” I replied. We began to pray right then and there and twenty-four hours later, God gave us freedom to pursue this path.

I gave my church a month’s notice in February of 2000 and came on board as the Assistant Director of Hebron Colony on April 1.

In July, 2006 I became Executive Director. I give God glory and praise each day for allowing me to shepherd His lost sheep and lead them into His pastures. The battle is intense, but the outcome is glorious.

Don Holder, Boone

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Why Is Jesus Sad?

s a nine year old child, I was reading my Bible and read Matthew 23. The statement that stood out to me was in verse 37 which says “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” I asked my mother, “Why is Jesus sad?” She told me to go outside where she had some hens and chicks.

There, she used these hens and chicks to explain the gospel to me. She told me to pray and Jesus would come and live in my heart.

Growing up in Tampico, Mexico, I went to church all my life. When I was sixteen, God called me to serve Him. I refused to hear Him because I was angry with Him. My parents had separated and I couldn’t understand why God permitted that. I decided to go to the university to study accounting. While I was at the university, I could see my friends lost without Jesus. Always I had my Bible with me and they asked me about God but still I refused the call. I simply shared with them there was a better way.

When I finished the university I got a job. Always people asked me why I was different. Why didn’t I say bad words and why did I pray before I ate? I could hear God’s

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voice asking me to go to the seminary. I quit my job, obeyed God and went to Mexico City. At the seminary, I heard about missionaries in other countries preaching the gospel and God tugged at my heart. When I graduated, I stayed at the seminary as a teacher.

One day I was up on a high mountain and God reminded me of Matthew 23. I could see all of Mexico City spread out below me. “I have called them to come to Me, but they don’t listen.” He placed in my heart a burden for these lost people. When I heard the voice of God, I went down into Mexico City and began to make disciples.

My home church in Tampico asked me to come back, but God had made it clear I was to stay in Mexico City. For eighteen years I served Him there. Four years in study and fourteen years teaching in the seminary and making disciples. During this time, I got my masters degree in Christian Education. In one of my classes, the teacher asked me to do a project about Hispanic people in North Carolina.

She gave me some magazines to read. These magazines told me how many Hispanic people lived in Boone, NC and didn’t know Jesus. As I read, I felt God ask me to come to Boone.

Retired missionary friends had settled in Hickory, NC and invited me to visit them. I came in December 2001. They

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said to me during my visit that I needed to meet their daughter.

She was living in Boone, N.C., so I came up to the beautiful mountains to meet her. While here, she told me about the problems Hispanic people had, and again I heard God asking me to come to Boone. I was only here on vacation and had to return to Mexico City. I remained in Mexico City for four more years. I was working at the church with families whose husbands were working in the USA. The wives and children were coming to Jesus, but the husbands working in the USA didn’t know Jesus.

Again in June of 2005, my missionary friends asked me to come to Boone and help their daughter. I was here for two months helping her and she told me about the Hispanic people.

The last week of my trip I met a family from Mt. Vernon Baptist Church and they also told me about the Hispanic people living in Bradford Park. They said, “These people need to hear the gospel in their own language.” Once again, I had to return to Mexico since I was here on vacation. Once again, God asked me to come to Boone.

One year later, I came to Boone and in July 2006 started a ministry among the Hispanic people. For the past two years, I have watched God touch their hearts and they are coming to Jesus. Little by little, they are responding to the gospel. Now some of them are sharing the gospel with their friends and family because God is changing their lives. Each day God shows His faithfulness by protecting me and providing everything I need.

Judith Martinez, Boone

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Everyone Needs A Father

veryone needs a father. Unfortunately, men don’t become fathers just because they impregnate. Fatherhood is a heart issue consisting of love, commitment and sacrifice.

Fortunate are those whose birth parent also becomes their father.

I was raised in an unchurched, dysfunctional home. My father was in the armed services and left for Okinawa when I was only five years old. He said he would come back for us, but when he did return it wasn’t to his family. I felt rejected and abandoned.

When I was six or seven years old, my mother married a very angry, hurting, violent alcoholic and for the next six years we were subjected to his abusiveness. This was the beginning of our terror based existence. At about one or two o’clock one morning I awoke to fierce fighting and the sound of three gun shots. As the oldest of four, I ran and got the kids and blocked the bedroom door with furniture. I thought my stepdad had killed my mother and we were next. However, when Mom came and found us, I saw him passed out at the top of the stairs. I never saw him again. At the age of 28 he died as a result of his alcoholism.

My mother married a third time. Once again to an

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alcoholic, but this time to a functional, non-violent alcoholic.

As best he could, he tried to establish a relationship with me but by that time I trusted no one. At about thirteen I started running away from home and by the time I was sixteen I was living on the streets and into drugs.

In the late sixties and early seventies I began hitch hiking and along the way encountered a few drug related jail visits. Somehow in 1970, I wound up in Jacksonville Florida, very lonely and confused. I hooked up with a Puerto Rican / Black from New York City named Billy. Together we decided to hitch hike to Toronto Canada, where we heard there was a “bad” rock festival.

We were pitiful looking. Billy had a two foot afro full of bugs, we were both wearing filthy rags and couldn’t remember the last time we bathed. Just into south Georgia, the sheriff spotted us. He pulled up beside us and said, “Boys get in my car.” He terrorized us without even trying. “I’m going to do for you what nobody else will. I’m going to take you to the county line and kick you over with my boot! And if you come back, I’m going to put you in jail!”

There across the line, sat an abandoned shack. I was

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17 years old, hungry, tired, filthy, homeless and scared. Billy and I took refuge in that shack and tried to sleep. I began remembering bits and pieces I had heard growing up about the love of God. There in the dark I cried out to Him, “If You’re real, save me.” The next morning we were back on the road. A black man picked us up and took us as far as Macon Georgia.

He dropped us off in the black section of Macon and there we stood, stranded.

While he was hitch hiking down to Florida, Billy had met a man who had given him a card with his name and number on it. Billy called and Bob Brunner picked us up. He was clean cut, driving a nice car and when I opened the car door, I felt the presence of Jesus. He was so loving and kind, so nonjudgmental. He said, “I’m so glad you called and we’re able to help you. You’re coming to my house tonight. You’re too messed up to travel on your own.” Bob was part of a prominent family in Macon. He had heard God’s call to minister to hippies and druggies, sold his mansion, bought a modest home in the downtown area and started a “hippie church.”

That night I feasted on the finest southern meal I could imagine. I was treated with dignity and shown genuine hospitality. I experienced “home” for the first time. Bob only asked one thing of us. “Please don’t bring any drugs into my home.” The second night in his home I asked, “Why are you being so nice to us?” He shared with me the sweet and simple truth of Jesus. I connected with what I was hearing and cried out, “I’m so tired…” Bob led me to Jesus.

Afterwards, I went out and did what hippies do. I hitch hiked over to Mercer University and scored some LSD. As soon as I took it I felt awful. I felt I had betrayed Bob and Jesus. I felt so terrible I went back, found Bob and confessed what I had done. He looked at me and said, “I love you. Let’s pray for forgiveness.” When we had prayed I felt so clean. That was the end of my hippie days. I even cut my long hair.

Bob had also bought an old 33 room antebellum mansion a few blocks away. With the support of the Methodist church, he planned to turn it into a rehabilitation center for hippies. He named it “His House”. Billy left, but I stayed to become the first resident of “His House.” About eight months later I ran across Billy in New Orleans. Again, Billy rejected the truth of the gospel. I was there in Macon about two and a half years and I’m part of the fruit that was produced there. Thirtyeight years later, there is still ministry going on in that area.

Everyone needs a father. Mine is the Creator of the universe. He loves me, has promised never to leave or forsake me and made the ultimate sacrifice to make me His son.

Ron Ross, Boone

for Christmas Gifts, get them at www.myfreedining.com or call 964-8600

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Life After Death- Jordan’s Story

In 1989, while living in Statesboro, GA, Barry and I had our first girl, Jordan Elizabeth, born to us on Valentines Day! What a present!!

We were already the parents of two wonderful boys, Jeremiah then 9, and Joshua, 6.

We were pastors of a large, wonderful church and had many staff members that worked alongside us. Early on May 19th , our youth pastor’s wife, another friend, my new three month old baby girl Jordan, and I left for Augusta, GA. On our way, a drunken college student hit us head on and killed Jordan and our youth pastor’s wife. I died, but they revived me. (My other friend with us was injured, but nothing that was life threatening).

Gathered up from the highway, I was flown by Life-Star to the Medical College of Georgia. Because of so much blood loss, I died again on the way, but they were able to revive me. My left side took the brunt of the injuries and my left leg had gotten so mangled and broken that they didn’t think they could save it. They told Barry that if I lived, they were sure they would have to amputate my leg. He told them that God would help them save it. They did - but I am the bionic-woman! I have so much metal in my leg and arm that Barry says he won’t let me hold the children in a

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lightning storm!

I was in a coma for many days and knew nothing about what had happened. Barry had to have the memorial services for our baby and our youth pastor’s wife, talk with the boys, and deal with my injuries. However, GOD was with Him and people were a great support to our family. Awaking from the coma in the hospital, I KNEW Jordan was in the presence of God! He gave me the overwhelming assurance in my own heart that He had her! I cannot explain it, but I knew where she was.

Waking and realizing what had happened, the first words out of my mouth were what I had heard God speak in my heart ...“God will give us more baby girls, not to replace Jordan, but to show His great mercy and compassion!” (I was right!) I stayed 19 more days in the hospital, with casts and major injuries everywhere! I could not walk on my own for a year, having to relearn at 33 years old! One of the best things Barry did for me was to have at least one of my friends around me most of the time. They made me laugh! The greatest blessings though were my two boys! They CAUSED me have to continue to live!

Even though I knew God’s assurance about Jordan, when I went home, it was difficult, and each day was so hard! I cried every day and even more every night! One day I had been nursing a sweet baby girl and the next thing I knew, there was no baby to nurse! What a terrible feeling. I knew she was in the presence of God, but that “mothering” part of me felt so empty and broken. Only those that walk through that valley of tears will know that pain.

A few days after I returned home from the hospital, God graced me with a dream. In the dream, I was at the bottom of a beautiful, wide, marble staircase, bent over, low to the ground, crying. I heard Monica’s voice calling to me. (She was our youth pastor’s wife that had also died in the accident). When I looked up, I saw her standing at the top of the staircase holding Jordan.

She said to me “Vickie, why are you crying?” I told her that I was crying because even though I knew Jordan was in the presence of Jesus, the mothering part of my heart was so broken and still struggling. She said, “Vickie, Jordan doesn’t need anything!

Everything she needs has been taken care of and she doesn’t miss you”. Now, that may sound hard to someone else’s ears, but to me, it came with a power and revelation that made me realize in my mothering heart that my baby was okay and so much better off in heaven. She did not need anything that I could offer her on this earth, even me.

When I awoke, I never again cried with that painful, broken mothering heart. Of course, I still cried over the separation part, and it will always be tender to my heart. God spoke to me and told me that the reason death is so awful for us is that we were NEVER created for separation! We were created for relationship and communion with God and with each other! God did a work in my heart that day and my heart is satisfied. Even at best, we will be separated 50 or 60 more years and then we will be together with all kinds of things to talk about! I am also convinced that I will not

(Cont. on Pg. 20)

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Christmas Eve Worship 4:00, 7:30, 11:00pm Music begins half-hour before each service

Sunday Morning Worship 8:30 & 11am

Intersection of King & Hardin Street (421 & 321) Boone (828) 264-2206

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December 2008 have missed anything about Jordan while she is there and I am here!

After recovering somewhat from my injuries (you have never lived until you experience your six year old pushing you around Wal-mart in a wheelchair with your leg sticking out ready to knock into shelves or kick a by-passer!! That is when you pray!!!), and even after a broken pelvis (among more than ten other major injuries), I became pregnant with Jasa Elizabeth! She was born on Mothers Day in 1990, a week before the 1st year anniversary of the accident! Our whole town rejoiced! Signs at the banks and such all announced her arrival! God showed the town that He is the Giver of Life and so gracious! (That is what Jasa’s name means…God is faithful and gracious!) Twenty months later came Justice and a couple of years after that, Jenna was born! My heart was satisfied!

I refused to be bitter and I refused to accuse. I KNEW the heart of God for us, and He would turn the whole situation around if we would allow Him. My hope was the scripture that says “I would have been lost in despair unless I believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the LIVING” and God did show us His goodness! Contrary to what religion says, God is a good God and is not the cause of evil and even in our weaknesses and wrong doing, as we call to Him, he forgives and Ps 103:10 says “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities” and we find mercy in Him. Even when we fail, we call to Him and He forgives and comes to us in compassion, to help us live again! We also found that He would take any circumstances, turn it around, and make it become a stepping-stone to new life.

God says “He is not a respecter of persons”, so what He has done for one person, He will do for all. He says He is the Giver of life, not a taker of life. Even in a death, He can soothe a broken heart and replace the sadness with love, hope and a future! My three girls are living proof that God is good and will love us in spite of ourselves!

God changed my image of Him as we walked through death. As I encountered a relationship with Him, I realized that I needed to see what God said about Himself rather than take my old “religious” view of Him. What a difference I saw as I searched the Bible to see what He is really like…because the Bible says that if “we have seen what Jesus is like, we have seen Father God”. Religion says that God is mean spirited, hard to please and hard to understand, and we must be perfect in ourselves to cause Him to love us, but God says that He is good, easy to know and understand. He says that everything about Him is love and mercy…He says that He deals with us in kindness…He says that He takes the darkness and turns it into light! He says that His plans for us are not to harm us, but to give us hope and a future! (the book of Jeremiah)! Even when I fail Him, fail myself or others, I have a Father that loves me and forgives every transgression as I look to Him. He took our failures and hurt so that we could be free.

I have found that what He has said of Himself is true!

I have seen that the religious way I saw Him was not what He is really like! I found that God is “for us” and “not against us”!! He loves us just the way we are…we can’t “do” anything to get Him to like us more nor can we “do” anything to make Him love us less!

I have seen Him as He really is…loving, kind, compassionate, a healer, a giver of life, merciful, and forgiving...The Life-giver!!

Vickie Woods, Boone

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Spared for a Purpose

or His own plans and purposes, the Lord has unveiled Himself to me little by little. Sometimes the path has been joyful and sometimes painful, but each step of the way I have come to know Him more fully.

Born in Pine Level, a small town in eastern North Carolina, I was dedicated to the Lord while I was still in the crib. My parents were poor tenant farmers, yet God had plans for my father. He went to work for a pharmacist in town who saw potential in him.

My dad became his apprentice and after one semester of school in Chapel Hill, became a fully licensed pharmacist. My parents gave me my spiritual roots.

At fourteen, I accepted Christ as my Savior but not as Lord of my life. I wanted to make my own decisions and choose my own path. I felt I was saved so I could handle the rest. In high school, I was determined to be “cool”. I was the “original” Fonz from “Happy Days”, ducktail hairstyle and swaggering gait.

But my life wasn’t a comedy. I was arrogant and full of myself. One day in the hall, the high school drama director grabbed me by the collar and pushed me up against the wall.

Cliffton Britton challenged me. He said, “Can you even read, Pilkington? I dare you to show me after school this afternoon and try out for a play.” I was insulted, so just to show him who I was, I showed up with about 200 students and auditioned for that play. Within one sentence I knew I would become an actor. Clifton grinned, “I knew you had it in you!” Later the two of us wound up at “The Last Colony”. I had been running with a bunch of rough guys headed for trouble. The Lord rescued me through drama.

At East Carolina University, I delved into Pantheism and the Occult. I wanted to experience the supernatural, my aim was to encounter genuine spirituality. I found out Satan was real and it frightened me, so I then turned to Zen Buddhism in my search.

The pull of drama led me to Ithica, NY. My wife, Pat, who was a singer, and I, an actor, made our lives there. I was determined I was a Christian, but still searching for whatever that meant. I became a Christian Unitarian and the search continued.

Pat became pregnant and we moved back to North Carolina. I was offered a teaching job at Elon College and was there four years in charge of the theater department. While I was there, I became a Zen Buddhist archer. In 1969, small colleges were going under financially, so Elon did away with its drama department. In 1970, I came to ASU as co-director of Theater. By 1976, I became the Director of Theater, President of the North Carolina Theater Conference, Vice-President of Southeastern Theater Conference and Director of “Horn in the West”, the third largest outdoor drama in the nation. I was on top of the world, or so it seemed. On the outside I had it all, but on the inside I was joyless and empty. As an actor, I hid it well.

We were attending Alliance Bible Fellowship and in a Bible Study. The pastor spoke about God as three persons-Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I had to face the fact that I was spiraling out of control internally. The pastor also said that salvation was a by-product of Christ’s lordship. I had accepted Him as Savior but never as Lord.

On April 16, at 4:15 p.m., overlooking “Horn in the West” grounds, I gave up and submitted control to Him. At that point, He gave me a vision. I saw a huge red balloon growing bigger and bigger and I knew it was going to burst. Then I saw a hand reach down with

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a pin and it pricked the balloon. Instead of it bursting, it imploded and awful, yucky, green, vile smelling stuff began oozing out of it. I had never felt such an incredible peace while feeling an indescribable joy. I drove home and told Pat. Her response was, “Do you have to keep crying so much? Can’t you stop saying ‘Hallelujah’ and ‘Praise God’ over and over?” After this, the Lord sent me to grad school in Chapel Hill and during that time Pat came to Christ. Together, He began using us and brought our children to know Him.

In my arrogance, I began to think that perhaps I might be the replacement for Billy Graham. If Billy could lead 5,000 to Christ in one meeting, then surely I could lead 10,000 to Christ with my dramatic ability. When I mentioned this to my pastor, he admonished, “Ed, don’t do that!” So, I stayed at ASU and led scores of young men and women to Jesus.

I discipled many of them and found great fulfillment as I experienced the strong presence of Christ there on the campus.

I was at ASU thirty-one years and eight years ago I felt led to retire and go back to acting. I was scared but determined to be obedient. I became a union actor so that I would be recognized professionally and as confirmation that my calling was to act, the Lord opened doors and provided roles. Today, Pat and I feel led to minister to folks in the artist community whose world is very different then the commercial world.

Along the way, there have been evidences of God’s protection and healing. Pat has endured cancer twice, and I had a quadruple by-pass performed on my heart. A little over a year ago, I was in a bike wreck at the bottom of Shulls Mill Road. A truck ran over me, breaking my pelvis in four places and fracturing my shoulder. I was taken by helicopter to the hospital in Johnson City, TN. It was a long, hard, painful rehabilitation, much more difficult than the heart attack. By God’s grace and much prayer, I have recovered. I also discovered the fellowship of His suffering. Pain opens doors in your life you have never walked through. I experienced absolute dependence on God.

Pat and I are excited about the future. We know God has spared us for a purpose. We feel young, focused and alive. We have real anticipation for what come next and our ears are listening for His call.

Ed Pilkington

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Out of Boone, Into Africa

n my heart of hearts, going to Africa was just a dream, something other people did. After all, my kids were too little, I was working full time and there was no money. Maybe I can go in fifteen or twenty years.

In my class at the university, a guest speaker from Uganda shared with my students. Valance talked about the work he was accomplishing there through a non-profit organization. He so touched the heart of my students, their response was “We want to go and be a part of what he’s doing!” However, we had a problem. All the paper work involved in taking a trip in the next year had to be turned in that very afternoon.

I called the office and the Lord gave me favor. They said they would work with me and give me some time.

When I reached home, I nonchalantly asked my husband, “Can I go to Africa for three or four weeks this summer?” We had just watched the movie “The Last King of Scotland” about Idi Amin and I’m asking to go to Uganda! To my surprise, he looked at me and said, “Ok.” Approximately one month after Valance came to speak, the first student made her deposit for the trip. By summer our group was comprised of nine young women and one lone man.

I had been questioning why I was working. Was it really important and did it have any purpose? How did this trip fit into that plan? Was it really God’s will for me to leave my family and head for Africa? I needed to know.

God soon made it clear that this was in reality a “mission trip” disguised as “service learning.” One of my students was strong in her faith. I called her my reinforcement and together we began to pray.

God’s provision began to pour into my life. My mother was able to come help with care of my children ages 11, 9 and 2 year old twins. The kids did wonderfully well while I was away. No one on the trip became ill. We left with reservations about our transportation service because no one had ever heard of them. But how could you go wrong with a company named Alpha and Omega Tours? I will use them every time I travel. We had no flight delays coming or going which is unheard of!

The Holy Spirit paved the way. All the students got along peacefully. Not one disagreement among the women and our one man didn’t lose his mind dealing with so many females! I sensed God was just as interested in ministering to our little group as much as He was interested in the African villages. They were completely out

(Cont. on Pg. 27)

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of their element and very uncomfortable. We became real with one another and shared things we wouldn’t ordinarily talk about. I had prayed for grace to handle things well and I was able to show them love and acceptance even when I disagreed with some of their lifestyle choices.

One of the students commented, “I know you never judge us.”

That impacted me just as much or more than the things we did to serve the Africans. And we did serve them. We were able to complete the framing for nine outhouses in one village while we ourselves had to use a little rectangle in the ground. My eleven year old daughter, Rayanna, had raised enough money for five pigs. We bought and presented them to the village and brought back photos for her.

God also gave me space on the trip for reflection and I marveled at His creation. I went rafting on the Nile though I can’t swim. We went on safari and saw elephants no more than ten feet away. There were hippos, warthogs and monkeys everywhere. It was incredible. It was nothing like visiting a zoo. I felt I had been invited into their territory and nothing would harm me.

God gave me remarkable peace while I was there. I had received lots of support and encouragement from mothers I respected before I left. The Lord confirmed I was in His will and doing exactly what He wanted for me. It was right for my family

and the timing was perfect. I was amazed by the African Christians.

In the villages they began their long day by rising before the sun and singing praises to their Savior. I awoke to the sound of these praises each morning. Their lives are hard. They have lost a whole generation to AIDS. You see babies and old people, but there is no population in between! There is no electricity, no modern conveniences; everything is accomplished through manual labor.

Yet we noticed boldly painted on one of their huts these words “JESUS IS OUR PROVIDER.”

I plan to return next year, taking Rayanna with me. She wants to visit the pigs. I’ll also be taking a new group of ASU students. I’ve been given favor at ASU and the red carpet has been rolled out for me. I have university support, church support and family support. The door has swung wide open and if I didn’t walk through, folks would push me through. I can’t believe this is my life. What a wonderful Lord!

Tiffany Christian, Boone

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Laying Down Your Idols

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, and love kindness and mercy and to humble yourself and walk humbly with your God?” (AM Bible) Micah 6:8

It sounds so simple and it is exactly how I want to live. I’m forty-eight years old and taking stock of my life. As a Lutheran pastor, I want to lead my congregation to a simplicity of faith. I want to inspire them to love God and their neighbors. I want to lead them away from the business and circumstances that distract and keep us from doing the things we’re commanded to do in the scriptures. But how do we eliminate the necessary, functional, time consuming problems of ordinary daily life?

For example, take the problem of church parking. The state is widening King Street that runs in front of our facility. This will eliminate much of our parking. Therefore, I have been obliged to spend my time looking for property and securing a two million dollar loan to purchase this property because we must meet city codes and provide adequate parking. Yet, just a few blocks down the street, The Hospitality House, our homeless shelter, has outgrown their building and are desperately trying to raise funds to secure a new place. God has commanded the church to take care of the poor and to feed the hungry. He hasn’t said a word about parking spaces yet without them we would have to close our doors. Somewhere, somehow, we have to find a way to take care of both situations, but how?

This past summer my whole family took a three month trip to Tanzania. Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical company, gave the clergy one hundred grants for sabbaticals. In all, they gave us $44,000 for our expenses and even provided a salary for a temporary pastor to assume my duties while we were away.

In Tanzania, I received a real “wake up” call. We live in a charmed community here in Boone, surrounded by mountain beauty and great people. In Tanzania, they are surrounded with famine, HIV and malaria. Death is a matter of fact. Here in Boone, we are concerned with our economic crises, like the falling stock market and 401K’s. In Tanzania the average daily wage is $1.25 a day, approximately $450 per year. Mother Teresa said, “You will never know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus until Jesus is all you have.” Tanzanian Christians know this for a fact.

Unconsciously, Boone Christians are spending their time on false gods. We worship at the altar of entertainment and amusement. The amount of time we spend on these “gods” is staggering. In Tanzania, they worship the Lord by spending an hour and a half singing gathering songs-their call to worship. Watching

their unashamed worship of God for three or three and a half hours with their entire being astounded us. In Boone, Christians begin looking at their watches after an hour or hour and a half. After worshipping God, Tanzanians share their food and their heart as they ate together.

In their villages, they practice radical hospitality.

They see unexpected guests as an incredible blessing from God and offer the best they can provide. As our family approached a Massai hut in the wilderness, I wanted to cry out, “Don’t kill the goat!” but I was too late. We ate one of their two goats. I choked down fried goat liver offered as a special delicacy to an honored guest.

Returning from Tanzania I realize I’m too busy with things and circumstances that distract me.

Something is churning in me and right now and I’m not sure where it’s going. I’m calling my congregation away from self-centeredness and selfishness, of being centered on yourself.

In this world there are two great truths. One, there is a God and two, you’re not it. God commands obedience, not emotions.

He says where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Heart follows treasure, not the other way around. We must escape the distraction because God’s purposes require time. Twenty years ago I heard a Catholic priest say this, “Hush, get one thing straight! No one is busier than they choose to be.”

Each of us must choose between the temporal versus the eternal and the merely important versus the essential.

Tim Smith

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A Double Portion of Adventure Genes

came into this world with a double portion of “adventure genes”. When other little girls were playing with Barbie dolls I would put on a fishing vest, grab my dad’s bull whip and for hours I was “Indiana Jones”. I was also enamored with Wonder Woman. I would spin and spin in my yard until in my imagination I would emerge as Wonder Woman. Then off I would go to rescue all the people and animals who were in terrible trouble.

I guess that “rescue mentality” was part of the way God wired me.

After high school, I got an associate degree in Administration of justice at my community college, then went to Radford and got my bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice. At that time, my goal was to become a U.S. Marshall.

In my Junior year, I became involved in campus ministry and felt God was calling me to foreign missions. I moved to Boone to work on the ASU campus through a ministry called New Life. I was here for two years before taking my first mission trip to Macedonia in 1998.

It was an experience of “firsts”. I suffered culture shock, lonliness, and generally felt like a fish out of water. After three months, I returned to Boone and worked various jobs to support myself.

In 2000, I spent the summer in Romania, Greece and Macedonia sharing the gospel with the gypsies. Again, in January of 2001 I headed back overseas to Macedonia to spend a year.

9/11 occurred while I was there and I was glued to the television and radio trying to piece together what was happening. I watched police officers, firemen and rescue squads laying their lives on the line. My “rescue mentality” rose to the surface.

Sometime in October, I returned to Boone. My interest in law enforcement was definitely revived, but I still loved to travel.

I was afraid if I applied to the police department, my traveling days would be over. My friend, Conrad Poe, suggested I try Execution Protection which would combine security work with travel. In preparation I went to basic law enforcement training (BLET) for five months. I was then employed at Diamond Creek as a company police officer and they sent me to one week of executive

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protection school. I worked there several months before starting to do contract security work all over the USA. A couple of years ago, I started to feel pulled back to Boone. For the first time, I felt the urge to put down roots. Several officers here in Boone encouraged me to come work with them, but I wasn’t sure I was ready to stop traveling. However, one day while in Florida on a security detail, it crossed my mind to check into the Boone Police Department. I clicked on the internet and they just happened to be taking applications.

I applied and the next available slot became mine. I’ve just completed my first year with the department and I don’t feel I have been tied down at all.

I’m exactly where the Lord wants me and I think He still has plenty of travel plans in my future.

Am I ever afraid? Fear comes with the territory, but my God is right there with a ton of grace. I know there are huge angels watching my back and my Jesus promised never to leave me or forsake me. I trust Him.

Kat Brankenridge, Boone

31

December 2008