Over the past few days I have talked, mostly by phone, with many people. There is no question that what we are experiencing today is unprecedented.
When I make calls now, I introduce myself, and say that I’m calling to say that I’m praying for them and their community. I don’t ask for anything. I don’t even ask for their vote. At this time, I believe that the best thing we can do is to be as positive and encouraging as we can be.
by 
Yesterday, President Trump declared today, March 15, 2020, as a National Day of Prayer for all Americans Affected by the Coronavirus Pandemic and for our National Response Efforts. I am including a link to the President’s Proclamation at the end of this note.
Our National Motto is, “In God We Trust.” It is in times of emergency or uncertainty that we return to those four simple words. 
by
There is a tight bond that ties men who served together in the military. Young men in their late teens and early twenties from different communities, different cultures, different religious backgrounds, different ways of life were put together for a primary purpose – to defend the United States of America.
Over a period of a few months, the men from diverse backgrounds became brothers in arms. Those few months in the lives of these men created a tight bond that would stand out uniquely for the rest of their lives.
by
I first wrote this article in 2016. Since that time I know many who have lost loved ones. This is the first Christmas season without their loved one for some. If you are one of those missing a loved one, this is for you.
Christmas is supposed to be a time of great joy and happiness. This year is different for many. You probably know some for whom it is different but do not realize it, or maybe it just slips past you in all the hustle and bustle of the year. It is quite possible that you are one of those for whom Christmas is different.
by
Lucille Shazier was born when William Howard Taft was President of the United States. The Wright brothers had made the famous first flight less than a decade before she was born. The Panama Canal had not been completed and it would be another year after her birth before World War I started. She would be three years old before General John Joseph “Black Jack” Pershing would pursue Pancho Villa into Mexico after Villa had raided American border towns in New Mexico.
Lucille Shazier celebrated her 106th Thanksgiving with her family last Thursday. She sat out on her front porch with me recently and told me about her long and blessed life.
She was born on February 13, 1913. Her mother died when she was two years old and she came to live with her aunt in Cordele. When I asked her about her earliest recollections, she went back to childhood memories to talk about the day she met Jesus.
She explained that when she was growing up, children did not hang around with grownups. They had to be outside playing or doing chores or doing something where they were not in the way when grownups were together talking.
Her place was outside under the porch of her house. She made little dolls out of grass in the yard and combed the roots for the dolls hair. Then she made little doll houses with sticks and little mounds of dirt to decorate the doll house’s front yard.
On this particular day a lady came to visit and she went outside to play with her handmade dolls. She said that her aunt called her to come in to do something for her. She vividly described the porch and going in the door on the way to the room where her mother and lady were talking. She said that he heard them talking about Jesus and she stopped in the middle of the room right where she was and just hugged him because he was so real with her right then. A few years later she marched down to Gum Creek with a group from Greater Morris Tabernacle Baptist Church to be baptized.
Her father was a farmer in Ocilla, Georgia and she remembered taking the Shoo Fly train from Cordele to Fitzgerald. Her father would come from Ocilla to Fitzgerald in his mule-drawn wagon to pick her up and take her to the farm. She had to tell me about a special answered prayer on that farm. She was still a young girl and could not work as fast as everyone else. He father had her out with him harvesting cotton and was telling her that she had to work faster to keep up.
She told me how she prayed, “Dear Jesus, you know I’m working as fast as I can. Please help me.” She looked out ahead of her and there was a long blank spot on the row ahead of her. She ran on up past the empty spot in the row and caught up with everyone else. Skeptics may say what they want, but there is no denying that the memory of an answered prayer was branded in a little girl’s mind that is as fresh a century later as it was the day it happened.
Lucille recollected evenings sitting on the porch listening to the radio with friends and when all the roads were dirt roads. She also remembered the first time she got to vote. She said that until that time “they didn’t let colored people vote.” A friend of hers came and told her that she could vote now. And she’s been voting ever since.
She was born before ground was broken to build the Lincoln Memorial. She was 50 years old when, Martin Luther King stood at the steps of that memorial to boldly proclaim his dream that one day “my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
There is not room to write about everything she told me. Before leaving her front porch that day I asked her what she was thankful for this in this 106th Thanksgiving she would celebrate. She quickly listed that she has the Lord, a place to live, that she can dress herself, she has food to eat, clothes to wear, a church, and a big family. Although she only had two children, she has adopted a large family of what she calls children in the Lord.
I pray that if I am still in this world at the age of 106 that I will be as sharp and have such a positive mindset about the most important things in life. I want to thank Cordele City Commissioner and member of Greater Morris Tabernacle Baptist Church, Vesta Beal Shepard, for introducing me to Lucille Shazier. My life is richer for the opportunity.
This article was printed in the Cordele Dispatch on November 30, 2019.
by This one hurts. I know the truth. I know the hope. I know the assurance. I tell it to others all the time. But this one hurts. I am angry about this one.
Yesterday morning, Jody Slocum stepped into eternity. Just a few weeks ago he was teaching his Sunday School class at Pinecrest Baptist Church in Cordele, Georgia.
I met Jody on a Saturday evening in 2006 in Sylvester, Georgia at a campaign event for Sonny Perdue. My wife and I sat at the same table and had a nice conversation. Jody could talk to anyone about anything. It was his gift.
The next morning, I decided to visit Pinecrest Baptist Church. I remember getting out of the car and not knowing where to go for Sunday School.
A little boy was passing by and I asked him where adult classes met. He pointed over to a door and said that he thought there was an adult class in that room.
I eased the door open to see a class filled and the teacher announced that we met the night before. You know how it is when you see someone in a different place and do not connect the person and place immediately.
Jody immediately recognized me. It took a moment for the search engine in my brain to connect the Sunday School teacher with a political event the night before.
That began a deep friendship. We shared a common faith, a common political philosophy, and a common enjoyment of the lives of those who were involved in politics.
Jody was an avid reader of the Wall Street Journal and kept up with the latest reporting and editorials. He talked about the writers and subjects with such a grasp of understanding that it seemed as if he talked with them over breakfast every morning.
If I wanted solid analysis of a particular issue, I called Jody to see what he knew. He always knew the latest and did not hesitate to share his opinion.
When it came to church involvement, he was all about mission and commitment. He did not have time to complain or nitpick over non-important issues.
He had a compelling obligation to support the men and women called of God to serve, especially missionaries, pastors, and staff members. He believed that these individuals had been called by God and invested their lives.
He often spoke of them “leaving their nets” in a reference to the first disciples who walked away from a profession as fishermen to follow Christ.
We were having dinner with a friend shortly after a hurricane or flood that was in the news. Jody began to talk about the Southern Baptist disaster relief operation that had developed such a reputation, that they were the first to be called. He proudly described the logistics in detail.
Jody’s wife, Beth, served as a trustee of the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home and Family Ministries. He was there with her at every trustee meeting to learn the needs.
Jody was more than just active in church. He knew why he was active. He had a firm grasp on why he was there and why a relationship with Christ was the most important relationship that anyone could have. He had a firm grasp on matters of eternal significance.
The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, shared his daily struggle about life here in this fallen world and stepping into eternity. “But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.” (Philippians 1:23-24)
Jody was also torn between stepping into eternity with Christ and staying here to keep carrying out the mission. He was “hard pressed” in both directions. One truth he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt – he was fully prepared to be “absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” (II Corinthians 5:8 NASB)
This one hurts. Not Jody! His death reminds me of the brevity of this life and the hope for eternity.
The Apostle Paul had a lot to say about this kind of thing. In the 15th chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians, he wrote of the return of Christ and the assurance of our resurrection as believers. Right now, Jody is in the presence of Christ and seeing everything with perfect clarity.
Paul closed that 15th chapter with an exhortation and hope. With those same words to the many friends and family who are feeling the same thing right now, I close this commentary:
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” (I Corinthians 15:58 NASB)
Obituary Maxwell-Purvis Funeral Home
by Crisp County recently joined the ranks of hundreds of other communities around the nation offering a course in religious instruction to students who are in public school. The Crisp County Center for Christian Learning, or C4 as it is commonly known, is a local organization of community leaders who desire to provide parents with an expanded educational option for their students in the public school.
Parents want the best for their children. They want them to have opportunities to learn and have a well rounded education. This is a universal desire that applies to demographic groups across the board.
In 1962 a New York state law included the text of a prayer for public schools. New York public schools were to begin each day with the prayer along with the Pledge of Allegiance. The United States Supreme Court, in Engel v. Vitale, ruled that the prayer was an unconstitutional violation of the 1st Amendment prohibiting government from establishing a religion.
For the vast majority, the public school system is the primary educational provider. Religion is one area where public schools are restricted.
That ruling led to more rulings which included prohibiting a one minute period of silent reflection, prayer at graduations, and prayer before events such as football games. School administrators often established even more restrictive policies in a precautionary mode to avoid litigation.
The 1962 decision addressed the first clause of the 1st Amendment that prohibited the government from establishing religion. It did not address the 2nd half of the clause, “or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
The Supreme Court ruled on the free exercise clause ten years earlier in the 1952 case, Zorach v. Clauson. In that case the state of New York offered a program of “Released Time Education.”
Released time allows parents to voluntarily enroll their children in a religious education program conducted off the school grounds. The public school does not pay for the facility, material, or faculty and the program is completely voluntary.
Justice William O. Douglas, in the majority opinion wrote, “We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being. We guarantee the freedom to worship as one chooses.”
He went on to say that the Released Time program, “follows the best of our traditions. For it then respects the religious nature of our people and accommodates the public service to their spiritual needs. To hold that it may not would be to find in the Constitution a requirement that the government show a callous indifference to religious groups. That would be preferring those who believe in no religion over those who do believe.”
The case established three basic requirements for released time: (1) The classes had to be off the school grounds, (2) The classes had to be voluntary, and (3) no public funds could be used to support the classes.
There are no fees required to take the classes. This is a positive option. The families of Crisp County along with school administration welcomed the idea with open arms.
I first witnessed this concept in Wilcox County. Last October, I wrote a commentary entitled, “The Solution,” about one of their community events.
In Crisp County we began last January when a group of interested citizens formed the founding Board of nine members. I was asked to serve as Chairman of the Board.
The community response has been positive in every corner. Pinecrest Baptist Church offered the use of their facilities for classroom space and their vehicles for transportation. Volunteers signed up to help with scheduling volunteers to drive.
We recruited qualified teachers. Individuals and churches are donating financially to support this faith-based initiative.
The classes meet during the elective periods. We send a van to pick the children up at school after home room, transport them to the off-campus classroom, and return them to school for their next class.
Our teacher provides attendance and grades to the Middle School. The time counts toward attendance requirements as it is part of their learning experience.
Our inaugural class of 8th graders will complete the 9 week course on October 3. We already have 35 students who want to take the class in the next nine weeks.
We are asked if it will be available for high school. Our answer is that we intend to expand the program as long as the funds are available to support it.
Funding does not come from a government program. Funding comes from churches, individuals, businesses, and others who agree that this is an important investment for the community.
I see something else in this initiative in our community. It brings the community together for a positive and edifying purpose.
Over the next year, our nation is going to be bombarded with political ads and messages of division and discord. These go beyond differences in policy and political philosophy. Many of these messages will sow the seeds of class envy, victimization, fear, and prejudice.
C4 is one of many endeavors taking place across Crisp county to work together for a stronger, uplifting, vibrant, community. It is a worthy investment.
If you want to know how you can help, send me an e-mail: don@doncole.com or give me a call at 229-291-7114 and I’ll tell you more.
The Philosophy of Crisp County Center
for Christian Learning (C4)
The Crisp County Center for Christian Learning exists to provide Biblical based instruction in the areas of character, leadership, and personal discipline to the students of the Crisp County Public Schools.
We believe that students should be and can be an example to others in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity, and to that end, offer instruction in such Christian concepts as honoring parents, respecting authority, purity before marriage, developing trust in friendships, living a life of integrity, all while teaching leadership using biblical doctrine, examples and role models.
It is the desire of the Crisp County Center for Christian Learning that each Student be given the education in character studies, historical context, and moral reasoning using the Bible and Christian doctrine as the foundation to ensure that each student is instructed in a way that their uniqueness is embraced, and their success is promoted, with the understanding that they are valued as a Creation of God.
by Bob Bright celebrates his 94th birthday today. He is not only a veteran of WWII but also has a Purple Heart and a POW.
Bob graduated from Crisp County High school and shortly after that received his draft notice. He went through basic training in Fort Bliss, Texas and one day saw a notice on the bulletin board to apply for Army Air Corp. Bob said that he wasn’t particularly crazy about being in the infantry so he took the test and was accepted.
He trained to be a gunner on the B-17 Flying Fortress. After his training he was assigned to the European theater.
By this time in the war, the Americans had landed at Normandy and were moving across Germany.
Bob was in the Mighty 8th Bomber Command and part of a proud nine-man crew on the Starduster. The Americans were bombing every day.
In an effort to describe the intensity of the bombing, Bob said that if they were making bomb runs over Berlin, when the first plane got over the target and started to drop its payload, there were still planes in line on the runway back in England waiting to take off.
On his 23rd bombing mission, Bob was going to the plane and decided that he would go back and get another parachute because he didn’t like the way the pin looked. That may have been a providential decision.
The B-17 was hit while flying at 30,000 feet. Bob recalled that one of the engines was on fire. He put on his oxygen mask and looked for one of the crew members but could not find him. Two of the crew members did not put on their oxygen masks and they collapsed. Bob was in the process of dragging them to the door to jettison the door and get them out of the plane.
It was at that point that the plane exploded. M.F. Carter from Cordele, was on another plane and saw the B-17 explode in a ball of fire. Carter felt the pain of the loss of a friend, knowing that all on board perished.
Miraculously, Bob did not perish. The blast blew him out of the plane and blew off his boots and his jacket. He said that at that height the temperature was probably about 30 degrees below zero. Free falling through the air and nearly frozen, he was able to pull the rip cord and felt the parachute open.
He had escaped death from the lack of oxygen, the explosion, and the freezing temperatures at high altitudes. Now as he floated down through the sky, he was an easy target for anyone on the ground.
When Bob hit the ground, he found himself surrounded and being beaten up by German youth armed with machine guns. “They were little kids, maybe 8 to 12 years old and they were mean as they could be,” he said. Ironically it was the German SS and Gestapo that rescued the dazed and weakened survivor from the vicious youth.
They took him to the basement of a nearby church and he was reunited with the pilot and navigator who also miraculously escaped. The other men on the plane were never found. Their bodies likely disintegrated in the high altitude fiery explosion.
The navigator spoke some German and the Gestapo took him outside. Bob and the pilot sat in the basement for hours beginning to think that they lost another fellow crew member. The next morning, they were surprised to see the navigator return.
Because he could speak German, the navigator was taken to the local Mayor’s home where he was treated with a home cooked meal. Bob laughed that they were sitting there starving, thinking he had been taken out and shot, while he was eating high on the hog.
They left and walked for about 4 days to a POW camp. On the journey the worst thing he experienced was being led through the little towns where the Germans lined up the bodies of those killed in the bombings. The people in town saw the three US soldiers and wanted to take vengeance.
The two SS troopers escorting the three Americans were given orders to shoot the first one who laid a hand on the men. Bob said that they did their job and protected their prisoners.
When they arrived at the camp, Bob was in solitary confinement for about ten days. He said that it was the worst thing he had ever been through.
Some of the men in the camp tried to escape. Bob’s observation was that the Germans knew what they were doing and let them try to “give them something to do.” One man got beyond three barriers before being shot by the guards. The Germans lined the men in the yard and dragged the body of the escapee by so that all could see the consequences.
Bob also remembered the German Shepherds. “They hated Americans. If you just looked at them, they would snarl and show their teeth.”
Bob said that he never took a shower there. He had heard stories of the Germans putting cyanide in the water and he wasn’t taking any chances.
After six months in the camp, General Patton and the Americans arrived to liberate the men. The POW’s had to take off all their clothes and burn them.
Bob finally got his shower and for the first few days they were on a strict liquid diet of eggnog. There were 50 gallon tanks all around the camp and the men could drink all they wanted. After their bodies stabilized, they could eat solid food and were fed royally.
He got home, went to the University of Georgia, then to graduate school at Purdue University. When the Korean war broke out, Bob was recalled and he served in Tokyo making maps.
Bob has lived a blessed life and is still blessing others every day. He still drives and is actively involved at Christ Episcopal Church in Cordele. Happy 94th Birthday, Bob Bright. Thank you for your service to our nation.
by Throughout this past week our nation mourned the loss of President George H. W. Bush. America watched the services and we saw the very real expression of grief by his son, George W. Bush as he shared from his heart.
As I looked at the flag draped coffin, I was reminded that there are many others who have experienced the same loss of a loved one during this past year. Perhaps you are one experiencing this Christmas without the familiar face of a loved one.
I first wrote the article below in 2016. If you are one of those who are missing a loved one, this is for you.
The Empty Chair
Christmas is supposed to be a time of great joy and happiness. This year is different for many. You probably know some for whom it is different but do not realize it, or maybe it just slips past you in all the hustle and bustle of the year. It is quite possible that you are one of those for whom Christmas is different.
There is a special chair in someone’s home that is empty this year. It may be the straight back chair at the dinner table, the office chair at the desk in the study, the lazy boy in the den, or some other special spot. It was a favorite for him or her.
You may have seen it on a daily basis. It may be in a place on the other side of the country. It may be a memory from years ago.
Last Christmas there was someone sitting in that special chair. This year it sits empty.
It is that empty chair that consumes your mind. Everyone else is buying presents and talking about celebrating the season with family and friends.
All of that joy and celebration only intensifies the absence of the one who should be in that empty chair. You may feel guilty and hypocritical because you do not feel very merry at all.
King Solomon said that for everything there is a time; “a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;” (Ecclesiastes 3:4 ESV)
If you have an empty chair this Christmas, it is okay to take some time in the midst of the celebration to also weep and mourn. If you do not have an empty chair this Christmas, pause for a moment and think of someone who does. Your most meaningful gift this year could be to let someone know that you also notice the empty chair.
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by On November 27, this world lost a prophetic patriot. Chuck Wade of Taylor County, Georgia stepped into eternity.
Every Thursday, like clockwork, the e-mail showed up from Chuck Wade. The subject line always began with three letters, “LTE”
It was Chuck’s weekly letter to the editor in the Taylor County News. It was not just any old letter to the editor. It was was rarely sweet and syruppy.
It was a passionate, pointed, view of our state of affairs in the greatest nation in the world. I told Chuck that he was the Jeremiah of political affairs.
Chuck introduced to me to a couple of words. I do not know if he coined them himself or if he picked them up from someone else.
They both described the same thing. He used the term, “uni-party” to describe the power establishment in Washington. The members of the Uni-Party were the “Washingtonians.”
From Chuck’s perspective, there was really no difference in the Republicans and the Democrats. He believed that the debates and campaigns between the parties are more like the choreographed professional wrestling matches.
The candidates do not fully realize it at first, but after election, they are introduced to the way things really work. He saw how easily elected officials got hooked on the opioid of power and prestige.
Ever so gradually, elected officials began to see themselves as the saviors of the people, not the servants of the people. Chuck saw the foundation of individual rights, personal responsibility, and trust in God being undermined.
I told Chuck that I called him Jeremiah because he wrote like a prophet. He did not try to pump up his readers with bright optimism for the future.
He journaled the slippery slope on which the Constitutional foundation of the American Republic was sliding. He became cynical about the motives of nearly all elected officials.
I once told him that I felt that even if I were in office, he would soon turn on me because things did not change as fast as he wanted. He reminded me that our nation is in a crisis and most politicians refuse to clearly and loudly shout it out like Paul Revere.
He did find a glimmer of hope in the election of Donald Trump. At the same time he wondered if it was too little, too late.
Chuck did not simply sit and complain. He communicated regularly with his elected officials.
Although he sometimes felt his efforts were futile, he did it anyway. I believe that he carried more influence than he realized.
He also invested his money and time into his church, First Baptist of Butler, the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association and the Georgia Sheriff’s Youth Home, and the Kiwanis Club.
Chuck served our nation with honor, retiring as a Lt. Col. in the National Guard. He continued to serve our nation by steadfastly proclaiming the truth week after week, often referring to himself as just the “Old Man in the Woods.”
His LTE in the Taylor County News and Butler Herald that I received on November 8 presents a good synopsis of his analysis and candid outlook for the future. I am reprinting it below.
*****************************************
Dear Editor,
Who is to blame for the current madness that defines American Politics? There are two candidates for this shameful honor. Politicians are blameworthy, but ultimately, it is voters who bear the responsibility for the upside down world in which we find ourselves.
Politicians have forgotten that they are representatives of the constituents who bother to vote in the electoral process. America is a Constitutional Republic wherein citizens grant to certain men and women the awesome responsibility to support and defend that which makes the United States the most unique nation that has ever existed in all of human history.
Clearly, the politicians have failed and continue to fail to do their duty. Why the pols reject their duty is the question of the ages.
Politicians seldom question their voters as to how votes should be cast on important issues. The ‘business approach’ and the ‘I will bring your values’ to Washington evaporate after the election like a morning dew in July.
This is because upon elevation to office, the reps assume that what they think is what matters and voters can be ignored. This is conscious, wrongful behavior among those who are supposed to vote in accordance with the will of the people who elected them.
The will of the people, carried out by the electeds, must be done in accordance within the limits placed on government and the reps by the Constitution.
The reps cannot be totally blamed for our problems because the great majority of voters consider that by voting they have fulfilled their civic duty. Too many voters avoid involvement in politics until the next election.
They voted, they assume their guy will do the right thing and they ignore the day to day shenanigans of the politicians. Ignoring what they do is a serious mistake. This avoidance allows the politicians to do whatever they please.
Upon election, the pols assume a very low profile, avoid involvement in serious issues and bring home the free stuff to their unwitting constituents. Failure of voters to question their elected officials and hold them accountable is the real reason for the sorry state of politics in America.
Fewer and fewer voters have any idea of the limitations placed on government by our Constitution. How can anyone be expected to defend something he or she does not understand?
This writer believes that the only change possible is that politicians will make things worse for all of us. Without accountability to the voters, the politicians will continue to do whatever pleases them, enhance their financial status and continue the façade that they are working hard to maintain our way of life.
Unless and until politicians fear their voters more than they fear their party leaders, nothing will change. Informed voters can control the politicians. Maybe someday they will.
There is little evidence to indicate as much for the foreseeable future. Some citizens vote, consider their civic duty done and hope that the political insanity ends. This does not bode well.
Chuck Wade
Butler
**********************
Funeral services for Chuck Wade will be on Saturday, December 1, 2018 at First Baptist Church of Butler, GA. Visitation is at 10:00 AM and the service is at 11:00 AM.
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