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♦ FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2006 6B Graham charity to send out 8M shoebox gifts this season By TIM WHITMIRE Associated Press Writer CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Color is what Oxana Prohorova remembers from the shoe box she opened a decade ago in Belarus. She no longer has any of the toys and trinkets from that gift box sent to her by Operation Christmas Child, but she still remembers the colors that brightened the drab world of her childhood. “It has touched my heart and it was a blessing to me,” Prohorova told proj ect volunteers Wednesday at a warehouse in southwest Charlotte. Those volunteers will help assemble about 1.6 million of the 8 million shoeboxes that Operation Christmas Child intends to deliver to nearly 90 countries this holi day season. The warehouse is one of several around the country operated by evan gelist Franklin Graham’s Hollywood’s 'Nativity Story’ is a Christmas gift for audiences desiring reverential films By RICHARD N. OSTLING For The Associated Press Was the box office for Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” that 2004 show-biz shocker,' a fluke? Or did it reveal a massive and neglected audience for reverential fare? We’ll learn more from the box-office receipts for “The Nativity Story,” New Line Cinema’s holiday gift that brings elegant Christmas card scenes of Jesus’ birth to life on screen. Christians will presum ably flock to “Nativity,” even though the same Time Warner unit bears respon sibility for those “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” mov ies. Home video and inevi Church Briefs Lost child memorial service A Memorial Service will be held at St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in Perry at 5 p.m., Saturday for all parents in the area who have lost a child. Clergy from many churches will participate. The ser vice is sponsored by the Perry Ministerial Association. Music for Christmas The Adult Choir of Perry Presbyterian Church with String Quartet, will present “A Choral Celebration of Christmas” in the church sanctuary at 7 p.m., Saturday. The program includes choral anthems for the POWELL From page jB have a field day uncover ing the skeletons in his closet. Newt Gingrich is an adept politician, but disen franchised himself by over stepping his bounds while in power. Mitt Romney lacks name recognition and depth of experience. In summary, no one on the horizon is appealing. A national “voter sentiment” poll was taken to measure candidate likeability on a scale of zero to 100. The three highest scores were Giuliani-64, Obama-59, and McCain-58, all woefully low. Most potential candidates received “likeability scores” less than 50. This indicates the general public is dis enchanted and awaits the DOBSON From page jB Above all, we must do what is required to pacify the combat zones in junior and senior high schools. We will not solve our per vasive problems, however, with the present genera tion of secondary school stu dents. Our best hope for the future is to start over with the youngsters just coming into elementary school. We can rewrite the rules with these wide-eyed kids. Let’s Samaritan’s Purse relief organization, which started the project 13 years ago to bring Christmas gifts to chil dren in Bosnia. Now 22 and a senior at the University of South Carolina, Wednesday was the first time Prohorova had ever seen where the shoeboxes are checked and prepared for shipment after being assembled by families from around the region and collected at churches and other institutions. She was in tears as she addressed volunteers. “You guys don’t know how much it means to get a shoe box,” she said. “Everything in the shoebox means so much to us.” Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham and his father’s successor as head of the Charlotte-based Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, also spoke to workers. “The most important table TV repeats in future Decembers will enhance pro ceeds. Director Catherine Hardwicke (“Thirteen,” “Lords of Dogtown”) says she sought “epic intimacy” to evoke “another time and beautiful landscape.” Strikingly austere vistas in Morocco and Italy represent the first-century Holy Land. The 10-nation cast boasts Oscar nominees Shohreh Aghdashloo (“House of Sand and Fog”) as Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist; and the magnetic Keisha Castle-Hughes (“Whale Rider”) in the primary role of her cousin Mary. (As it happens, Castle- Hughes, 16, is now pregnant out of wedlock.) Oddly, Jesus’ ministry and Christmas season, as well as familiar con gregational carols. Perry Presbyterian Church is located at 1111 Second Street in Perry. Phone is 987- 1403. Walk Through Bethlem The annual “Walk through Bethlehem” will be held at Shirley Hills Baptist Church from 4-10 p.m., Dec. 15, 16 and 17. The re enactment in costume, with live animals, of life in the village of Bethlehem at the time of Jesus’ birth event attracts thousands each year. Free. Send information on church events to cperkins@evansnewspapers.com or call Charlotte Perkins at 987-1823, Ext. 234. arrival of a refreshing new candidate in the race for the presidency Sen. Sam Nunn could be that candidate. He is eminently qualified to be president. If he announced his candidacy, Nunn would have an excellent chance of becoming the 44th President of the United States. He served in the U. S. Senate with distinction for 24 years where he was chairman of the powerful Armed Services Committee. He was a leader in the Senate and an advisor to several Presidents. No one looked after his constituents better than Nunn. Based on his proven leadership, his expertise on national defense, his Nobel Prize caliber accomplishments in reducing nuclear stock piles under Salt 11, and his redesign the primary grades to include a greater measure of discipline. I’m not talking merely about more difficult assign ments and additional home work. I’m recommending more structure and control in the classroom. As the first official voice of the school, the primary teacher is in a position to construct positive attitudi nal foundations on which future educators can build. Conversely, she can fill her young pupils with contempt and disrespect. A child’s teachers during the ingredient we stress to put into the box is prayer ... to pray for the child who will get this hox,” said Graham, dressed in his trademark black leather motorcycle jacket and baseball cap. Some 40,000 volunteers, some from as far away as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Missouri, are expected to pass through the Charlotte warehouse this season. They review the contents of shoe boxes, removing inappropri ate items such as perish able food, military-type toys, liquids or medications and chocolate - which can melt in transit - and filling any empty spots. Shoeboxes are then stacked on pallets and wrapped in plastic for ship ment overseas. The things that are taken out are given to local churches and chari table groups. “You come here, you just feel the love,” said Tim Single of Massillon, Ohio, who helped organize two crucifixion have provided ample movie material while his birth is largely ignored, apart from cheapos for the church-basement market. Perhaps that’s because this, possibly the most famous story ever told, lacks sus pense. The movie’s historical consultant, the Rev. William Fulco of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, endorses mild “higher criti cism” of the Bible in a pub licity handout that will rile fundamentalists. The accounts in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke “are not completely compatible,” Fulco says. Since “very little was known of the events,” he explains, “the stories were developed using what is called midrash, current Nuclear Defense Initiative to reduce the glob al threat of nuclear, biologi cal and chemical weapons, he is the best candidate to lead this country forward into a period of uncertain ty when war rages in the middle East and terrorists seek to destroy our country. He is a man of honesty and integrity, whose character is beyond reproach. Exodus 32:1-6 describes the conse quences when leadership declines. Effective leadership is essential to survivability of this nation. Senator Nunn can provide that leadership. Those wishing to give my new book, “ Echoes from the Valley," or “ Pride of the Panthers ” as a Christmas gift, please call me at 478-825-8119 or email at billypow(a)aol.com. EFTV is S2O and POTP is $25. first six years will largely determine the nature of his attitude toward authority and the educational climate in junior and senior high school (and beyond). Dr. Dobson is founder and chairman of the board of the nonprofit organization Focus on the Family, P.O. Box 444, Colorado Springs, CO. 80903; or www.family. org. Questions and answers are excerpted from “The Complete Marriage and Family Home Reference Guide” and “Bringing Up Boys,” both published by Tyndale House. LOCAL busloads of volunteers from The Chapel, an Akron, Ohio-based church, who are working for a week at the Charlotte warehouse. “It’s work, but you go away with Christ. It’s like coming here to get a spiritual drink of water.” For Prohorova, receiving a shoebox was a sign of love. About a fifth of Belarus was evacuated due to fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion in neigh boring Ukraine in 1986, when both countries were part of the Soviet Union. She later visited the United States on a student exchange and in 2001 was granted asylum for religious reasons and allowed to live with a family in the Charlotte sub urb of Rock Hill, S.C. After she graduates from college in May, Prohorova said, she hopes to perform church mission work in Africa. On Wednesday, though, a sometimes creative recon struction of events based on what is actually known, elaborated from clues” in prior writings. Screenwriter Mike Rich (“Finding Forrester,” “The Rookie”) is devoutly Christian. Since he turned the minimal scriptures into 94 minutes, how does “Nativity” compare with the Bible? Rich follows a largely lit eral replication of Matthew and Luke. Unlike some of Gibson’s “Passion” embroi dery, the elaborations emerge naturally from the biblical and cultural background. Subscribe today Call 987-1823 / Mr. & Mrs. Nicholas Krissmas ATTN FIRST CHRISTMAS IS MUST BE RECEIVED BY I 006, BY END OF BUSINESS DAY. ( she showed off the shoebox she packed for this year’s Operation Christmas Child. It included colorful hair accessories, a plastic watch, candy, a toothbrush and toothpaste and - most important - a letter telling her story and a photograph. She still remembers how jealous everyone was of the Grrrreat Deals ft yen have w mpUiinn 0fe «es t< veil and it*s under ldW ps t o us If. *c. iall cur Con >Puter p ()rh classified dent. + well 111,1 it r > days jBM | limit 1 pmmUWH per week , rami nm in 1 Hnei . Item PD 195 1/4 ct. 399.95 I 2 ct. 799.95 j'lct. 1895.00 1 I Get. 3300.00 2 ct. 4695.00 Item ERII6 1 ct. 1499.95 DAVID OVERTON JEWELERS kjos DOWNTOWN CARROLL ST, PERRY, GA31069 *478-987-1392 ||p photo* unit be available far (ndcup at eta Perry ojjtce after January 2, 2007, or inebtde a self-addressed, stamped envelopeJbr photo return. 11l The Houston Dads Journal is not lusble Jbr lost or damaged photos /math “wsT HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL girl in her class who received a watch in her shoebox _ and of the people whose boxes came with letters inside. “Everyone wanted to write back to the families,” she recalled. “To open a box and see that somebody cared so much for you in a foreign country, it means so much.” MOISSANITE Created B\ CHARLES & COLVARD* Journey Diamond Jewelry Collection with KVer\ Step. Love Grows 4 1 2 s<> A