About The Lee County ledger. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1978-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 20, 2019)
Page 4A, The Lee County Ledger, Wednesday, November 20,2019 Sharing the Word The University of Georgia • Cooperative Extension Service FI Daffodils V , J Doug Collins, Lee County Extension Coordinator Putting knowledge to\Vork 1 Daffodils are colorful spring flowers that require very little effort (in some cases, no effort) to grow. Daffodils By Harry R. Martinez, Ph. D Loving Life pt. 3 There are times in the lives of Christians when external pressures bring discouragement and diminish an appreciation of having another day to live. Life is not free from adversity or the effects of evil in the world. Scripture reminds us that... “man is born for trouble, as sparks fly up ward” (Job 5:7 NASB). However, knowing and trusting the God who is in full control of His creation, brings to every Christian encourage ment and stability in life. God said through the psalmist... “do not fret because of evildoers, be not envious toward wrongdoers. For, they will wither quickly like the grass, and fade like the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good” (Ps 37:1-3a NASB). God will have the last say against evil and evil ones. Therefore, be assured that... “the evil will bow down before the good, and the wick ed at the gates of the righteous” (Prov 14:19 NASB). Who are the righteous? In the Church Age, they are believers in Christ who use the grace pro visions of the filling of the Spirit and the Word of God. Their lives are marked with the charac teristics of Christ during His earthly ministry. Paul described these as the fruit of the Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (Gal 5:22-23 NASB). Some of the Christians in Galatia had forgotten that the Christian life was one of walking by means of the Spirit as He uses the Word of God in the believer’s life. Somehow, they had been deceived into thinking that faith alone in Christ was not sufficient for salvation but need to add a system of works. They had reversed God’s order. Relationship with God was based on faith alone, by grace alone, and in Christ alone. Good works would be the result of spiritual growth, not the means of salvation. Jesus Christ had accomplished “the good” [salvation] that brought eternal life to all who placed their trust in Him as their Savior. The Christian life would be one of main taining fellowship with the Spirit of God through confession of sin (1 John 1:9) and learning the Word of God, so that with wisdom gained from the Scriptures, every believer could live the abundant life that only Christ can give. Jesus said ... “I came that they might have life, and might have it abundant ly” (John 10:10b NASB). The Christian life would be a supernatural life, one of God working in us to do His will. Such a life would reflect Christ and draw others to the Savior. It would not be a life free from turmoil. Though adverse circum stances surrounded one’s life, it would be possible to have tranquility of soul, an inner peace. Paul wrote... “Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance” (2 Thess 3:16a NASB). Loving Life and length of days demanded that the be liever ... “seek peace and pursue it” (1 Peter 3:11b NASB). The Apostle Paul wrote ... “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wis dom teaching and ad monishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, sing ing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father” (Col 3:15-17 NASB). Without peace ruling or umpiring in the life of a Christian, it is impos sible to love life and see length of days. Lack of peace in the soul is physically and mentally harmful. Therefore, Paul gives a command that affects both the physical and spiritual life of Christians. “Be anxious for nothing, [stop worrying] but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Je sus” (Phil 4:6-7 NASB). Editor’s note: Dr. Martinez is an ordained minister and was a professor and head of the music department at Florida State University School from 1975 to 2003. He is the father of five adult children and resides in Lee County with his wife, Sara. I can think of few flowers that will put on flower displays for as many years with so little effort as the daffodil. With just a little effort, you can enjoy daffodils for years to come. Daffodils are one of the early blooming flow ers of spring. Daffodils can be different shades of yellow or creamy white or combinations of colors including yel low, white, and orange. Daffodils can be placed rather randomly in flower beds, planted in a line as a border, or naturalized in a wood ed area. They can even be grown in a lawn if mowing can be delayed until the daffodil foliage has died back to the ground each year. Under favorable conditions, daffodil bulbs will multiply over the years. It is not unreasonable to expect that a plant ing of daffodils will be enjoyed for generations to come. Daffodils should be planted in the fall. They can be planted three to six inches deep in the soil and three to six inches apart from each other. Daffodils can be purchased inexpensively at home improvement and other stores. For more information, call the Lee County Extension Office at 759-6025 or email me at collinsd@uga.ed Lee County Veteran of the Month Special to the Ledger LTC (R) Daniel R. Brewer Daniel R. Brewer, Ed.D., had his first exposure to the United States military while attending Purdue Uni versity in Lafayette, IN, on an ROTC scholarship. After completing his third year of college, he was selected to attend both the U.S. Army’s Airborne and Ranger schools as a cadet. After successfully completing both courses, he returned to Purdue to complete his final year, graduating as a distin guished military graduate in 1974. Second Lieutenant Brewer spent his first two years in the Army at Fort Hood, Texas in Patton’s own 2nd Armored Divi sion “Hell on Wheels.” In 1976, Brewer was select ed to attend the Army’s rotary wing flight school at Fort Rucker, Alabama, where he graduated a year later as a helicop ter pilot. While at Fort Rucker he also completed training in the AH-1 “Co bra” attack helicopter and OH-58 “Kiowa” observa tion helicopter transition courses. After a year and a half at flight school, First Lieutenant Brewer was ordered to Germany where he spent the next three years in the pres tigious 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment. The 2nd Armored Cav is one of the oldest military units in the United States Army, having continu ous service dating back to 1836. Arriving in Germany as an aviation platoon leader, Lieutenant Brewer would later be come the 2nd Cav’s Avi ation Troop Operations Officer. Brewer was also a trained border surveil lance pilot and flew over 1,000 hours on the East German/West German border. Captain Brewer left Germany in 1980 and was reassigned to the 194th Armored Brigade at Fort Knox, Kentucky. There, he was the Bri gade’s Aviation Company Commander, responsible for both Command and Control missions as well as medical evacuation (MEDIVAC) operations at Fort Knox and the surrounding northern Kentucky area. In 1982, Brewer left active duty and began his career at Procter & Gamble Paper Products in Albany, Georgia serving in various roles to include being the Plant Environ mental Manger. While at P&G, he remained in the Air National Guard and flew weekends out of Hunter Army Airfield, Savannah, GA. After his promotion to Major, Brewer left the National Guard and transferred to the U.S. Reserves. While in the Reserves, Major Brewer and later Lieu tenant Colonel Brewer reverted back to his edu cational background and started doing environ mental engineering work for the U.S. government. During a 10-year peri od, LTC Brewer solved numerous environmental challenges for the U.S. military at locations such as Fort Eustis and Fort Story, VA, Fort Rucker, AL, Marine Corps Logis tic Base, Albany, GA, and Headquarters, U.S. Army. In January 2005, LTC Brewer reached his MRD, mandatory removal date, and retired. MRD is a date assigned to each person and is basically the number of years one can serve based on their rank. Retirement was short-lived however, lasting only three months, because in April 2005 Brewer was recalled and ordered back to active duty. After attending pre-deployment training at Fort Benning, GA and Fort Bliss, TX, LTC Brewer was ordered to the Middle East and arrived at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait one week prior to Christmas, 2005. Kuwait was only a temporary assignment though, for after process ing in, he was flown to Baghdad, Iraq to inter view for an assignment in environmental engineer ing. The interview went good or bad, depending on how one looks at it, for LTC Brewer was immediately selected as the top environment engineer for Iraq, being assigned to the primary staff of Multi-National Forces-Iraq, and working directly for the Com mander, General David Petraeus, as the MNF-I Environment Engineer. As one of the few environmental engineers in the army and the only military ‘green suiter,’ in Iraq, Brewer staffed a team of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers environmen tal specialists and envi ronmental contractors to complete the work ahead of them and manage the many environmen tal challenges faced in country. LTC Brewer and team traveled multiple times per week from Camp Victory-Baghdad to over 60+ major base camps and hundreds of smaller forward operat ing bases, or FOBs, to manage and solve a com plexity of environmental issues ranging from drinking water, waste water, solid/hazardous waste, medical waste, oil spills, asbestos and lead, burnpit air pollution and base closures. On one of his trips, which occurred on April 28, 2007, Brewer sur vived an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) or roadside bomb attack while traveling by Hum- vee from Camp Victory to the U.S. Embassy in the Baghdad’s ‘green zone.’ After completing 24 continuous months in Iraq, Lieutenant Colonel Brewer was reassigned to J4 Logistics, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), MacDill AFB Flori da. There he served as CENTCOM’s senior envi ronmental engineer, re sponsible for the environ mental management and environmental health and safety for all U.S. troops stationed in the CENT COM area of responsi bility, which included 17 Middle Eastern countries. From this assignment, he redeployed to the Middle East numerous times including two tours in Afghanistan, and one in Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, and Egypt. He also did 1 to 3-month assignments in UAE, Bahrain, Oman and Pakistan working environment issues. Lieutenant Colonel Brewer’s biggest ac complishment while at CENTCOM was author ing the “first of its kind” contingency environ mental regulation, CCR 200-2, which provided the much-needed envi ronmental guidance and best management prac tices for U.S. base camps engaged in contingency/ combat operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Today this document is the combat environmental regulation for the Depart ment of Defense and is used by all four branches of service. A year prior to LTC Brewer’s second retire ment from the Army, he was reassigned from J4 Logistics to J5 Opera tions at U.S. CENTCOM to serve as the Depleted Uranium (DU) Branch Chief, Weapons of Mass Destruction. From this final assignment on active duty, he deployed back to the Middle East one last time and spent six months in Saudi Arabia recovering military vehi cles destroyed from DU munitions. Colonel Brewer received his undergraduate degree from Purdue University, an MS degree from the University of Southern California, and a doctoral degree from Northcen- tral University. He lives in Leesburg, Georgia with his wife Rena, where together, they have four grown children with spouses and elev en grandchildren. His military awards include the Bronze Star, Defense Meritorious Service Med al, Army Commendation Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Afghan istan Campaign Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Medal, Combat Action Badge, Senior Army Avi ator Wings, Parachutist Badge, and Ranger Tab. The Le£ County Ledger Established August 24,1978 lcledger@bellsouth.net P.O. Box 715 (126 4th Street) (229) 759-2413 Leesburg, Georgia 31763 USPS 470-310 Official Organ of Lee County SUBSCRIPTION RATES Lee and surrounding counties $20.00 year Elsewhere $25.00 year Publisher Derryl Quinn Editor Jim Quinn Layout and Design Zan Twiggs Advertising Manager Tina Maples (USPS 470-310), is published weekly for $20.00 per year in Lee and surrounding counties, and $25.00 per year else where by its offices at the May Office Building, 124 - 4th Street, Leesburg, Georgia 31763. Periodicals postage paid at Leesburg, GA. POST MASTER: Send address changes on Form 3579 to, P.O. 715, Leesburg, GA31763. tip) Printed On member of Georgia Recycled Paper press association
