About The Eatonton messenger. (Eatonton, Ga.) 18??-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 28, 2025)
» Your hometown newspaper since 1861 The Eatonton Alessenger THURSDAY, AUGUST 28, 2025 | C5 For Heaven's Sake Mike Morgan 22 You JUST SAVED A BUNDLE ON YOUR CAR INSURANCE? AND I’VE GOT )GOOD NEWS ) FOR YOU < 7 FOLKS THIS / MORNING: THE WORD "GOSPEL" 3MEANS /GOOD Back in 1937 When she talked about those tribulations back in 1937, her feeble voice crackled with both age and emotion. With over 70 years separating then from now, the grief still lingered but wisdom had covered it like moss on a riverbank. In those days, the poor were really poor, their back bones hollow from lack of food and their brows heavy with the kind of worry that will drive a man to an early grave. Some did die, leaving behind poor, fragile widows and a passel ofhalf-starved young’uns to cry mourn fully over their raggedy remains. Around those hand-dug graves filled with rough hand-hewn pine boxes, folks gathered to pray and sing Amazing Grace as it rained. It always rained. Their lives, it seemed, were filled with rain. “Lookin’ back,” she said softly, “The Lord knowed what he was doin’.” But back then, it didn’t seem like that at all. She married young at 16, the handsome boy, Scots- Irish just like her, that she would love till death put it asunder 75 years later. Those first years were hard not only in body but in spirit as they tried to form a life among the depression-smothered foothills of the Southern Appalachians. In detail she recalled it all on that morning she telephoned early. “Some thin’ just told me to call you,” she said. “I hate to hinder you ‘cause I know you’re always so busy but I just wanted to talk to you.” Because I have sadly Ronda Rich Dixie Divas learned that time with loved ones can be fleet ingly short, I, without hesitation, sat down on a step on the stairway with a cup of coffee and settled into an hour’s long conversation. I shrugged off deadlines, project negotiations and business calls for something more urgent, more important. For she knows things about our family that if she doesn’t tell me now, might be gone forever should God call for her before he does for me. Aunt Ozelle is Mama’s oldest sister who, at 93, has outlasted all those who knew her when she was a child or when she was dewy with youth. Through all her living, she has seen a lot of life, the good, the bad, the sad, and the happy. Somehow for some reason, we started in on the sad that morning. For over 60 years, she taught Sunday School and she lived where she taught. She’s such a Bible scholar than even preachers, including my daddy, often sought her guidance on under standing a scripture. She will tell you, plain and simple, it is her faith that has undergirded her and taken her down through the sometimes rough journey of life. They struggled just to stay alive, she said, while living in a little rented house on someone else’s farm. Foxes ate all their chickens, their beloved collie dog disappeared, a little heifer that Paw-paw had given them for milk and butter caught its head between a post and the floor and choked to death. The day before her first baby was born, in desperation, Aunt Ozelle dropped to her knees and prayed. “I asked that God’s will be done. Whatever that was.” The next day, she struggled through long, arduous childbirth as a midwife attended. Finally, the baby was born, cried, took her first breath, then moments later took her last breath. “I couldn’t be angry with God and I wasn’t. I had asked that His will be done.” Thirteen months later, a healthy baby boy was born. Two months later, he died of instant pneumonia. “I carried the greatest burden in my heart but looking back, I knowed God knew what He was doin’. I don’t know how we would have fed those children. Times were so hard.” It is the legacy of my family both that of humble, poor beginnings and steadfast faith. May we never forget. Best-selling author Ronda Rich has now said a teary good-bye to Aunt Ozelle who promised, “I’ll meet you across the River Jordan.” 32 25 30 48 55 59 62 11 15 45 26 18 46 27 28 47 29 38 43 12 22 39 49 56 60 63 19 23 40 20 44 13 16 41 31 42 50 33 24 51 57 61 21 34 52 64 14 17 35 53 36 54 37 58 10 CLUES ACROSS 1. Taxis 5. Space Systems Command 8. Plant seed by scattering 11. Alliances 13. Fiddler crabs 14. Heroic tale 15. Yemen capital 16. Misleading gesture 17. Cain and 18. Simple shoe 20. Hundredweight 21. Children's toy in the snow 22. Gets rid of 25. Free of deceit 30. Performed a dance 31. Chinese philosophical principle 32. Exaggerated 33. Refrain from inflicting 38. A doctrine 41. Can be subdued 43. A place to bathe 45. Land used for pasture 48. Curved piece of iron 49. Automobile 50. Fencing sword SEE PUZZLE ANSWERS » PAGE B3 The Eatonton dlessenger Support local journalism msgrnews.com - 706-485-3501 55. Breezes through 56. Child 57. NBA legend Iverson 59. Horsley and lacocca are two 60. Midway between northeast and east 61. Spiritual leader of a Jewish congregation 62. U.S. leader during much of WW2 63. Lair 64. Fibrous material CLUES DOWN 1. Home of "60 Minutes" 2. Expression of sorrow or pity 3. fide: legitimate 4. Immune response 5. Assistance and support 6. Glared 7. Spanish saloon 8. Pitch black 9. S-shaped lines 10. Statistical test 12. Paulo, city 14. Graduation garb 19. A way to record 23. Not good 24. Weather events 25. A pituitary hormone 26. Jamie Foxx film 27. Rocker's accessory 28. One point east (clockwise) of due north 29. One who obtains pleasure from another's pain 34. Consume 35. Licensed for Wall Street 36. Sick 37. Israeli city Aviv 39. Removed the husk 40. Mass of rocks and sediment 41. Two-year-old sheep 42. Area units 44. Prison overseer 45. Walked 46. Wartime escort aircraft carrier 47. Tax 48.50 percent 51. Swiss river 52. Tattle 53. Actor Idris 54. Resist authority (slang) 58. Egg of a louse Read breaking news online and subscribe to your hometown newspaper at www.msgrnews.com LOCAL MATTERS ill 706.485.3501 and ask to advertise on the Worship Page, today! BYTERI 7 Q x GREENSBORO, GEORGIA We are a Christ-centered, mission minded church with traditional worship eager to include you in our church family. Pastor Meg Jackson Clark Website - fpog.org Phone: 706-453-4956 a PC(USA) Church Sunday Scripture Study - 9:45 a.m. Sunday Worship Service - 11:00 a.m. First Presbyterian Church of Greensboro 117 South Main Street, Greensboro, Georgia (next to the Post Office in downtown Greensboro) Lake Oconee Lutheran Church A Stephen Ministry Congregation All Are Welcome 2 Sunday Bible Study I 9:00 a.m. Sunday Worship 10:30 a.m. Pastor Steven Hayden ============ 706-485-4600 Office LAKE ocone: e , LUTHERAN CHURCH officelolc@gmail.com lwww.lakeoconeelutheran.org] CHURCH Wednesdays Sundays: 5:15 p.m. - Family Night Supper 9:45 a.m. - Sunday School Children & Adult Bible Study Dr. Craig Williamson, Pastor First Baptist Church 115 Madison Avenue • Eatonton, Ga 706.485.3331 www.FirstBaptistfEatonton.orgl Episcopal Church 10:50 a.m. - Worship 1089 Lake Oconee Parkway (Hwy 44) Located behind the Lake Oconee Lutheran Community Center Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows - it empties today of its strength. Corrie ten Boom All Angels Episcopal Church 405 North Jefferson Avenue Eatonton, Georgia Holy Communion at ten on Sunday morning Eatonton First Methodist Church 103 West Magnolia Street, Eatonton, GA 31024 706-485-5871 |www.eatontDnfmc.cpm1 Pastor David Wofford Wednesday Night Activities Dinner starts at 5:30 p.m. with bible study at 6:30 p.m. Sunday 8:45 a.m. Traditional Worship in Historic Sanctuary 10.00 a.m. Sunday School 11:00 a.m. Casual Worship in Historic Sanctuary GLOBAL METHODIST CHURCH
