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Viewpoints
Our
Views
A fine idea
Alvalyn Pope is well-known in this
community, not only as a retired
educator, but also as a devoted and
seemingly tireless volunteer for Pro
ject Agape Love and, the Perry food
bank, Loaves and Fishes.
In addition to her
dedication and the
faith that drives her
efforts. Pope has still
another sterling quali
ty She is practical in
her approach, looking
for ways to raise
money, solve prob
lems, and make things
work.
This is why we listen carefully
when she has an idea to promote.
At the Perry City Council meeting
Jan. 4, Alvalyn Pope arrived with a
group of about two dozen backers
ana preseniea her proposal lor
Perry Volunteer Outreach, or PVO
a new organization which would
make connections between those
who want to volunteer their time,
energy and talents, and those who
are in need of help.
In other words, as Pope puts it,
“People who can. helping those who
can’t
In her presentation, she gave
numerous examples of needs whic h
could be met through such an orga
nization, pointing out that many
people are glad to help others il only
they know what help is needed. Vol
unteer efforts could be as simple as
driving an elderly person to a week
ly medical appointment, or as ambi
tious as building a ramp for a per
son newly-confined to a wheelchair.
Mayor Jim Worrall pledged at the
meeting that he and others in city
government will meet soon to dis
cuss Alvalyn Pope’s proposal.
We look forward to hearing more
about this fine idea in the near
future and hope that it will receive
strong support.
Holiday over quickly
Wow. As you read this, it is at best din
ner time Jan. 5. Already the month is
almost a week old. Where did the year
ending holidays go?
Thanks to gifts from a pair of friends.
Judy and I were lucky enough to see some
beautiful sights during the holidays.
One of those spectacular sights was that
fabulously bright full moon of the few days
before
Christmas.
We were
privileged
to view it
from the
sand of
Jck v 1 1
Island
where we
spent a few
days.
O f
Jj
Johnson
Home
Journal
Editor
course, we couldn’t view it very long at the
time because the temperatures refused to
cooperate. Our Christmas afternoon walk
on the beach lasted but 20 minutes
because the wind chill factor was in the
20s.
Days later, we had the right tempera
tures as we took a shirt-sleeves walk to a
point at Lake Blaekshear where we could
watch a colorful sunset at the edge of the
water.
Both locations provided us a chance to
see the beauty of the world which our Lord
created lor us. We were reminded that
each day is a present, a gift from God.
It always amazes me how much out Lord
gives us. Among the gifts are this beautiful
earth, an ability to think and reason, and
more than anything else, his son.
Now we face the task of returning to him
some of those 1 presents a tithe of the
time lie gives us is a worthy goal.
Houston tom Journal
P.O. Drawer M • 807 Carroll St.
Perry. Ga. 31069
crnafl homejrn@hom.net
(912) 987 1823 (voice)
(912) 988 1 181 (lax)
Bob Tribble President
Jl Johnson Editor. General Manager
Ellen T. Green ...Advertising Director
Phil Clark Sports
Joan Dorset! Lifestyles
LaNorris Fleming News
Alline Kent Sports
Pauline l.ewis Lifestyles
4..
Pope
Rob Mead News and Circulation
Charlotte Perkins. News. Composition
Andy Stuckey Classified
Susan R. Thomas Bookkeeping
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Page 4
PAL leader offers his thanks to community
To the Citizens of Perry and the
surrounding communities;
On behalf of the members of
Project Agape Love and the Perry
Area Civitans and also the
numerous families that benefited
from the food and toy drive, I
would like to thank you, the com
munity in which we live. You live
in the only community that could
come together in less than 18
days and provide 450 families
with food, 390 children with toys,
and touching the hearts of more
than 1,150 residents of south
Houston County.
PAL got off to a late start due to
the difficulty of finding a build
ing, but once the wheels began to
roll the drive materialized without
too many glitches. The building
was donated by a local movie
rental company, but it left us
with only a week and a half to get
ready.
Get ready means just about
what it sounds like, only it is
worse. We had to assemble the
necessary box configuration,
dependent on the number and
sizes ol the families. We hit the
stores hard, to the point of black
mail if they gave away more
boxes.
Some stores had sales on eggs.
Since egg boxes are the backbone
ol the configuration, luck was on
our side this time, we got the
boxes, and boxes and still more
boxes (The screaming for boxes
was heard for miles and it took a
while for all the boxes to stop
coming). 'Hie moral here is to be
7 h/f P£AWT GALL£PV
Y2KO’P
:-[)
©Amnvo
The new decade begins without a name
Happy Y2K! I hope you all had
a good New Year celebration and
that everybody feels renewed
and energized for the year
ahead.
1 had the happy experience of
watching the New Year come in
with family and friends, and
waking up on Jan. 1. 2000. in
the house where I was born.
That was the good part.
The bad part is that my com
puter monitor at home decided
to crash on Dec. 30. and seems
to l»e doomed to the trash bin. I
don’t know whether that was an
early Y2K problem or just a mat
ter of coincidence and my having
bought it second hand (and
cheap) in the first place.
Mv resolution is going to be
NO T to keep on mentioning that
neither the 21st Century nor the
Second Millennium has yet
arrived.
• ••
The Next Question is this
What are we going to call this
decade? I read the other day
that the years between 1900 and
1910 were called the “oughts" -
but that was back in the days
when people actually said
words and include addresses and a
telephone number for verification pur
poses Letters are not published with
out verification letters should be sent
to P.O. Drawer M. Perrv. C-a., 31069 or
brought to the newspaper office at 807
Carroll St.. Perry.
Our liability" for an error will not
exceed the cost of space occupied by
the error.
We cannot be responsible for the return
oi pictures or submitted materials unless a
stamped, return address envelope is
included
Our Goal
The Houston Home Journal is pub
Wed., Jan. 5, 2000
Letters
to the
Editor
P.O. Drawer
M
Perry, Ga.
careful what you ask for!
We had other logistics prob
lems. We did not have any private
trucks available the day of the
school pick-ups. We had to rent a
truck and borrow a local lock
smith to be the driver. We also
borrowed a local radio station for
a while. Pleas were made for toys
and assistance, and they were
delivered too.
We got support from the local
churches and the local ROTC,
had manpower to sort the gro
ceries. On distribution day we put
the Major to work, calling off the
box size and the ID number if it
had toys, she did a marvelous job.
The scouts put out plastic bags
for food and returned with boxes
of food. They also helped tote the
boxes to the vehicles, 450 trips
up the hill in the parking lot had
to tire their legs, it did mine.
The merchants were good to us
too. groceries were collected at one
and carts borrowed from the
other. The new guy provided
numerous toys from a magic card
board box by their Angel Tree, (it
just kept filling up with toys)!
Charlotte
Perkins
Home
Journal
Stuff
"ought" for zero., which nobody
does any more.
Some people object to “the
oil’s" (or the “oh-oh’s") on the
basis that “O" is a letter, not a
number, but we all use it all the
time as a number, especially in
giving out telephone numbers
and street addresses.
My brother suggested that
since it's a given that the next
decade will be the “teens”,
maybe we could call this decade
the "pre-teens."
One thing's sure, though. By
the time the ought-oughts, or
oh-oh's, or pre-teens are over,
everybody will have settled on a
name. That’s one delightful
thing about the English lan
guage. When a new word or a
Houston Home Journal
$
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Member of Georgia Press Assocla
tion and National Newspaper Associa
tion.
"Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of reli
gion. or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press, or of the right
We collected canned goods
from the industries in the area as
well as from the little guys. We
collected from the schools and
from churches. Various groups
donated too, sometimes it was a
bag of groceries or a toy, it didn’t
matter, it was the idea and there
were a lot of ideas this year.
The food collected was the
most evenly divided between
fruits and veggies, we didn’t get a
mountain of green beans and
another of corn, we had small
hills of this and small hills of that
with a very good input of peanut
butter and the canned fruits.
Compared to last year this year
the community gave its soul, it
didn't go for the can count it went
to cover the need of its neighbor.
We still had some glitches with
registration, and I wish there was
a way to get the word out to all.
that we register the Friday and
Saturday before Thanksgiving
and we distribute the Saturday
before Christmas. We only regis
ter persons residing in Houston
County. South of Ga. 96.
We are sorry that we turned
some people away who lived in
Warner Robins, but we are just
not capable of enlarging our area
of support.
If there is anybody interested
in assisting with next years Pro
ject Agape Love Food and Toy
Drive, the PAL group is always
looking for more people. Please
call me at 987-9208.
Tom Saul
PAL Representative
HAPP-E
NEW YEAR!
a
10* & *
1 * ‘A a a
v
J m.
new term is needed, one will
come up.
• ••
Painless giving lf you'd like
to make a New Year's Resolution
to give more to the needy, but
feel a bit needy yourself, here's a
painless way. Won’t cost you a
thing! Just get a Kroger Cash
Commitment card for Loaves
and Fishes, which operates a
food bank for people in south
Houston County.
You can use the card when
purchasing prescriptions, flow
ers and groceries, and each time
you use it, it will add to the
quarterly donation made to
Ixiaves and Fishes by Kroger.
For a Commitment card, stop by
the office of Crossroads United
Methodist Church. 1600 Main
St., Perry, Mon-Fri, 9-6.
• ••
2000 and counting The
U.S. Census for 2000 is about to
begin. If you're interested in a
job with the Census Bureau, you
can take the test at a number of
Perry locations during January.
For all the dates and times, see
Joan Dorsett’s “Just Visitin'"
column on page 7.
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Carroll St.. Perry. Ga., 31060. Period
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POSTMASTER Send address
changes to the Houston Home Jour
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ISSN; 1075-1874.
Bob
Tribble
Home
Journal
President
We cannot move forward
looking backward
Now that we have escaped the
beginning of the millennium
year without too much damage
done, I suppose we can focus on
the year 2000 and what it is
that we need to get about doing.
It’s for sure we cannot continue
to look backward and expect to
successfully move forward.
May I remind you of trie story
of Napoleon at the battle of
Waterloo and how he handled
the defeat. Surveying the battle
field, the tough little general
said to his drummer," The Eng
lish are standing firm. The Old
Guard is making no progress.
We are defeated; sound the
retreat."
Hesitantly, the lad looked at
Napoleon and protested, “Mas
ter. in all of our campaigns in
Europe. 1 never learned to
sound the retreat."
Deeply touched by the com
ment, Napoleon said, “All right,
drummer boy. sound the
advance, sound the advance."
Then, you will remember the
story in Matthew 14 where Peter
walked on the water toward
Jesus, but when he saw the
boisterous wind, he was afraid.
As he began to sink, he cried
out to the Lord to save him.
Try putting yourself in old
Peter’s shoes. He had allowed
his mouth to overload his brain
and he was in a mess. Imagine
yourself in his place. You have
asked Jesus to let you walk on
the water. Rather than telling
you no and rebuking you for
even asking, Jesus tells you to
come on. There you are, the ball
is in your court. If you were
playing checkers it would be
your move.
As you put one foot over the
edge of the boat, suddenly you
realize how stupid tills must
look to the other disciples. You
realize they are watching you, ’
wondering if yo have gone
bananas.
Then, you look down at the
water and a cold chill runs over
you as the thought occurs: If I
step out there. I'll sink like a
rock and these guys won't stop
laughing for a week.
Slowly you turn around, look
at the disciples with a silly grin
on your face, turn back to Jesus
and say, “That's all right, Jesus.
I was just kidding. Come on
over to the boat and talk with us
a while."
That is where Peter differed
from most of us. If only for a
short while, he mastered his
fear and walked on the water.
Often, the fear of failure is the
thing which separates the men
from the boys, so to speak.
Many folk have never realized
their potential in life due to this
one reason the fear of failing.
They quit before they ever start.
Not many people are aware of
the fact Walt Disney went bank
rupt before he built Disneyland
and the Disney empire. When
someone asked him what he
attributed his success to. he
told them bankruptcy had made
him a success.
Questioned about how bank
ruptcy could make him a suc
cess. Disney replied that learn
ing how to be a failure had
taught him how to be a success.
Being a success will not be
found in what we have done,
but rather in what we have yet
to accomplish.
When we begin to dwell on
what we have done in years past
instead of what we must do
tomorrow, we have little left to
do in this life.
One of the greatest needs we
have in this life is to feel we have
something important to do
tomorrow. Remember, we will
never go forward looking back
ward.
What I am trying to say is
this: As we enter the new mil
lennium, don’t let your past fail
ures tear you down, but instead
let them build you up. Don’t be
afraid to try something new in
your life. Go for it. Give it all you
have.
And for goodness sake, don't
let the fear of failure prevent you
from accomplishing a worthy
goal.
Don’t let the fear of failure rob
you of the joy of living and
reaching the goals God has
established for you. We cannot
move forward looking back.
■Pfe;
I jk
I I t.