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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 Our Policies Unsigned editorials appearing in larger type on this page under (lie label Our Views rellect the position of the Houston Home Journal Signed columns and letters on this page (and elsewhere in this newspaper) reflect the opinions of tlie writers and not nrees sarilv those of this newspaper Signed letters to the editor are wel comed Please limit letters to 300 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 $ raytoons#hom.net lished proudly for the citizens of Hous ton and adjoining counties bv Houston Publications Inc.. Perry. Ga." Our goal is to produce quality, "profitable, com munity-oriented newspapers that you. our readers, are proud of! We will reach this goal through hard work, team work, loyally and a strong dedication toward printing the truth. 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. of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Your right to read this newspaper Is protected by the First Amendmenl to the United States Constitution The Houston Home Journal (USPS 000471) Is published weekly for $21.40 per year (including sales tax) by Houston Publications Inc., 807 Carroll St.. Perry. Ga., 31060. Period icals Class Postage paid at Perry, Ga. POSTMASTER Send address changes to the Houston Home Jour nal, PO Drawer M. Perry. Go. 31069. 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.