“Top 10 List for the New Year”

By: Rev. Johnny Rhoad

As we enter this New Year, please consider this top ten list of our shared Christian Faith.

1.  Our God is loving and compassionate. And our God is majestic. God desires to be known by all people, and so we faithfully worship God.
2.  The only infallible rule of faith and practice is revealed in the Bible .
3.  Our sovereign God is the maker and the creator of all things. And everything that God made was good.
4.  Our God is one. One Lord and one true God that exists in three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
5.  Our Father had adopted us as His children as we are drawn by the Holy Ghost to believe in His Son, Jesus Christ.
6.  Jesus Christ, alone is the Living Word, the promised Messiah.
7.  The Holy Ghost applies the saving work of Jesus Christ to our lives.
8.  God has sovereignty elected and called people to be the true church from the beginning.
9.  The Church is called to make disciples of all nations.
10. Jesus Christ will come again.

May we live our shared Christian faith knowing, believing and acknowledging these Christian truths in all that we endeavor to do this New Year! As Romans 8:38-39 proclaims, “I am persuaded that neither death nor life, not angels nor principalities not powers, not thing present not things to come, not height nor depth, not any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Yes, there is no aspect of God’s created order, nor any event or being involved in it, that can end our enjoyment of the everlasting and ever-active love of God to us in Jesus Christ. Remember all of these truths in this New Year.

God be Praised!

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Dennis Eisnach      01/02
Mike Fugitt      01/02
Mary Edwards          01/03
Delton Tipton    01/06
Rob Laurenz           01/06
Brandon Vockrodt       01/11
Ellen Hosman        01/12
DeNeil Taylor       01/20
Wendell Andrews        01/25
Mary Jenner         01/25
Lee Baron         01/30
Shirley Jameson-Fergel    01/30

Kate Divis Nelson        02/07
Kendra Droppers         02/10
Renee Sears     02/11
Kendra Woodburn Zuercher 02/15
Dennie Pfrimmer     02/20
Will Butler    02/23
Megan Vockrodt     02/23
Theoda (Teddi) Blewett    02/27

2009 Session and Officers

Back:  Ken Meyer, Chair of Finances; John Ellefson, Financial Secretary; Duane Jenner, Treasurer; Dennie Pfrimmer, Chair of Mission Outreach; Boots Johnson, Clerk of Session, John Rhoad, Pastor

Front:  Candy Sowers, Chair of Personnel, Mary Sherman, Chair of Worship; Cindy Droppers, Chair of Buildings and Grounds and Paula Vockrodt, Chair of Christian Education.

~~Please click on photos to view enlargements~~

2009 Board of Deacons

 Rev. John C. Rhoad, Jr.; Vicky Tipton, Mary Jenner, Shirleen Fugitt and Ellen Hosman.  Missing from the picture is Chris Nelson.

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Hurricane IKE and Those Who Care Enough to Go

Bolivar Peninsula before and after Ike

In response to a phone call from a retired South Dakota Presbyterian pastor three churches have decided to send missioners to High Island, Texas to help as they can.   Below is a letter received by Rolly on January 7^th that tells of the devastation to the Galveston area.   

Our missioners will be staying at a Methodist Church and working either on a Presbyterian retreat center or on homes of some of the elderly residents.

Update from the Bolivar Peninsula in Galveston County

I have moved back down to the Bolivar Peninsula (Crystal Beach) to help out with the Hurricane Ike rebuilding effort. I arrived back here in early December. The night I arrived, a cold front was blowing through and it wet, rainy and cold. I set up my travel trailer where my home used to be. Thirty minutes later, my generator conked out. Needless to say, the first night back was not fun.

Things became better with the addition of a new generator bought in Beaumont. It was still cold and wet for several days and I tried to corner the market on winter clothing.

It was still great as I saw many people around that I knew prior to Ike. I also have met some wonderful new friends. If anyone followed the news stories from Ike, they probably have seen the big yellow two story house that survived Ike in Gilchrist amid total destruction of surrounding houses. It has been featured on everything from local papers to national news outlets, Inside Edition and even was in Time magazine's photos of the year. It belongs to two new friends of mine. They even had me over for New Day's dinner.

The entire town of Gilchrist is gone. There are about three houses that survived in total. All had lots of damages. Crystal Beach was devastated, about two thirds of the houses are gone there, including my parent's home. Entire subdivisions are nothing but pilings and concrete slabs. Photographs and news footage cannot begin to capture the extent of the total and complete devastation in the area. One must see it in person to realize the damage to these communities.

There are no stores open at this time. No groceries, no gas, nothing. There are only two places at which to buy a meal. One is the Tiki Bar and Grill and the other is a concession trailer. The only other businesses open are two lumber yards with limited materials, a couple of equipment rental yards, and a few realtors in temporary locations.

I have been fortunate in lining up work. I formed an LLC (Hurlbert Services LLC) and purchased a tractor and a big Case Extendahoe. I have even learned how to use them. I currently am pulling out pilings and removing concrete slabs for homeowners that plan to rebuild. It seems that when one homeowner hears of me, they give my name to several others. I might even earn a living at this one day!

Living here in the disaster area has been different, to say the least. Few residents are back. Many of the locals are living in Winnie, a small town off of Interstate 10. They will come down here during the day to work but leave before sunset. At night, there are few people around. In Port Bolivar and High Island, many residents are back and living there fulltime. In Gilchrist, there maybe ten people living there and in Crystal Beach, there are probably 75 people living there. Before Ike, there were probably 2000 people living fulltime in Gilchrist and Crystal Beach.

To buy gasoline, I have to travel to High Island where the convenience store there has reopened. It is about twelve miles away. To buy groceries, I have to go to Winnie, which is about twenty miles away. I could cross the ferry into Galveston but it is so unreliable as to the wait times that Winnie is the better option. Today I must cross to Galveston in order to obtain a permit for a temporary electric pole so I can quit using ten gallons of gas a day running the generator.

There are workers from almost every state in the Union here working. There is almost every type of heavy equipment here doing work, some of which I have never seen the likes of. The Texas General Land Office has heavy equipment clearing and cleaning the beachfront. TX DOT has contractors clearing the highway of mounds of debris and cars. Galveston County has FEMA contractors clearing the neighborhood streets of debris at the curbside. They are still searching the debris piles in the fields for bodies. Ten people from the Peninsula are still missing and presumed dead. They found another body just last week.

Everyday though, I see signs of progress. Debris mounds are being picked up, businesses are rebuilding and plan to open soon, people are slowly returning. FEMA has even started just this week to bring a few trailers for people to live in. The school plans to reopen in a month or so. The Post Office in Crystal Beach is being worked on so it can reopen. Looting is slowing down as everything has been picked over. The local grocery store is planning on reopening within the month, though at half the size it was. Green grass and clover is starting to show in some areas. Some pelicans and egrets have returned. Piece by piece, step by step, a sense of normalcy is slowly returning to the Peninsula. It still has a long way to go though.

Returning to the destruction, it is amazing to look out of the window and think about what you see. Garden hoses, lawn mowers, clothing, books, electrical wire, timbers, siding, handcarts, BBQ pits, stairs, personal belongings, Mardi Gras beads, cars, toys, kitchen pots and pans, knick knacks, crock pots, CDs, bicycles, tires, air compressors, file cabinets, washers and dryers, refrigerators, roof shingles, lawn furniture, fences, purses, shoes, blankets, afghans, lamps, statues and figurines, you name it. All ruined by the salt water and strewn everywhere. anything you might find in a modern American house or garage has been dumped by Ike all over the Peninsula.

Much of the above still lies where Ike put it. Many properties have not been cleared yet and many homeowners are either still waiting on insurance or FEMA. Many are also just walking away from it all. Galveston County faces many years of litigation to be able to clear these properties.

If any of you have free time on your hands, I strongly suggest coming down here to see the destruction wrought by Ike before it gets cleaned up. Many tourists from around the US are already coming down here just to look at it all. It is something that photos cannot capture and words can't convey. You have to see it firsthand in order to absorb Ike's impact. It is something you will remember for a lifetime.