New Beginnings

     It was Christmas of 1983 when this first hit the airwaves at what was then WBKW The Christian Way of Life Radio. The world is looking forward to Christmas again this year Dad is headed down to the liquor store stocking up on Christmas cheer Mom is just glad that the loan went through Brother is thinking about slopes and skies Little sister is thinking about a shopping mall sitting on Santa Claus knee Its gonna be a very scary Christmas Its a frightening thing to know our world is held together by a ribbon and a bow The X that took the place of Christ on every card we read Its gonna be a very scary Christmas indeed Hey Christian lets bundle up tonight Skipping church to go around the neighborhood checking out the colorful lights If we could just go back to the Christmas of the past Maybe we could find a way to make them last. Its gonna be a very scary Christmas It's a frightening thing to know our world is held together by a r...

     I am sure that anyone who is on my FB page remembers "The Living Christmas Tree" from Memorial Baptist Church.  You were a "Tree" person or you went to see it.  I have been in such a grumpy mood this Christmas, because finances are tight and things. I have been in this situation before when I was single, but what made it bearable was singing on the "Living Christmas Tree", giving joy to others to help them have a Merry Christmas.       We would start practicing on the second Sunday in September in the afternoons. We did every type of music, from Handels Messiah to songs like"Mary Did You Know".  I know quite a bit of Christmas music.  I sang on the tree from 1988 to 2000.  How I got to sing on the "Tree" was Mrs. Edith Dickerson was a friend of someone who was going to church at Memorial at the time and they invited her to sing on the "Tree". Mrs. Dickerson didn't want to sing on it by herself so she asked me a...

     As I write this blog, I am remembering my mom. I remember her everyday, but some days more than others.  For some of you who will read this, she was a sister, friend, second mother or just a very special person.  My mom was born in Keystone, West Virginia, a small mining town in McDowell county. She was the oldest daughter of Joe and Clara Thornton.  She was the second oldest of a family of 13.  She was married 52 years to her childhood sweetheart Charles "Pete" Smith.  She had two daughters, Sharon and myself.  She was at times a stay-at-home mom, and worked only when my dad was out of work. She was also a neighborhood mom.  Kids were always at our house playing and she did her best to make them feel welcome. There were our adopted siblings, Sam and Mamie. They were at our house from the time they could walk over there. They were neighbors. One of my cousins thought that Mamie lived with us.       He...

     A lot of us growing up watched "The Wizard of Oz" on TV. It used to come on on a Sunday night in January. This meant getting everything done, homework, any household chore, bath and getting your PJ's on so you could watch it and then go to bed when the program was over.  I think my earliest rememberance of the movie was at the age of 6.   I liked the "we're off to see the wizard" song, I remember skipping from the living room to my bedroom I shared with Sharon which at the time was the middle bedroom.  Every since then there are certain characters that stick out in my mind as I relate them to people in my life.  People like the farm hands and later the Scarecrow and the Tin Man reminded me of classmates, not that they looked like anybody, just that the had characteristics of people I know. I hate to say this but theWicked Witch of the West reminds me of my second grade teacher. Many people liked her and I am sure she was a good teacher, ...

     I was reading the "Gospel Greats " newletter this morning when I ran across the headline that Jessy Dixon had passed away. He went home to be with the Lord on September 26th. Jessy will be missed on the Gaither "Homecoming" tour singing songs such as "Highway to Heaven", "I Am Redeemed" just to name a few.      I became familar with Jessy Dixon in 1976 with a song called "Gone at Last" from Paul Simon. The piano playing in rthe background sounded a lot like the piano player from our church at the time.  They would announce it as Paul Simon and the Jessy Dixon singers. In 1977 when I went to work at WJLS, they were getting some black gospel music in and there was an album by "Jessy Dixon' called "I Expect To See Him". On the back of it were endorsements from Leo Sayer, Paul Simon and others from the pop music world. I asked if I could have the album, and I bought it home. It was kind of contemporary, but I loved...

     Several years ago Mike Bowling had a song "The Call".  It was talking about his call to share the Gospel through song.. Being called to do something for the Lord is special, scary and uncertain. My call to the ministry was in fact uncertai,n scary and something I avoided for a long time.      Some people see themselves as Joyce Meyer or TD Jakes when they get the call to preach the gospel. They don't realize that it takes a while to reach that status, if you reach it at all.  Some choose preaching as a profession, like you would choose to be a doctor or a chef. God chooses you.  The thing I couldn't get over is why did God choose me. I was like Moses.  Moses told the Lord he couldn't speak well, I told the Lord I couldn't see well. That was dumb, God made my eyes and made me the way He wanted me, He knows that. I didn't have any problem talking in front of people, God had prepared me for that long ago. When I was young I...

     A few years back Tonya Goodman Sykes wrote and sang a song called "The Things I Believe In". I have faith in His promises of things unseen, all because it's more than a dream. I'm building my life on the things I believe in. That's what I am trying to do, is build my life on the things I believe in.      I believe that if you treat people right, I mean the way you wish to be treated  you will be treated the same way. If you show kindness to people, kindness will be shown to you. If you help people, others will help you.  I know my ideas and beliefs sound a little simplistic and old fashioned, but that's the way I am.      I believe in the marriage vows. Even though sometimes I would really like to give my husband a piece of my mind.  I hold back, because I love him and some things aren't a matter of life and death and if I say too much, he may not be willing to help out if I need it. Marriage i...

    Today I started on my journey toward better health.  I am excited about it and anxious to get started.  As I worked out, I wondered how I got to this place. Was it depression or stress? I would say a little of both.  I began to get depressed about my job in the late 1990's. There was nothing I could do. Things were stressful and when I got married I just got lazy and gained about 30 pounds. I could blame this on Matt, because he likes sweets, but I don't have to eat what he brings home.  The station did a promotion on Calorad, I did lose inches and eventually weight with this and then I started walking. I got in better shape. As my mom got worse, I would get off from work and go to the hospital and stay til Sharon got off from work, I was too tired to exercise.  Later after she was gone my diabetes got worse and so for the past few years, I've been riding the rollercoaster of diabetes.     My doctor feels that if the weight wa...

    God put a rainbow in the clouds God put a rainbow in the clouds when looked like the sun wouldn't shine anymore Thats when God put a rainbow in the clouds That is one of my favorite songs from the Angelic Gospel Singers. I saw a rainbow on the way home from school today. It was bright and beautiful. Tears welled up in my eyes as I thought of the symbol of the rainbow. For me, it means everything is going to be alright. In the Bible it is a covenant between God and man, the He would never destroy the earth again by water. I have seen rainbows before, the first time the sign came that everything would be alright was in December 1996.  I had just gotten home from Kansas with my friend Betty. It was a long trip and because I couldn't drive, she did all of the driving in one day. The next day was Sunday and my mom and I went to Sharon's for some reason. Maybe it was she wanted to see me. I had been away a week.  When we got there that Sunday morning, ...

     It's hard to be in between anything. If you are in between clothing sizes, you have to sometimes move up a size or try to wear the smaller size that is a little snug and doesn't fit you anymore.  If you are in between jobs it is an equally unconfortable place to be. You can't go back to the old job, and there is no place to go. Sometimes you go back to school and retrain and hope that your skills will be useful in God's kingdom.  Its hard when some people see you as a has-been, some days you look back and wonder where God is taking you.   There are days when I struggle with this. I know that God has a plan and He gives you bits and peices on a need to know basis.      By struggle, you begin to wonder where you fit in, in the scheme of things. Am I a student, a displaced worker, or what? In my case I wonder what my destiny is. What does God have for me to do. I think that God has something for me to do in a specific area ...

     I guess you would say I am blessed and other times I wonder. I have a sister, she is three years younger than I am. We are not twins by any stretch of the imagination. Sharon is a little taller than I am, her hair is darker than mine. Her personality is different. She is more squarely shaped than I am, need I go on.  Sharon was born September 16, 1961.  I remember me staying with Miss Mairah because mama was at the hospital. The story was that my mom was on her way in to work when she went in to labor. She said she had been feeling bad for a few days and right before Sharon was born, she began to feel better, lighter. She got ready for work and she went upstairs. Since she was an employee, her benefits took care of the baby, ect.  They say Sharon was red headed at birth. Her hair still has a reddish blomde tint to it.      Sharon was always a handful as a baby. My job was to help mama with Sharon. Back in those days you didn'...

     I finally got to see "The Help", I was whisked back to '63, in Jackson, Mississippi. It was not a good place to be. Medgar Evers was shot and killed in his driveway for trying to get black people registered to vote.  That was the summer the three civil rights workers were missing. They later found them in a shallow grave in the backwoods of Mississippi.  Black people were called colored then as well.  A lot of women worked as maids or cleaned to put food on the table.  My mother never had to do that, when she worked she worked at the hospital in the kitchen as a dietary assistant.  She later would get jobs running the register in a grocery store, and other things when it became economically necessary.  My dad on the other hand was a janitor, maintenance person, orderly, and a few other things before going in the coal mines.  My grandmother and some of her sisters, my aunts, worked as "The Help", as well as some of our neighbors...

Growing up in Beckley and Mabscott in the 1960's as a little girl, not everbody had indoor plumbing. There was the building that sat somewhere in the back yard that was called an outhouse. It had on the door a cut-out shaped like a crescent moon.  When I was in the first grade at Mabscott, it was a two room school. There were outhouses there, one for the boys and one for the girls.  We used to joke about the more well-to-do people had a two-holer and the regular people had a one-holer. If anyone has been around an outhouse, it has a distinctive smell.  You know what it is, no one has to explain what it is for. Sometimes it would have to be reset on another hole and the waste buried. At Halloween, pranksters used to tip it over. Now if the person knew that a prankster was coming, they would move it off of the foundation and if you would sneak in the dark you got a pleasant surprise, you would fall in the hole. The thing about an outhouse, it is still an outhouse n...

     Today I went back to WJLS to do the broadcast "Sword of Victory" the program Bishop Simms started over 20 years ago. I am not really sure why I had to do it. Maybe it was God wanting me to face my fears. I'm not sure. I do know when I was asked to do it, my reaction was anger more than anything else. I really DID NOT want to go up to WJLS.  Some people said I shouldn't be angry, but I was because I thought it showed a lack of respect for me expecting me to go back to a place I used to work.  Then Matt said, well you know that Bishop doesn't ask just anybody to do that broadcast, so I said OK, If they can't find anyone esle to do it I will. I really don't like to say no to our pastor. He has a lot on him pastoring our church and being third in the chain of command in the organization we are in, plus him and his wife have aging mothers and they also have five daughters. So I said OK I will do this. I just didn't want any trouble from the WJLS people...

     It is hard to beleive that ten years have passed since that awful day, September 11, 2001.  I woke up at 3:45AM, and prepared to go to work as I had done. I was a little tired. At the time I was working part time at Grace Bookstore and working full time.  Everytime I get tired a song plays in my head called "Saturday Morning Confusion." Oh, its one of many goofy songs from the 1970's that portrays life in suburbia, with a goofy line that says Harry the dog had puppies last week, we didn't know if it was a he or she now we know. That goofy song talks about cartoons and how the kids are up and all of this.  Getting back to that day I stumbling to the bathroom and get washed up. Matt and I go to work. At that time we were on air together and we do "Joy in the Morning" and he goes to do other things around the station.  I prepare to go to the department head meeting at 9AM.  About five minutes til, everyone was standing watching the TV. Two ...

Have you ever ended the day with the question "why?" Why do I have to go through all of the things I go through. Why do I have to fight to have the simplest things done?  It's not that I question God, I question other people and their motives.  You wonder if things are motivated by jealousy, or people hate to see someone do well, or if they are just plain insensitive... then you wonder if God is testing you or the devil is trying to lay a trap.  So after you ask the question, bind and rebuke the devil, you figure "OK God, what are You trying to show me?" I mentioned on my Facebook page about having to a radio broadcast at my former place of employment.  At first I didn't want to do it, and then my husband the military man looks at everything as a strategic move. Maybe God is sending you there for a reason, and you know Bishop doesn't ask everyone to do the broadcast. OK, well then you start think about the song, "I went to the enemy's camp and...

"Who Moved My Cheese?" is a little book, that you can read in an hour or less, if you rush through it. But don't rush through it or you will miss the nuggets of cheese that it delivers.  My first encounter with this book was at work. Years ago we were going to put in a new automation system, we had just changed ownership and our bosses wanted to make sure we were on board with the change. Some of us were and some weren't. It was only two people out of the group of eight ready for change. I was one of them. Change is uncomfortable and scary.  Most of us don't like change. We can see it coming, we don't embrace the change until we have to. I  wasn't always like that. I was a change agent. As you get older your life settles into a comfortable groove and you get lazy about change.  Every day is the same and you like it. In the book "Who Moved My Cheese", you are introduced to four characters: Sniff and Scurry, Hem and Haw.  Sniff and Scurry seek ...

God give me a special day today. He knew I needed it. It was a year ago today that I lost my job.  For a while I have been working with some ladies as we launch a talk show called "Just Us Three". We haven't hit the air waves yet, but we will soon. Rhonda and Pam have been such a blessing to me. In their own ways they have been teaching me to trust God in all things.  So I decided from listening to them talk and hearing Joyce Meyer talk as well to trust God for everything. Don't try to figure anything out. He is working it out for my good.  I spent the morning with Rhonda and Pam as we shared ideas, thoughts and testimonies. God is faithful. He knew I needed that. They trust God to give them a good price on tires, and other things they need. It has been truly amazing... I get home and my nephew pulls in the driveway to take me to school. He was with me and took me to school last year. He is actually trying to man up. It is kind of neat to watch him. I get to school ...

August 31, 2010 was the second most painful day of my life.  After 33 years of working through numerous recessions, strikes etc. I found my self out of a job.  Losing a job has its casualties.  It is like the loss of a loved one. I had worked at this place over half of my life. I was 19 when I started working.  A way of life, dealing with adjustments in income, etc.  Here I am at 52 years old starting again. Men do it all the time. Its not so easy for a woman, we are creatures of habit and we like things a certain way. It's hard when God comes in and allows a situation to end.  This was the case here. It was time. There are lessons I have learned through this year. I will share in the following paragraghs. NEVER put your heart and soul into anything that has no Eternal value.  No job is supposed to control your life.  When people that you work for use you up, even though you may be valuable, they will spit you out. Jobs come and jobs go. Build y...

I got the news that a former co-worker had passed away, Wayne Boone... it was shocking. I asked someone what happened and they said he had pneumonia and sepsis and he didn't respond to medication. This is so sad.  I didn't know his name was Jasper Wayne Boone.  Wayne was an unassuming man who loved his work.  He was the contract engineer for a lot of radio stations in the region.  A lot of us radio people knew him.  Wayne was the kind of guy who would shoot the breeze and take the time to answer the question of the moment. Wayne worked hard, but as Matt said he loved what he was doing and was good at it. He understood tubes, RF and other things that the computer geeks didn't understand. Matt worked with him and learned from him as well as Charlie Marlow and others. Radio engineers are a dying breed. The younger folk figure they can do something else and make more money with out the aggravation of being on call and having to go to a station when it storms to re...

    Yesterday a mother had to say goodbye to her 23 year old son. I know this has to be very devastating. I have a niece that is that age. I know it would be very heart-wrenching to have to say goodby to her.  Pray for the mother and the family. That God would heal and be her comfort. A friend of mine lost a son and she said, that parents are prepared to leave before their children. It is the natural order of things. When a child dies it is hard on all involved.      I can't help but think of us as a community, did we fail in some way?  We take our children or nieces and nephews to church, and as they get older they lose interest. WHY?  The world is telling them that serving God is boring and that they would have more fun out in the world doing what ever. First let me say, I know nothing about the circumstances of this young mans death as far as what or who he was involved with. It could have been a case of being at the wrong place at ...

Today at this time six years ago I was in Charleston preparing to have my first eye surgery. It was a cornea transplant on my right eye. I had a condition called kertaconas.  The corna bulges out producing a cone shape. To do a transplant they take an instrument that looks like a buttonholer on a sewing machine and remove the old cornea and then put a new one in; stitches are required. Anyway, I could feel the prayers of people. I was nervous and afraid.  I wondered if I could see any thing after this. Could I work? I had lots of questions. I knew my eyes were getting worse. I associated it with age of more use of the computer. At work we had switched to a computerized system called SMARTS (small market accounts receivable traffic system) and I did the programming of it,until the day I was eliminated.  More time on the computer was an eye strain. Then the General Manager made me mad, we were talking about building a website and I said I would like to maintain it. He act...

It shocked me to pick up the paper this morning to find out that Jimmy Johnson had passed away on Sunday morning.  I have known Jimmy a long time, my dad has known him longer. Many people knew him as Jim Mundy's sidekick on the "Happiness Is" radio program.  Jimmy Johnson took over the program that aired Sunday evenings at 9PM on WJLS. Jimmy or some knew him as "JJ" was a slow talker. When he talked you wanted to help him finish his sentences.  He was kind of different. Jimmy had some health problems.  I met Jimmy in 1977 when I worked a night shift on WBKW. Him and Jim Mundy and some others would come in and run the board for two hours, they would have someone to answer the phone and do dedications.  They like the older groups and quartets.  Jimmy could never manage to learn how to operate the equipment, someone had to help him. Sometimes that job fell to me. In the days when you would use records it was hard because Jimmy would wait until the last ...

  ENTITLEMENT MY foot!!! Working people paid for Social Security!!! Our benefits aren't some kind of charity or handout!!! Congressional benefits - free health care, outrageous retirement packages, 67 paid holidays, three weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid sick days - now THAT'S welfare. And Congress has the nerve to call our retirement an Entitlement? Re-post if you are sick of their crap, and ashamed of our "leaders". I saw this and I re-posted this on FB.  Here is my tale.  It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. There were millons of people who had lost their jobs, and the price of gas and groceries and goods and services were going up.  There was a lower middle class couple and both of them worked. They weren't rich, they paid most of their bills, and occassionally had a little money to goof off with.  One morning the wife went in to work and was told her job had been eliminated.  She had seen this coming, so she wasn't surprised. She...

Today has been a busy day. I knew it would be, I had to do the broadcast for the church. It is at 8:30AM, to be there at 8:15 or around that time. I had to get up at 7AM. I actually ironed my blouse and skirt.  I had my music and the message ready, I spent yesterday working on it. I also was invited to a family reunion, that I almost wanted to back out of going and I decided to go anyway. They wanted me to sing and speak.  I am an OK singer, but nothing great. In fact , when I was asked I laughed a long time. The broadcast went well, and since Matt didn't particularly want to go with me, I had asked the lady could she get someone to pick me up. She picked me up herself. We went to the park and got things set up. It was an informal church service with "Amazing Grace" song and the word. I am more of a teacher than anything else. I love to teach the Word of God.  I didn't take a long time, because I have been on the other end of a function like this and you don't w...

I spend Sunday riding in the car with my 19 year old neice and nephew. It was an enlightening experience.  Today's youth do not value the things that we call society norms. I know that when you are that age you have your own thoughts and ideas about how the world should work. The thing is, you are under the protection of your parents and grandparents to some degree. They have your back. We were discussing tattoos and piercings. I have been a supervisor and have interviewed people for jobs. There were some that I was kind of iffy about, but I gave them a chance. Only to be proven that my intincts were right. There were some that couldn't fill out the job application. I read the application and talked to them briefly, but I didn't consider them. There were two reason for this. (1). There were the ones that were overqualified and I knew they would get bored quickly. (2). There were the ones whose heart was in the right place, I knew they would never catch on. (3). There ...

The month of August will be here in a few days. I have a little fear and trembling about August.  It is the eight month in the year. A lot of important things has happened to me in the month of August. Some good, some bad. In August 1987 , the Lord gave me the house I am currently living in. If I would have lived by His principles it would have been paid off by now, but I listened to others when things got tight and refinanced it. Lord forgive me for taking such a gift and being short sighted with it.  This was during the time I was trying to "have it All". If I couldn't pay cash, there was plastic.  Got in trouble with the plastic. In August 1997 Matt and I startted seeing each other. Now this had been building for about a year or so. Matt, bless his heart is a good man, but extremely dense.  We were friends for over a year and so finally I got frustrated at him beng so dense I finally asked him to come over and we needed to talk. We worked together and I didn't...