Abbas House Church of God

05/26/2025

Sunday Barbara and I served our last day as pastors at Abbas House Church of God. We have had a blessed seven-plus years serving this loving congregation. I cannot express how appreciative of Barbara Hail’s willingness to give up our retirement plans those years ago. I cannot single out one member who has not been supportive throughout these seven+ years. I pray blessings upon each of them. Retirement second time around here we come.

Dr. J and Barbara

PS: I am available as a preacher still, just no more pastoring.

11/24/2024

06/21/2024

What does this speak to you?

12/13/2023

This could have more implications than a printed book. 🧐

They saw her in the library
Discarded on a chair
And her glossy, shiny cover
Made them notice she was there

They picked her up and held her
For a minute, maybe three
And they said she was exquisite
The most beautiful they’d seen

They thought not of her pages
Simply stared at her in awe
Then they put her on the bookshelf
As they headed out the door

So they never knew the words she chose
To mark her journey’s start
And they didn’t read the reams and reams
Of kindness at her heart

They didn’t read the things she hid
In pages left untouched
Or the hellos and goodbyes she’d said
To people that she loved

They didn’t read the chapters
Where she set herself apart
And they never read the lines she wrote
Of how they’d played their part

They didn’t turn the pages
On her struggles and her strengths
And they missed the ripped-up paper
Where she’d torn herself to shreds

They never read the parts
About the places she had been
Or the people she had helped
Or all the wonders she had seen

So when anybody asked them
What it was that she was like
They realised they had no idea
What she was like inside

See, they’d told her she was beautiful
Because of how she looked
But they’d just admired her cover
And they’d never read her book

*******

Becky Hemsley 2020
Incredible artwork once again by Elisabeth on Earth
aptly titled ‘Once Upon a Time’

Inside Story is from Talking to the Wild
https://a.co/d/eKD0Hy6

* I've just added the text of this poem as a free downloadable print to my website :)

12/08/2023

COMMENTARY
The holiday season finds us divided and isolated. This modest gesture might help
By SETH D. KAPLAN

LOS ANGELES TIMES (TNS)

We are living in an age of placeless possibility: a time when we can instantly get in touch with another person no matter where they are on the planet through any number of media. We can catch up with friends and family, network, and even date virtually. We can connect with hundreds simultaneously Zooming in from far-flung locations.

Based on all this, it would be easy to assume that place no longer matters. But in a world that is going increasingly virtual, place actually matters far more than we realize. While technology can increase the quantity and efficiency of our connections, the relationships that matter — the ones we depend on so much for our well-being — are rooted firmly in physical places.

At the same time, “ an increasing portion of the U.S. population now experiences isolation regularly,” wrote Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a Brigham Young University psychology professor who has studied the problem extensively. We are more likely to live alone, less likely to be married and having fewer children than previous generations.

Many of us live across the country or even the world from our closest friends and family. A 2020 study by Cornell University’s Karl Pillemer found that more than a quarter of us are estranged from a close relative. Put another way: We have fewer guests at our holiday gatherings than we used to.

Our growing social disconnection and isolation have become a public health crisis, harming childhood development, contributing to more deaths of despair and exacerbating polarization and mistrust. Many studies have shown that health and happiness depend on the strength of our relationships — not just with family and friends but also with acquaintances, neighbors and the rest of our broader social support networks. And as the COVID-19 shutdowns taught us, online relationships are not comparable stand-ins for in-person interactions.

We often feel helpless in the face of this large-scale social disconnection. But each of us can take a step to address it this holiday season by inviting a neighbor to join us for a meal.

Modern life downplays the importance of the relationships, commitments and experiences shared among neighbors. But we should not underestimate the strength of the bonds that shared geography can create between people who might otherwise feel little connection and may even be on opposite sides of ideological divides. Like family and friends, neighbors are “relational nutrients to a healthy person,” noted Howard Lawrence of the Abundant Community Initiative in Edmonton, Canada.

Neighborhood ties are especially important in times of crisis. During a deadly 1995 heat wave in Chicago, the North Lawndale neighborhood suffered more than six times as many fatalities as South Lawndale even though the two places were socioeconomically similar. In his “ social autopsy ” of the incident, the sociologist Eric Klinenberg attributed the difference to South Lawndale’s healthy social life, robust civic organizations and low crime rate, which nurtured greater social connectivity and stronger norms related to helping those in need.

Our culture prizes the ability to work through our issues and figure things out for ourselves. If a child gets sick at school and needs to be picked up in the middle of the workday, many of us are more likely to muddle through than call on a grandparent, family friend or neighbor. And fewer of us can turn to local organizations, religious congregations or other place-based support networks that were pervasive in earlier generations.

Too many of us are unwittingly choosing efficiency over depth of connection. We might think our time is much better spent at the gym than at a neighborhood block party or community fundraiser. Corporate culture reminds us that time is money, so we hoard our precious few hours of free time to ourselves.

This comes at a cost: “If we don’t know our neighbors, aren’t active in local community life, pay for others to raise our children and service our elders, and try to buy our way into a good life, we pay a large price,” John McKnight and Peter Block wrote in “The Abundant Community.” “We produce, unintentionally as it might be, a weak family, a careless community, and a nation that tries hopelessly to revive itself from the top down.”

It’s time to reverse course. What is efficient in the moment may not be what’s best for us or our society over time.

Holiday celebrations often revolve around family, but this season also provides great opportunities to extend a hand to those who live nearby, especially those who might be alone or going through a difficult time. Do your part to reduce isolation and division and take the initiative to invite a neighbor over for dinner.

• Seth D. Kaplan is a lecturer at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and the author of “ Fragile Neighborhoods: Repairing American Society, One Zip Code at a Time.”

12/08/2023

By DERRICK JAMESSTAFF WRITER An annual toy giveaway will look differen

12/02/2023

𝐎𝐟 𝐁𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐬
I am the largest land animal in North America and my picture often symbolizes the American West during the time of settlers, wagon trains, Cowboys and Indians, and you will even see my image on some of your money.
You likely know me as the American Buffalo, although in technical terms some of you refer to me as Bison. By what name I am known to you is not as important as the role we have played throughout life history.
When the explorer Columbus landed on Turtle Island in the late 1400's, my family population was estimated at nearly 60,000,000 and our home range was the majority of what is now called the United States, with some of our Wood Bison cousins living in the area of Canada. By 1890, our estimated population was around one thousand as we neared total extinction from being hunted by settlers, and slaughtered by others to starve out the 'Indians'.
Although some of your ancestors of that time raised concerns about this slaughter, nothing was actually done to bring it to an end as the government encouraged this killing to meet their goal of containing the Plains Indians. Sadly, this apathy among your kind continues to this day as cattle ranchers have taken land once ours to range their cattle for profit. This may not raise alarm with some of you concerning us, but consider that the greatest slaughter of my family took place between 1850 and 1890, and if we were to be killed at the rate of 1000 per day, it would take 164 of your years to complete this cycle, and yet, humans were able to achieve this in less than 40 years. This gives you an idea of what my family endured at the hands of humans.
This demonstrates the mindset of those whose life quest was based on greed for land and genocide of a native people; those who lived in harmony with their surroundings knowing that how they treated the earth and her inhabitants would come back full circle to their way of life.
Native Americans had great respect for my family members and took what they needed without killing an entire herd. We were honored with song and dance and our spirits were respected with the ensuing hunt. Our numbers were not greatly affected by their hunting as we were prolific and maintained our ability to do our part in keeping the natural world in balance.
There are many things you can learn about yourself from my family as we all share this small planet together. Native People looked to nature for lessons, warmth and livelihood and realized that all natural things are teachers and speak to us if only we take time to listen.
The males in my family can grow to around 2000 pounds and nearly 6 feet high at the shoulders, and although we may seem to be slow and cumbersome, we can run to speeds of 35 miles per hour. This is good to remember when meeting others of your species so that you don't assume one thing about that person when something entirely different may be the case. When we graze, we continue to move so we do not lay waste to the land and our hooves loosen the earth as we walk, run, or wallow which in turn makes it easier for grasses to grow and critters to dig. This is a reminder to you that there will be times you must move quickly and times to move more at ease, but whatever your pace, be considerate of what you are doing to our Earth Mother and not destroy or disrespect what is around you.
Our great strength is needed to walk this journey we have been given and will teach you that there will be times in your own life that you will need great strength to continue on your path and reach your goals. When the snow is heavy and food is scarce, we will use our massive heads to push snow aside and find grasses lying underneath. Keep in mind that as we do this, so you also can use your head in stressful situations rather than giving in to panic. Look at the whole situation, use your head (emotions don't move snow very well) and keep going until you resolve the situation or find the grass you are looking for. The cold winds of change will figuratively blow through your life from time to time and emotional winters can be endured with the right type of insulation. Our heavy winter hair is a reminder to you of this and just as you see us shed this heavy coat in the spring, so you are reminded that there will come the day you can shed the concerns you had during that winter time that settled upon your path.
Native Americans wasted nothing we had to offer. Our bones were tools and weapons, our hides clothing and shelter, our bladders water and boiling bags, and even our tails made good fly swatters. They understood, and many still understand, that taking a life is a serious thing and when this must be done, honor should be a large part of the process leaving little to zero waste. Here I would ask you humans to think about how much waste is created on your earth walk as you eat and build homes, buy new things or just get tired of what you have had for a time. Settlers and hunters were known to kill us, take our tongues and hides and leave the rest to rot on the plains. Waste created by greed and lack of respect. We Buffalo had no need for landfills nor did we bury toxic waste beneath the skin of our Earth Mother. All worked in a beautiful cycle from our birth to our fertilizing the ground in our death and in feeding others.
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