An Arkies Musings

This is my article as published in the August 28, 2014 issue of The Mena Star. A Picture of God While we are traveling in the car, my wife and I like to listen to audiobooks.  We recently listened to Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery.  We enjoyed the book so much that I looked for other audiobooks by L. M. Montgomery. I found and purchased the book, The Story Girl, and we are currently listening to it. The Story Girl was published in 1911 and tells of the adventures of a group of young cousins and their friends who live on Prince Edward Island.  The book is narrated by Beverley, who with his brother Felix, has come to live with his Aunt and Uncle on their farm while their father travels for business.  The Story Girl is their cousin Sara Stanley, whose many stories fill the book. One story in the book really caught my attention.  On their way home from school, Felix has some interesting news.  "Jerry Cowan told me at recess this a...

The Relay For Life of Polk County held its third annual Celebrity Waiter Dinner on Friday, August 22 at the Mena Mountain Resort.  Local celebrities waited tables for tips and Farrell Cole held a live auction of items that had been donated.  By the time the evening was over, more than 18,000 dollars had been raised for the American Cancer Society.  The local celebrities that participated this year are Jim and Joyce Stroope, Monroe Miller, Tanya Sickles, Belinda Jones, Brenda Hamilton, Betty Johnson, Jared Standridge, David Jones, Terry and Rita Keener, George and Rhonda McKee, Ginger Sterner, Lawana Callahan, Nina and Frank Moore, Josh Marshall, Greg Goss, and George Davis. After the meal provided by Mena Mountain Resort, the guests provided their own entertainment with karaoke and dancing.  At the conclusion of the event awards were handed out in the following categories: Sneakiest Waiter – Jim Stroope; Best Theme - Ginger Sterner and Lawana Callahan; B...

Recently I received a phone call shortly after I arrived at work.  A caller from Minnesota was asking if I could help a young woman who had been stranded in Mena.  She had traveled from Lafayette, Louisiana to Minnesota by bus to attend a wedding.  On her return trip the bus she was riding on stopped in Mena in the early morning hours.  The young woman along with several other women got off the bus to use the restroom.  She was last in line, and as soon as she finished and walked outside she saw that the bus was pulling away. She chased the bus waving her arms frantically but the bus drove off.  She didn't know what to do.  She was stranded at a gas station in a strange town.  Her first call was to Greyhound Bus customer service. They were not helpful at all.  It was no concern of theirs that the bus had left her.  Since she was not on the bus that her ticket was written for, the ticket was no longer valid.  If she wanted t...

D is for Doom, my entry for this weeks ABC Wednesday . It seems like a day doesn't go by that someone doesn't talk to me about the condition that the world finds itself in.  Too many of my acquaintances are buying into all of the doom being spread on TV and social media. What I have noticed in the past few months, is that it seems like the people I have talked to who have been the most worried are Christians.  I have gotten numerous e-mails from Christian people who are sure that doom is right around the corner.  I can't believe that God wants us to live that way.  2 Thessalonians 3:16 says "may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way". I do believe that we are living in the last chapter of Earth's history, but I am puzzled by many of my fellow Christians.  Does God want us to worry? I saw something the other day that really puzzled me.  I was in a Christian bookstore, and I saw that they had Christian worry stones for sale....