The Newton County Appeal has been missing something for a good while now — a column with news from Decatur. As a retired school teacher, having taught my last nine years at Newton County High School, this Decatur resident has finally given in to the idea that I could try to fill that void, at least for a while.
People have always had the idea, when moving to a small town for the first time, that acceptance and friendship would not be readily offered. I really do not remember being afraid of that possibility when we moved here, and I am so glad it did not prove to be true in our experience.
As a first attempt at writing this column, I thought it might be good to just thank the people of Decatur for making this a very welcoming and nice place to settle.
We had lived in Gautier on the Mississippi Coast for 32 years, bringing up our five children, and the last ones were in the process of leaving the nest. Two daughters began having children of their own in the Central Mississippi area, so we decided to join them, to be closer to our children and grandchildren. Of course, if you had told me even two or three years before we moved from my own home town that we would change everything about our lives, pull up roots and put them down elsewhere, it would have been hard for me to believe. But I will say at this point, that Jesus is our Good Shepherd, and He led us right to where we feel very much at home. Everyone has been wonderful to us, whether in our neighborhood, our church affiliations, schools, or just the shopping areas.
Obviously, I am not a native of Decatur and do not know all the family connections that make for an informative, neighborly column, such as Ms. Ruby Walters wrote for a long time. Therefore, I will depend on the Decatur public to contact me about anything you would like to see in this column.
In the meantime, I plan to contact people as much as I can to discover news from our fair city. I would love to hear any ideas you might have, though I am sure this column could not contain all the good and worthy things about which I learn.
There are so many things on my mind to share with anyone who will listen or read, but tonight as I write this, I am captivated by something I just read in a publication by Michael Youssef. His son tells of an Egyptian pastor in Cairo, in the early 1980s, who began praying for God to appear in dreams and visions to Muslims, who were so difficult to reach by Christian witness, and for God to bring them to churches.
Then other pastors joined him in prayer. I had already heard many times of the ways God has been supernaturally answering this prayer, appearing to men and women in the Middle East, drawing them to Himself! Youssef gave one example, telling of a report they received in their ministry from a Sunni Muslim from Morocco. This man had had a “detailed dream” of Jesus “descending from heaven…wearing white and riding on the clouds.” He “felt that it was the end of the world.” His dream brought him to salvation.
We in the West already know about Christ and His sacrifice made for our reconciliation to God and salvation. We have His Word! May we turn to God, humble ourselves and pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways, that He may “hear from heaven,” forgive our sins, and heal our land! (II Chronicles 7:14) Truly, Jesus is coming soon!
You may contact me at lagnesrussell@gmail.com or 601-635-3282.
