The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

Our pastor, Sue, had told us she was doing the “ blessing of the animals” at the churches in Havre and Chester. Did we want to have a service also? Of course, we did. I did some research into the blessing of animals. I had heard about it but nev...

John Donne, the English poet-scholar, wrote: “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main…” The poem goes on to explain that every man lives a life dependent on those around him. He needs other...

One request the public has made of the Mountaineer is to have more Ob-Ed articles, which means “opposition to the editorial” page, in other words, more political articles. Consider this your invitation. However, please keep the following in min...

Dear Community of Big Sandy, I wish to inform you that I am resigning as a provider at the Big sandy Medical Center. My last day will be October 28th, 2022. This was not an easy decision; however, I will remain in the medical field but choosing to...

Nearly 20 years ago, I started working at a children’s home in Indiana. It was an impatient mental health facility for kids. One of the people I met in new staff orientation was a fellow named Mark. He had been working at the home for over 30 y...

In the days right before Jesus entered Jerusalem, he was sitting at a meal with his disciples and some people he had encountered in his ministry. During the meal, a woman came in with a bottle of expensive perfume. Based on the description in the...

I was born and raised in Canada, so I have always called Queen Elizabeth the second my queen. I was raised in a family who loved the monarchy. My mother kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings regarding the Queen, especially when she was in Canada...

The gospel of Matthew includes an account where a group of Pharisees approach Jesus in an effort to trap him by posing a no-win question. They asked: “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar?” Today this seems like a pretty innocuous question. We mig...

One of the most common debates surrounding Jesus and his ministry revolved around the sabbath. The sabbath refers to the Jewish practice of not working on the last day of the week. It is important enough that it is actually mentioned in the 10 Comman...

Dear Big Sandy Community: I do not typically feel the need to provide public clarification on personal matters; however, recent events have influenced me to do so. I devoted the past 10 years to Big Sandy Medical Center (BSMC) in more ways than is...

In 120 BC, Rabbi Joshua ben Perachiah said, “Judge each person with the scales weighted in their favor.” The phrase ought to sound familiar to the average person because it is striking in its similarity to the words of Jesus: “Do not judge, or you t...

Vikings-raids and War is a juvenile history book by Louise Spilsbury that I checked out from the library. I have always been fascinated by history, so I wanted to learn more about the Vikings. Who they are, and why they did what they did. The word...

Dear Big Sandy Neighbors, Friends, and Family: I am writing this letter to our community to say, “Thank you.” At the beginning of the summer, my family reached the 10-year mark of our tenure in the Big Sandy community. During my daily prayers, I rar...

I am a great believer in equal opportunity when it comes to animals. People have heard that a particular cat is “ just “ a barn cat. So if we follow that line of thinking, people born poor are just “ poor,” so Because of the circumstances they we...

This week, I finished reading a biography of C.S. Lewis written by a student and personal friend of his. The book is unique in that it offered a personal account of the life of an author I hold in high esteem. I love Lewis’ writings, both his n...

I recently came across a great line: “Every Olympic event should have an average person competing for reference.” I am not sure who said it originally, but it is brilliant. First off, it’s funny. I can only imagine what it would be like to race...

Most people know Daniel in the Bible from the story of the lions’ den. The account of that event takes place in the 6th chapter of the book, when Daniel was around 70-years old. He had spent his entire life up until this point working in the c...

The Old Testament history of the Jewish people records a major series of events that changes the religion, how people thought, and in some ways, the course of Western Civilization. This story takes place a few hundred years before the birth of Jesus....

When I was a kid, my favorite books were the Choose Your Own Adventure series. These books usually told some sort of adventure story about time travel, monsters, knights, detectives, or some other exciting tale. Every few pages, when the main...

So much has been written about mothers and so much misunderstood. So many topics concerning mothers have not become newsworthy. We, as mothers, know this. It’s only been relatively recent that miscarriages have been acknowledged as the traumatic e...

I got my first job when I was 16. I worked at a bakery/deli making sandwiches, serving customers, washing dishes, and doing other minimum wage-type restaurant work. Since then (for about 30 years), I have rarely had a stretch of time where I did not...