Calhoun County has received the Gold Leadership Circle Award from the Texas Comptroller’s office. This award is given to local governments across Texas that are striving to meet a high standard for financial transparency online; opening their books to the public; providing clean, consistent pictures of spending; and sharing information in a user-friendly format that lets taxpayers easily drill down for more information.

The Leadership Circle has three award levels – Gold, Silver, and Bronze. The Gold designation highlights those entities that are setting the bar in their transparency efforts. Silver encourages those who are making progress, while Bronze inspires those who are just beginning their transparency efforts.

The County received a perfect rating in the major criteria of: Official Adopted Budget; Annual Financial Report or Comprehensive Financial Report; Check Register; and Financial Transparency Webpage. The minor criteria for the award included twelve categories: local government contact information; contact information for elected officials; public information request contact and instructions; easy access to financial documents in three clicks or less; budgets for three most recent fiscal years; annual financial reports for three most recent completed reports; check registers for three most recent fiscal years; searchable check registers; descriptive check registers; visual representation of financial data; current tax rates for local option taxes; and raw format budget. The County received 8 out of a possible 12 points for these minor criteria.

One thing I know for certain after two years of interviewing and learning about the people that make up Seadrift, Texas: the older generations were absolutely fascinated by the train! I wrote an article about the railroad in January of this year and since the recent move of the original train depot, my mind has been pondering… about all the unanswered questions I had.

First off, here’s a bit of history from the January 14, 2011 article:

On June 6, 1903, the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway (SLBM), also known as The Frisco; was chartered to run from Sinton to the Rio Grande at Brownsville with a branch extending westerly to the southeast corner of Starr County. The Port O’Connor (POC) Branch was one of the branches created which ran from Bloomington, Lela Pens and Seadrift to POC. March 1, 1910, the train depot was opened for business and used to freight large shipments of oysters and fish daily from Seadrift. By 1912, thousands of acres of cotton were grown and hauled to Seadrift to be ginned by the city’s new gin. The railway, over time merged with multiple lines and has numerous aliases, from the International – Great Northern Railroad (I&GN) to the SLBM to the Port O’Connor, Rio Grande and Northern Railway (PORG&N)—in the end it concluded as the Missouri Pacific Railroad (MoPac). The MoPac was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River which grew from a combination of a dozen mergers classifying it as a “Class I Railroad.” A Class I railroad is a large freight railroad company classified based on operating revenue. At the end of 1955, MoPac owned or leased 98 diesel units and 4,377 cars, with revenue of $461,554 and $15,759,273 of freight earnings.

So I set out to find out more. Several phone calls later, more pieces of the puzzle were falling into place. The last time I researched the railroad, it did not dawn on me where Lela-Pens, the stop between Seadrift and POC, was. As you are driving south, leaving Seadrift, about a mile outside of the city limits on the left-hand side looms a red building which looks like a barn; it’s appropriately marked “LELA-PENS” on the front. Joe Beaver Sr. told me they would bring cattle there and ship them North. They would also ship in gravel and stock pile it on the roads. Can you believe all of the times we drive by there (that I drove by there) and had no clue it was once a stop on the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway?!?

Joe said, “We would always play on the tracks; we’d collect rocks for our sling shots – they were just about marble size – and terrorize the birds.” As children they would play across the street from the depot in Seadrift on large cement pillars which were in the shape of pyramids. The pillars were located where the car wash is now. Joe also remembers placing pennies on the tracks, even though they were few and far between.

Dorothy Wilson also remembers playing on the tracks. The train was an old steam locomotive. She said, “We’d walk down the railroad tracks, and as the train neared, the conductor would see us and let out steam! We were afraid that steam would burn us so we’d run off the track !” She and her two younger brothers got to ride the train once; she even got to pull the whistle and see where they placed the coal which powered the train.

Much like Joe, Dorothy and her siblings would also place things on the tracks, only they put oyster shells on the track! “We laid them out on the track, hid, waited to see what happened. The train smashed those shells, but then it stopped, maybe looking for us. We were scared! We could have derailed it! Other kids put pennies, but we didn’t ever have pennies. I was born in 1928, the depression started a year afterward,” she said to me, “We weren’t used to anything better.”

Dorothy also remembers by the depot along the tracks the hobos would be sleep everywhere. “Men outta work, lookin’ for work and they were always hungry,” she said. “They would stop at people’s homes and ask for something to eat.” She even heard they would sleep in the boxcars or even underneath them!

Both Joe and Dorothy recall Oscar Rassmusen, lifelong resident of Seadift was the Railroad Depot agent. Oscar Alvin was born February 9, 1895 on Matagorda Island to Andrew Teresa Smith Rasmussen. Dorothy thinks she agitated him, “He had a telegraph machine and I’d love to watch and listen, I’m sure that irritated him. People didn’t have radios back then to get storm reports, so they’d go up to the depot and listen to the storm reports coming in via telegram – it was a busy place.”

History is all around us and we need to realize the value and importance of documenting it will be in our future, our children’s future and those generations we will never have the opportunity to meet. It was not easy for me to find information about the depot, train or railway; much less find residents that were around in those times. Head out to the county museum and learn more about our coastal community! Till next time…

Show below, clippings from Seadrift Success, Seadrift’s first newspaper, May 1915.

The Calhoun County Democratic Club holds its monthly meeting at the IBC Bank in Port Lavaca on the last Thursday of the month.

The meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. with a social with snacks and soft drinks.

The General Meeting starts at 6:00 p.m. and usually there is a guest speaker.

The meeting usually lasts no more than an hour and a half at the most.

-G.B. Robertson

Many people of faith have at one time entertained the idea of becoming a missionary to foreign lands, but the realities of everyday life – falling in love, getting married and raising a family, and then providing for and nurturing that family – pull their attention away from foreign peoples as they concentrate on their mission here at home. For those who once felt that call, there are now more and more opportunities to respond by being a part of a short-term mission, some lasting only a week and fitting in to the person’s vacation schedule.

Following is an account (edited for length) of one short-term missionary, Rebecca Cayford, sister of Brenda Carter of Port O’Connor. First Baptist Church Melbourne, 3301 Dairy Road, Melbourne, Florida 32901 sponsored this mission trip to Nicaragua.

Sunday, July 10: I’m heading out within the hour for Nicaragua on my second missionary trip with my church. Among other things, we are doing a children’s ministry at the parent church in a large city, Tipitapa, on Monday and Tuesday and also at a newly planted church in a remote area, Marvin Salazar, on Wednesday and Thursday mornings. We are planning to erect a used McDonald’s playground next to the newly planted church. This is the Eagle Scout project of one our church youth.

Monday, July 11: Today, the first day of our School of Hope Bible school for the kids, was excellent! It was held at the parent church in Tipitapa, and the pastor’s wife has excellent organizational skills. Although the church was a relatively small area for 500 children, it had a concrete floor with a huge roof and no walls. So we had a good breeze and shade from the blazing sun.
We divided the children up into four groups by age, and I prayed for the youngest ones (3-6). Sure enough, I got them, and they were the biggest group by far. We had two interpreters, one of which I had last year. I was never so glad to see an interpreter. Xavier is excellent; what a blessing! And the other, Ezekiel, is a wonderful man, too.

We had face painting, a puppet show, two Bible stories (my part), games, and a parachute to play with, and coloring books for a craft time. It went great. The best part was the way the pastor’s wife, Odily, organized the snack time. She had the kids get in line by their age groups, in order, and they got the snack as they left. No pushing, and you could tell if someone tried to get in line for seconds with another group, because they weren’t the right height, lol!

Our bus driver took us on a tour of Tipitapa on the way home, and then we showered, swam, played cards, napped, and had lunch. We had a women’s Bible study tonight. Four of the ladies had recently survived a van accident. Their van with 13 people in it rolled off a cliff and two of their husbands had died; one is seriously injured. We gathered around them and prayed. Violeta was especially used by God to encourage them, as she is a native of Nicaragua and fluent in the language. She also has a powerful testimony of God’s faithfulness in her own life.

Wednesday, July 13: Tuesday was our last day at the Family First Baptist Church, and it went even better than Monday. Today, the kids had a blast playing with balloons with animal faces painted on them. (All of a sudden I’m an artist!) We handed out salvation bracelets and played cool games. We really had a blast with them. It doesn’t take much to smile: give a hug, and say “te amo” (I love you.) or “Dios te bendiga” (God bless you). They are so cute and their smiles are worth a million.

This afternoon we went to the men’s prison. The men met with eleven prisoners who were being rewarded for good behavior. They stayed out by the ball field, supervised by five armed guards, and got to know one another; told testimonies of what God has done in their lives; and had a Bible study, and prayed. One man was a Christian, but he is serving a life sentence. He told of how Jesus helps him not only cope, but thrive. Our men left some balls, bats and gloves as a gift.

Nine of our women, including me, met with about 25 women employees in what looked like a cafeteria. Pastor Odifly offered to start a Bible study with all of them and got several names of women who are interested. Just to let you know, this prison is not like any we have. It is very poor, run down, and I’m sure it is horrible inside. We weren’t allowed to take pictures.

Thursday, July 14: Today we went to Marvin Salazar. From what I understand, it is a new community that was planted in this location after flooding destroyed their original community. The houses are made out of rusting, leaking tin roofs and plastic or cardboard walls, whatever they can find. Because of the heavy rain last night, there was plenty of mud to slide around in. We had to walk at least 20 minutes, if not more, because the new church site is on the back edge of town. I had on my new WalMart blue mud boots with white polka dots, so I was set.

One of our young, newbie translators, Linda, had on very fashionable and delicate silver sandals. After 10 minutes into the trek, each entire foot was covered with mud and she was slipping around in a dangerous manner, held up by her friend (who had warned her not to wear those sandals). I remembered I had two WalMart bags, so we had her put her sandaled feet in them and tied them at the ankles, but after a while her toes broke through the plastic.

Along the way, we saw a man with a bleeding gash in his temple. We cleaned his wound and put some band-aids on it. He said he was going to the hospital for stitches. All this excitement before even getting to the site!

As we got close to the pastor’s house, I saw this woman and felt the Lord prompting me to ask her if she had any shoes that our fashion plate interpreter could wear. She said yes and came back with a great pair of rubber boots, size 9, just Linda’s size! Isn’t God wonderful! Linda was beaming with relief.

We were so pleased to see the progress the men had made with the McDonald’s playground. It is going to be so much fun for the kids! We all huddled under the only shade, the new Baptist church, which consisted of a large roof. The play equipment, the church, and the pastor’s new block house the men had erected two weeks ago were all in a row.

We began our children’s ministry that morning with Bible studies. The group was small at first, but others arrived late and we ended up with about 300 kids in all. After two Bible stories and Bible activities, we had recreation out in the scorching sun. The best thing about it was there was plenty of room. Some workers did relay games and played with the parachute with the older kids. I helped with the 2-4 year olds, and man, was it hot! One of our staff had to guard our belongings.

The most interesting part of my day began when I got out of the bus and realized I had to empty my bladder again. Yup, I regretted drinking two cups of coffee this a.m.! I’m wondering how this was going to pan out, whether I would have to hold it the entire morning until we got back to the hotel, but I found out a woman who was a community resident/church member had a “bathroom” and she seemed so excited to share it with us.

One of the male interpreters escorted me with her to her house, two doors down, and she led me to an outhouse with walls that went about chest high and a door that wouldn’t shut. She stood in front, holding the door for me. There was a cement toilet and a seat with a lid that wasn’t attached. I had to touch the lid to open it, which was brave of me. Maybe it was just stained? No paper, but she led me into her house to wash my hands.

That was the best experience of all, being in her house. She had a large barrel with rainwater and scooped a bowlful for me to wash, and had a large bar of soap. The sink had two parts, one side to be for food and dishes, the other for washing, since it had ridges made of cement for scrubbing clothes.

Thank God I had the interpreter with me so I could ask her questions. She had a cast iron kettle of rice cooking on a wood stove inside the house, in the heat of the day. The floors were just dirt, and mud at that, since the rain came right through the holes in the tin roof last night. There were three rooms; the second room had a hammock. She said her husband slept there with the children and she slept in the back room which had a curtain, so I didn’t go back there.

They have four kids, three boys and one girl, with the oldest 13. That place must have been fifteen feet square. She was so proud of it. It was really clean, too, all things considered.

On the way back to the bus, I got to listen to the interpreter who escorted me to the “bathroom”. He wanted some dating advice, and then said my advice was the same as his mother’s, lol, and also the same as a dream he had from the Lord. Turns out he wants to serve the Lord as a youth counselor. He was surprised to hear me say that I was going to school to be a counselor, too. Birds of a feather, and all…

Friday, July 15: Today was our last day of “work”. We were at Marvin Salazar again, and had a wonderful time with children doing the Bible school. The playground was finished, and it is a wonderful and colorful addition to the community. What is cool is that every time the kids want to go there, they will have to walk past the church to get to it and will be reminded that it was the love of the Lord that brought it to them.

More work was done on the pastor’s house. I learned today his wife is a school teacher and will be quitting her job to move to Marvin Salazar to do the Lord’s work. We are going to try to raise another $300 to build her an outhouse/shower for their new home. It must be tough to move from the city to the country and to leave a job you love. She is praying about starting a pre-school next year.

Did you know they are in their winter months and this is the coolest time of the year? Needless to say, they aren’t sweating at all, unlike us. Their summer break is from November to January.

We had a meeting tonight after supper and everyone got a chance to share how they were impacted by the trip. There were many tears shed as we reflected how we will go home to an extremely wealthy world while they will continue to struggle to survive, hauling water from the one well in town, one five gallon bucket at a time, to drink, and collecting rain water for everything else.

Besides the great sightseeing we experienced in Granada before departing, the highlight of the last few days was that one of our interpreters accepted Jesus’ death on the cross for the payment of his sins, right there on the bus. His name, Yaddar, is now written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and if we never see him again this side of glory, we will spend eternity with him praising our Lord Jesus Christ. We have been encouraged to have hope in hopeless situations.

Thank you so much for your prayers. They were invaluable. God bless you all.

Rebecca

Professor Parke Kunkle of the Minnesota Planetarium Society caused an uproar earlier this year by suggesting in a Minneapolis newspaper interview that shifts in the Earth’s orbit meant stars no longer aligned the same as when the zodiac calendar originated centuries earlier.

Thousands of angry and panic-stricken horoscope followers took to Facebook, fearful that their sign might change under a redesigned system.

Horrorscopes (as I like to call them) indeed have a grip on many people. According to a 2009 Pew Forum poll, 1 in 4 Americans – including 1 in 3 adults under age 30 – claims to believe in astrology. The overall figure represents more than 1 in 5 people who call themselves Christians who follow the charts.

For decades, horrorscopes have been a part of many daily newspapers. In recent years, numerous entertainment and women’s magazines have joined the club and provide guidance according to the “stars”. According to the Pew poll, 28 percent of women take horrorscopes seriously compared with 21 percent of men. The internet is rife with advice sites devoted to astrology, with some around the clock hotlines charging nearly $20.00 per minute.

In a brilliant marketing plot, multiple astrological websites are wrapped in a cloak of spiritual lingo, with catchwords such as “truth”, “wisdom” and “prayer”, and even expressions like “God bless you” sprinkled throughout. As a result, many people think these “how-to-tips” must be okay because they appear to be spiritual.

People are disillusioned and afraid in these times of great uncertainty, so they search for ways to feel more comfortable and to relieve the stress and anxiety of the future. Searching for answers to life’s dilemmas increases in the middle of economic upheavals or in the aftermath of natural disasters – and we have seen both globally in recent months.

Syracuse University Professor Robert Thompson in a recent interview said that millions of people dabble in astrology out of curiosity, although hardcore followers are fewer in number. “Most people do not have a deep-seated belief that where Mercury is relative to Mars at a given time is really going to determine whether they are going to find love or get a better job. Yet there is a substantial amount of people for whom this is an important part of their lives on how they should behave.”

Movies like “Harry Potter” and television programs like “The X Files” and “Medium” have presented the inexplicable as something interesting and fun. But the Bible warms against any fascination with psychics, clairvoyants, soothsayers, fortune-tellers, stargazers, sorcerers, or palm readers. Many passages of Scripture denounce occult practices that seek guidance or knowledge through sources other than the God of the Bible. The Word of God is definitive: The practice of astrology and other mystic activities is wrong and dangerous.

Astronomy is a science, while astrology is a religion! It makes no sense for a Christian to look to astrology to try to make sense of their lives. Astrology presents the idea that there is a system- based on the sun and planets- to try to make sense of the chaos around us. It is foolishness and without any basis in truth to believe such. The line between the paranormal and the supernatural becomes blurred to the undiscerning.

One of the dangers in checking one’s horrorscope just for amusement is that one might be swayed by its message. Particularly vulnerable are those who are facing a terrible illness, or who have been very unsuccessful in find love, or those who desperately need better employment.

The greatest problem with checking ones horrorscope is that those who do are not yielding to the will of God. By seeking someone who supposedly can foretell the future, those who desire comfort to placate fears about the future are relying on a false hope. In any season of life where we feel like we cannot manage what is going to come tomorrow, we are tempted to find a means of manipulation. To go to someone else to try to control events for us displays a lack of trust in God and the understanding that He will work for our benefit.

Certainly it is part of human nature to want to know if what we are doing in life is valuable and whether our time on earth is making a difference. Most of us want to know the future and are looking for help. When people do not have rock solid faith in God that gives them meaning, they search somewhere else.

Astrology is a false view of spirituality. Those who consult psychics or horrorscopes frequently are trying to fill a spiritual vacuum. But rather than providing a meaningful relationship with God, a psychic reading gives a client a good feeling catharsis that eases stress. Visits with a psychic promote no change in behavior, which is a huge contrast to Jesus’ teaching of daily sacrifice and accountability.

Not everything that appears spiritual is from God. Spirits must be tested to ensure that the supernatural is in line with Scripture and that the message leads to Christ. Many who look to astrology for guidance accept the advice as truth, but it has no substance. I sincerely believe that demonic powers are behind these occult practices!

Remember, when we are going through a divorce, when someone in our lives has died, when we have lost our job and have no funds in our savings account, only faith in God will sustain us! Be careful not to be misled by “another gospel” that is truly no Gospel at all.