What an awesome Lord we serve! He just keeps looking for opportunities to bring showers of blessings upon us and we like it! We concluded the month of March with a great All Church Fellowship, which featured an “indoor picnic”. It was a lot of fun and great fellowship. Brother Jessie and I teamed up to bring the devotional, he in Spanish and I in English.

Joane and the ladies returned from El Campo where Joane spoke at a Women’s Retreat. It was well attended and the ladies returned with reports of victories in their individual lives. We are searching for a date where we can host a similar event here in Port O’Connor. Be looking for the announcement!

On Saturday, April 2, Patrick Overton and I left Port O’Connor at 4:00 a.m. and went to Fort Worth for the funeral of one of his friends. It was a very sweet memorial service with a lot of people in attendance. She was a faithful servant of the Lord, and the celebration of her home going was a fitting tribute to a life lived for Jesus. While in the Metro-Plex, we went by the Dallas V.A. Hospital and I got to visit with my kid brother. He suffers from Parkinson’s, but was alert long enough for us to have some quality time together. Thank you for keeping him and his family in prayer.

Friday Night Youth is going strong, and we are appreciative of the extra workers that are coming to help. It is normal for 35 – 45 kids to show up on Friday night about 7:00 p.m., and most of them are hungry. We are never quite sure of the menu, but there is always a lot of food gone before the evening ends at 10:00 p.m. Everyone is invited to attend.

We conducted a funeral for Shelly Holder on April 5. The Holders were from Seadrift, but Shelly was living in Rosenberg. Our hearts go out to this fine family who have had to bury two grandsons, and now a son, in the past two years. Please keep them in your prayers.

There is a new Bible Study that will be starting about the first Thursday of May in which the topic will be from the book titled, Search for Significance. It will be a bilingual teaching, featuring Joane McDonough and Angie Alderete. Books are being ordered; if interested, contact Joane as soon as possible at 983-4240.

Captain Robert is teaching a Sea Academy class at this time and will offer another class beginning April 29. Those interested in taking this class should come by the Chapel or call Captain Robert at 361/816-3010 or the Sea Academy at 361/758-6184.

Fisherman’s Chapel is an interdenominational congregation whose goal is to reach this community for Jesus. We believe that there is only one way to God and that is through His Son. You will always find a warm welcome at the Chapel, and are urged to, “Come, grow with us!”

Sheldon K. Holder

Rosenberg – Sheldon Kristapher Holder, 51, passed over to his Heavenly Father on April 1, 2011, following a short illness. He was born September 28, 1959, in Port Lavaca. Sheldon enjoyed his Huck Finn childhood in Seadrift, where he and his friends enjoyed roaming the fields hunting, exploring the waters, and fishing the bays.

He was employed by Witco Chemicals in 1977. He currently held the position of bulk manager with the same company under a new name, Akzo Nobel Specialty Chemical Plant. His hobbies were golfing, traveling and sight seeing. Sheldon was of the Assembly of God faith.

He is survived by his wife, Cynthia Ann Holder; parents, Edwin and Lucy Holder; mother-in-law, Carolyn Kaluza; children, Bonnie Melissa Holt and husband Jason, Nicholas Ryan Holder; stepdaughter, Holly King and husband Ben; brothers, Sammy Curtis Holder and wife Sharon, Shannon Dale Holder; and sister, Vicki Melissa Caruso; and three grandchildren, Abbigail Melissa Haskins, Aiden Clyde Holt, and Tyler Alexander King.

Funeral services were held Tuesday, April 5, in the Chapel of Davis Greenlawn Funeral Home with the Rev. Erny McDonough officiating. Burial followed in Greenlawn Memorial Park.

Memorial donations can be made to the American Cancer Society.

The following is a collection of news and notes from your State Capitol involving issues that affect House District 32.

Voter Identification Passes Out Of The House

The Voter ID bill otherwise known as Senate Bill (SB) 14 passed out of the House on March 24, 2011 after receiving a 101 yeas and 48 nays. The passage of the SB 14 marked an important vote for the Texas House of Representatives of the 82nd Legislative Session.

Currently under Texas law, to vote a regular ballot, sometimes voters are allowed to present a voter registration card to an individual working at the polling location. The poll worker then matches the name on the registration card with the list of registered voters in that precinct. Currently, there is no other statutory standard in place to verify the identity of the individual wishing to vote. This issue has caused many to question whether or not voter fraud is occurring. The objective of SB 14 is to require that an individual present a form of photo identification before that individual would be allowed to vote.

During last Wednesday’s debate, approximately sixty-three amendments were offered to make changes to the bill. The amendments ranged from changes which would allow an election judge to make exceptions for individuals in which they affirm to know personally (which did not pass), to allowing a valid identification card that contains the person’s photograph and is issued by a tribal organization (which did pass). Out of the sixty-three amendments which were brought up for discussion, only approximately fifteen received the necessary votes by the House to be added to SB 14.

Now that the House has passed its version of SB 14, the Senate has one of two options before them. They can either concur with the changes made by the Texas House or they can refuse to concur and require that a conference committee be formed, which would be composed of five members from the House and five members from the Senate. Upon the conference committee reaching an agreement, the members of the committee will issue a report to be considered for approval by both the House and the Senate. Once SB 14 receives the necessary approval of both the House and the Senate, it will then be on its way to the Governor’s desk to be signed.

Annual Budget Bill Heard In Committee

On Thursday March 24, 2011, the Committee on State Affairs heard House Joint Resolution (HJR) 33. HJR 33 is proposing a constitutional amendment to institute an annual state budget and to establish annual legislative sessions for budget purposes only. Under HJR 33, the Texas Legislature would meet annually on the third Tuesday in April for up to sixty days in a budget session. During a budget session, the Texas Legislature would only be a able to take up matters which pertain directly to appropriations or such emergency items that the Governor may provide to the legislature.

Currently the Texas Legislature meets every two years during a regular session to work on and pass out a state budget for the next two years. As this past fiscal year has indicated, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the Comptroller and the legislature to forecast the state’s revenue intake, two years in advance. Last session, the legislature based the previous biannual budget on having approximately $3 billion more in funds than we ended up having. This deficit was in large part due to a decline in sales taxes in 2009 . An annual budget for the State of Texas will be better positioned for financial shifts.

If you have questions or comments regarding Voter ID or the annual budget bill, or any other bills which have been filed, please do not hesitate to call my Capitol or District Office. As always, my offices are available at any time to assist with questions, concerns or comments (Capitol Office, 512-463-0672; District Office, 361-949-4603).

In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bag because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. The woman apologized to him and explained, “We didn’t have the green thing back in my day”. The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. The former generation did not care enough to save our environment.”

He was right, that generation didn’t have the green thing in its day. Back then they returned their milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled them, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.

But they didn’t have the green thing back in that customer’s day.

In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. They walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time they had to go two blocks.

But she was right. They didn’t have the green thing in her day.

Back then, they washed the baby’s diapers because they didn’t have the throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts – wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But that old lady is right, they didn’t have the green thing back in her day.

Back then, they had one TV or radio in the house – not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief, not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen they blended and stirred by hand because they didn’t have electric machines to do everything for you.

When they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, they used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, they didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power. They exercised by working so they didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she’s right, they didn’t have the green thing back then.

They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water. They refilled their writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen and they replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But they didn’t have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or rode the school bus instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. They had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And they didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful the old folks were just because they didn’t have the green thing back then?

Dr. Bill McLellan of Port Lavaca Veterinary Clinic and his aide, Jana Thomas, administer a shot to Lisa Stringo’s black lab, Dina, on April 5 at the Port O’Connor Fire Station. The annual Calhoun County Rabies Drive was held the week of April 4 though 9, at five locations throughout the county. Pets were immunized against rabies and other diseases at discounted prices. -Photo by Bill Tigrett