Everyone here knows I need your prayers! Physically, I am receiving the best care for which I could hope. I have had hospitalization, physical therapy, and the best nursing any husband could ever have imagined in his wildest imagination! Many of you have had to help share the load and have extended yourselves far what would be normal! The Great Physician has helped me and I am getting stronger each day!

The most difficult thing about all this is that I can not do anything to make it better than I am doing! When there is a problem, my modus operandi is to take action and get to work on fixing it. But, I am doing that and still not having the progress I want! It is hard for someone who is accustomed to taking care of others to receive care for themselves!

I know I have not been taking care of all my responsibilities. Pastor Joane has had to take over the preaching, the pastoral duties, the household duties, and all the other duties I have not been able to attend to. I have not been able to accomplish the tasks I want to see done and have leaned heavily upon many of you, past the point of what I should have! But, you have stepped up to the tasks and done them better than I could!

My brokenness has worked on my pride! It has been thrown in my face that I am not God! I can not fix very much, especially the everything I am accustomed to trying to fix! I can not do what I want – I still need help. It is the coming to the end of myself to admit this. The emotional pain of the reality of my inabilities is more acute than any physical pain I could suffer!

As I reflect on this, I realize how it is a picture of GRACE! We all struggle with grace! God provides us with grace. He is the only source. We have no role in the giving of grace except in the receiving of it. Receiving grace is admitting to ourselves that we are needy. We think we have it within ourselves to buy, to earn, or to work for God’s acceptance. But we are more unable than we could ever realize. We may confess it with our mouths, that we are sinners in need of God’s help, but it is another matter to believe it in our hearts!

We, by our nature, are compelled to do something and to have a role in making it right. Instead of allowing God to fix our problems, we take the burden on ourselves. Our nature compels us to be in control. That is the reason that doctors and nurses are the worst patients. We have a much easier time putting our future in our hands than we have of leaving it to God.

Often, we have those who come by because they are in need of food. It is easy for us to open the Chapel Pantry and share, but some will not come because they feel it is an admission of failure on their part. No one wants to be a “Charity Case”.

But, we are all “Charity Cases”! We are all the rufugee. We are all the cancer patient. We are all the person confined to a nursing home. We are all the debtor who can not pay the bills. We are all the victims of abuse. We are all the addicts. We are all the homeless one holding up the signs on the street corners. We are all the lepers. We are all the paralytics. We are all the blind. We are all the sinners. At some place, we are powerless and helpless over our circumstances.

My point it that it is easy to pride ourselves that we are not like the others. We think we can take care of ourselves. We often think we do not need God or anyone else! But, when we finally come to grips with our helplessness, we find hope in God’s healing grace.

On Tuesday, December 22nd,2020, 2:00 PM eastern standard time, Bernard “Bernie” Klein set sail peacefully in his home. Port O’Conner, Texas was his “End of the Road” as Port O’Conner is known as. Humor still intact, he tied the last knot in the rope, his last quote, “You know I’m not going to die”, well you did. The captain and his first mate, Linda, have set sail, even keel, calm and steady with a cold Miller Lite in one hand, the stern in the other. Known for his vast nautical vocabulary, including words that would make any sailor blush. He could go “head to head”, with any “loose cannon” at the local marina. Then head off to work, polished, wing tipped shoes, three-piece suit, Hanes white t-shirt, black socks, that we all wore to school, he would jet off to complete a “project” in some famous city we all wanted to go to. He leaves behind a dysfunctional family of 6 kids,  6 broken hearted kids, that he proudly, we think, loosely called  … “Knuckled Heads”.

He made us “Knuckle Heads” “Walk the line”.  Lining us “Knuckle Heads” up at the bathroom door on Sundays for an ass whooping after church was just that. He used us “Knuckle Heads” for free labor to weed his beloved brick lined flower beds. Leaving no brick unturned, we all promised that we pulled every weed …LOL..  It was hard to “out poor” a boy, a descendant of German parents. We all heard his “story after story” while drinking what we called ‘white water”, the 1970’s version of “powered” whole milk. He walked a mile in the snow, uphill both ways with a hole in the sole of his shoes to go to school” to this day we think this was true.

“Maybe” meant “No!”,” Go ask your mother” was trouble a-coming. All six of us “Knuckle Heads” were blueprint, drafting table, copy making, cigar smoking, weekend “missing dad heroes”. We are proud to call him “DAD”. He worked his butt off, providing the best he could for his family, his “Knuckle Heads”.
Well known architect, Bernard “Bernie” Klein, Lockwood Greene Engineering, Spartanburg, South Carolina/ Dallas Texas, Carter and Burges, architecture, and Engineering, Fort Worth Texas- acquired by Jacobs Engineering Group, Fort Worth/Houston, Texas.

Our Dad, We Love you dad,… set the sail… watch out for the boom…..Your Knuckle Heads…Mary Klein, Simpsonville, South Carolina. Mike Klein, Rockwall, Texas. Eileen Daniels, Inman, South Carolina. Stephanie Pearson, Inman, South Carolina. Christian Klein, San Antonio, Texas. Charles “Chuck” Klein, Port O’Conner, Texas. Soo many grandchildren and great grandchildren and last, but not least, his short legged, gopher hunting buddy… Skipper Klein. Dad, We love you…..

Sign up today for the 17th Annual Adopt-A-Beach Coastal Bend Winter Cleanup on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2021.

Volunteers can sign up at www.texasadoptabeach.org or show up on-site to take part in a fun-filled day of giving back to our community and taking care of the Texas coast.

Date: Saturday, February 6, 2021
Time: 9 AM – 12 PM CST
Check in sties: texasadoptabeach. org

The Texas General Land Office will be taking utmost precautions due to COVID-19. For your safety, please bring your own gloves to the cleanup. Each volunteer will be given trash bags and other materials. All volunteers must register online to attend the cleanup at texasadoptabeach.org and are advised to wear closed-toe shoes and plenty of drinking water. Please download the Clean Swell app prior to attending the cleanup to track your trash. The app is a free download on both ios and Android platforms. The Texas General Land Office Adopt-A-Beach cleanups are held rain or shine! To learn more about the GLO’s COVID-19 safety recommendations, see the Cleanup at Home brochure.

The Texas General Land Office Adopt-A-Beach program began in the fall of 1986, when 2,800 volunteers picked up 124 tons of trash. Since then, more than 550,000 volunteers have removed 9,700 tons of trash from Texas beaches.

Texans who are not able to attend the cleanup can help keep our beaches clean by making a tax-deductible donation online at www.TexasAdoptABeach.org. There are several different Adopt-A-Beach sponsorship levels ranging from $25 to $25,000, allowing both individuals and corporations to contribute to this major cleanup effort.

To learn more about the Adopt-A-Beach program, visit TexasAdoptABeach.org and follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

First Baptist Church prays for a happy, healthy and peaceful 2021!

The new year is finally beginning. Did it seem as though it couldn’t get here soon enough? What did we expect to change at midnight on December 31, 2020? We probably all have hopes and dreams for 2021. Number one on most lists is an end to the COVID epidemic. Now, there is a vaccine that is being made available to the public. We all pray that before this year is out, all the masks and social distancing will be just a bad memory.

On December 20, 2020, FBC held a candlelight service under the pavilion at the front beach. If you missed it, you missed a special celebration of singing familiar carols, fellowship and sharing God’s word. After the service, a caravan of carolers visited the yards of shut-ins and home bound in POC to entertain them with Christmas music. Mark your calendar for next year!

The Shoe Box Ministry is off to a fast start already. Items are starting to come in to fill boxes in November! Keep the children in mind when you shop the sales. Also, remember the Food Pantry Ministry. This ongoing need is just as important in POC as it is in any big city. Any non-perishable food items are appreciated.

Pastor Phillip Miller is starting a new Bible study on Sunday evenings at 6:00 p.m. There is a $5.00 charge for the workbook to be used. The ladies are about to start a new “to be determined” Bible study on Tuesdays at 4:00 after finishing up a study of Ecclesiastes. The men meet for Bible study at 7:00 p.m., also on Tuesdays. All are open to anyone who is interested.

The pews are beginning to fill again as more and more people venture out after months of isolation. We are waiting to welcome you to any of our services or studies. Masks are required and we practice social distancing, but there is plenty of room. Sunday School for all ages starts at 10:00 a.m. Church service starts at 11:00 a.m. Sunday evening at 6:00 p.m. youth and adults meet. Tuesday is Bible study day. Wednesdays, we have youth activities and prayer meeting at 6:00 p.m. For more information call 361-983-2508.

This month I have chosen to use this space to speak about an important aspect of recent events in the United States and I will not mention political parties, race, nationality or attempt to prove or disprove any theory or event, because it is too important to all of us that we get past that, to move forward from what has happened in our great country that caused division.
That is not to say that I do not have political views that would ‘pick a side’ on certain subjects, indeed I do and like everyone here in the United States, I have the right to them and on platforms, I manage the right to express them, but this isn’t about that, it is not about the ‘why’ of the divide or the ‘how’ of the divide but a call to see how it hurts us all in the long run.

Whether or not you buy into the severity of the current pandemic, whether or not you believe the news agencies from one side of the aisle or the other, people have died this year over this hatred of our own fellow countrymen, this much perhaps we can all agree on.

It does not matter if that number is one life, five lives, or hundreds of thousands, people who could or should be alive today are not, that is enough for me to stop the madness and realize that even if I cannot agree with everyone in this country on politics and policy, at least we all should be able to agree that the death of any person via political views is despicable and the very antithesis of American values.

A song by the aptly named band Brotherhood of Man had a popular song called United We Stand, which featured a phrase that went back to the days before this nation was even formed and included and was titled from the phrase: “United we stand, divided we fall,” and much like it’s first recorded appearance in another song entitled The Liberty Song in 1769, we need the phrase now more than ever.

Be you a member of either party, be your thoughts on the incoming administration of this nation to be an improvement or a major step backward, the phrase is powerful, foreign powers and enemies of democracy wait for moments like this to weaken a nation further, the division had also once created a civil war in this land, the inability to talk and have a civil debate to solve our differences leading to death, destruction, and war.

I now implore you not to forget them, not to let them slide, not to dismiss them and allow them to be unheard, but rather to think of the domino effects those words might carry, to think about the manners in which we express them and the consequences behind those actions or speech, to self regulate and temper our words and choices not into swords with which we fracture the binding fabric of the United States, its people, but into a standard bearing flame that illuminates and does not darken, lest our nation is weakened any more than we have already allowed.

I ask you to love the people of this country as they are your family in liberty, a symbiotic relationship in which through our differences we find freedom, because as much as there is no freedom with censorship, there is also no freedom without respecting and loving our fellow countrymen rather than denouncing and hating them.