Today is Sunday, Dec. 10, the 351st day of 2023. There are 14 days left in the year. 

As the host of the Talkback public affairs program on our Beasley Media Fayetteville stations, my name is Paul Johnson.  I’ve been a proud member of our Fayetteville community for more than 20 years.  I started in radio in September of 1970 

I’ve also known about the Salvation Army, an international charitable organization, almost all my life.  

I knew their faith-based purpose was “do the most good.”  I knew the Salvation Army, along with the Red Cross, was always involved in helping to bring order from chaos at disaster scenes in the U.S., but I’d never needed the Salvation Army’s help.  

That is, until the spring of 1986.  I had become the new program director of WKY, a station in Oklahoma City, earlier that year.  The national severe storm forecast center in based in Norman, OK (near the Okahoma University campus, just south of OKC.  One reason why is that area sees 450 Tornados every year.  It’s part of the Great Plains, basically flat land, with no terrain to slow down or stop a twister.    

My family became a victim of a tornado, along with 44 other homes in my neighborhood when a twister moved through, lifting the roof on our home about six inches before setting it back down.   

By the way, they really do sound like a train. Also, thanks to great weather meteorologists and reporting, the worst physical injury suffered by anyone in my neighborhood was a broken toe.  The house became uninhabitable for 6 or 7 weeks while the roof was repaired.  Mercifully, the Red Cross and Salvation Army helped settle my family and kept us fed, along with the other familiess that lived there, during that time.  They were angels, doing the most good, providing some order in a chaotic time. 

I’ve always kept faith in the resources the Salvation Army could muster in times of trouble.  Around Fayetteville, I had seen the Salvation Army provide an essential link to services for our community’s “at risk” populations – young, old, homeless and in-need.  I made the assumption, maybe like you, that the Salvation Army’s funding was always going to be able to perpetuate itself – after all, it’s a practical, reasonably frugal and efficient organization – and as long as I dropped a few dollars into the kettle – it would always be that way.   

Major Tim Grider, who, for the past 6 years along with his wife, Major Cheryl Grider, runs the Salvation Army Sandhills, covering an ever expanding area branching out from Fayetteville, says it’s been tougher as our area has emerged from the pandemic.  Major Grider, in an interview we taped this past Monday. 

Interview #1 (Major Tim Grider, Salvation Army)

Bless you too, Major Tim Grider!  Help the Salvation Army Sandhills at SalvationArmySandhill.org!  Let’s keep our local Salvation Army DOING THE MOST GOOD! 

In news of a lighter note, as we began telling you last week, one of our area churches is reaching out to all its families, neighbors, and friends with a special “everybody’s welcome event.  Let’s hear more from Lewis Chapel Missionary Baptist Church Pastor Chris Stackhouse and Associate Director of Christian Education, Kiera Geiger…about their Special EVENT at the John D. Fuller Recreation and Athletic Center (the one they call the RAC) this WEDNESDAY NIGHT! 

Interview #2 (Dr. Chris Stackhouse and Assoc. Dir. of Christian Educ. Kiera Geiger)   )

This Wednesday night 5 to 9 at the RAC!  Come as you’re able – pick up your children – bring all you’re your friends – they’ll feed you – justbe in place by 7 for the program. And Enjoy at the RAC Wednesday night!  

E.T. 26:30