Mission

BLAIRTON, W.VA. -- Despite his efforts to get fresh bait, Levy Kersh was unable to catch any fish Monday in Opequon Creek. Friend Eddy Byrd also was unsuccessful in his attempts to snag a fish.

The Heritage Academy Mission Team is traveling to Mexico in March. Team members are, Jonathan Elllis, David Kidd, Tiffany Dudeck, Lindsey Sword and Justin Cutchall, Matthew Shank, Dylan Black, Brittany Eberly, Samuel Brewer, Molly Holtzman, Steven Barthalow, DruAnna Clark and Cassie Johns.

The First National Bank of Greencastle (Pa.) team races with a "stretcher" Tuesday at the Almost Anything Goes Games at Henninger Field in Chambersburg, Pa. Shown clockwise, from left, are Kelly Walsh, Ivan Miller, Duane Bock, Colin Swain and Cheryl Gehr. Tracey Burger is on the stretcher. The games were part of the two-week ChambersFest activities.

On Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Shalom Christian Academy's Class of 2012 will hold a chicken barbecue. The proceeds will be used toward the senior missions trip to Guatemala.   The students will be in Guatemala from Oct. 25 to Nov. 3 and would appreciate prayer support as they experience a time of serving in another country. Saturday is also homecoming day at the school. Volleyball games and soccer games will go on throughout the afternoon and evening. For a schedule of games, go to www.shalomca.com . Shalom Christian Academy is at 126 Social Island Road, Chambersburg.

Several Heritage Academy students dedicated a few weeks of their summer to travel on mission trips. Seniors DruAnna Clark and James Murphy, along with sophomore Andrew Hendershot, helped at Hope Children's Home in Florida for a few weeks. DruAnna, James and Andrew repaired and repainted sheds, cabins and houses. In the evenings, they played games and had fun while getting to know the children. "It was great to go and be a blessing, but really we are the ones blessed by the experience," DruAnna said.

Michael Wasiak, carrying cross, and Trooper LeBlanc, both from Louisiana, walk in Hagerstown on Tuesday to protest abortion. They started their mission Aug. 17 and will end it in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 8.

A group of 31 high school students from Broadfording Christian Academy used their spring break to travel to Chihuahua, Mexico, where they administered to the poverty-stricken women and children there. The group worked in two soup kitchens and helped prepare and serve meals to 45 to 85 children and adults each day. One of the soup kitchens was known as Pastor Jorge's Soup Kitchen. Some members of the mission team poured a cement floor in a building that was used as a church near Pastor Jorge's kitchen, while other team members helped serve meals at the soup kitchen.

At its Dec. 3 general business meeting, the Greater Brunswick Area Chamber of Commerce voted to give $200 each to Community Agency Social Services, the Brunswick food bank, the Emergency Relief Fund, Jefferson food bank and Mission of Mercy. These contributions are part of the Chamber's Gives Back to the community program.

High-resolution video of portions of the descent will be taken as the rover is lowered to the landing site via rockets, parachute and finally, sky crane.  After approximately four days of testing of the rover's systems and surroundings, Curiosity will set out on its mission to help achieve the four main goals of the Mars Exploration Program. These include sampling the environment to determine whether conditions ever existed on Mars that were conducive to life, characterization of the climate and geology of Mars, and to prepare for human exploration of the red planet.  If all goes according to plan Curiosity's primary mission will last for almost two Earth years, and will take the rover up to twelve miles from its landing site.  This will be another big step toward the goal of eventually sending a manned mission to Mars.  For more information on this mission visit http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ .   William Brish Planetarium/Tristate Astronomers The William Brish Planetarium will re-open in mid-August.

In less than two weeks' time, the 167th Airlift Wing supported missions in Libya, Japan, Afghanistan, and Iraq. One day after United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 was passed, a C-5 Galaxy launched from the Martinsburg base in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn, the U.S. effort to support the resolution calling for a no-fly zone over Libya. Lt. Col. Marty Timko, a pilot with the 167th AW said, "Special Ops units were expecting to move forward and anticipated the need for extra equipment.

Linda Altizer of Hagerstown visited The Home of the Deaf, Dumb and Blind in Raigarh, India, on a mission trip through Central India Christian Mission that she took in late January and early February. More than 500 disabled children live in the orphanage. It was Altizer's ninth overseas mission trip and her fourth to central India, where she shared Christian and medical ministry. Altizer, who is joint/ortho care coordinator at Western Maryland Regional Medical Center in Cumberland, Md., returned with the goal of raising money for a C-T scanner and MRI machine for a poorly equipped mission hospital in India.

The Hagerstown Rescue Mission Ladies Auxiliary will hold an Easter bake sale Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the mission store. Items available for sale include candy, cakes, pies, pickled eggs and other items. All proceeds will be used to purchase items needed at the Rescue Mission. The store is at 125 N. Prospect St. in Hagerstown.

Libya, North Vietnam a contrast in military response To the editor: I am outraged at the recent handling of events in Benghazi, Libya, and am reminded of a very different reaction by the American government when it had the opportunity to rescue its citizens. As many readers of The Herald-Mail know, I was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. For three years, from July 18, 1968, until July 14, 1970, I was held in the Camp at Son Tay, 25 miles from Hanoi. At some point in 1969, U.S. intelligence learned that there might be American POWs at Son Tay. To show how sketchy the intelligence was, it wasn't until July 1970 that President Nixon gave the order to plan a mission to rescue us. At no point in the planning would it have been possible to know with certainty whether we were actually at Son Tay, but President Nixon took the risk because a government has the duty to protect its citizens when they are carrying out duties assigned by that government.

Howard Hawkins said he was working as a banker in Richmond, Va., when his wife died of heart and lung complications in 2007. He said the loss caused him to suffer an emotional collapse. “I didn't respond well,” Hawkins said. “Material things didn't mean much to me. I gave up my cars, house and money. I gave it to the church and became homeless.” On Thursday, Hawkins told his story to about 280 people who gathered to share a free Thanksgiving meal sponsored by The Hope Center Rescue Mission off North Prospect Street in Hagerstown.

When Dan Franklin went to veterinary school in the Philippines, it opened his eyes to the poverty in that country and many other parts of the world. “People in this country have no idea how the majority of the world live. They live hand-to-mouth,” Franklin said. A mission trip to the Dominican Republic eight years ago through his church, Church of Christ in Hagerstown, was the first of many for Franklin. He found most of the trips required construction skills, which were not his specialty.

The Ladies Auxiliary of Hagerstown Rescue Mission's Trinity Center, on North Walnut Street in Hagerstown, will hold a holiday bazaar Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. There will be gift items available along with homemade soups, sandwiches and baked goods. For more information, call 301-790-3843.   Thanksgiving Eve service The churches of West Hagerstown will hold a community Thanksgiving Eve service Wednesday, Nov. 21, at St. Mark's Lutheran Church, 601 Washington Ave. The service will begin at 7 p.m. The Rev. Clark Carr of Grace United Methodist Church will deliver the sermon.

A group of four Grace Academy high school students, one Hancock student and their chaperone, Amy Casto, had the opportunity to travel to South Korea for a two-week missions trip this summer.  Grace Academy has been hosting exchange students from South Korea for the past four years. The program has flourished and this year includes students from South Korea, China, Spain, Russia and, starting in January, Japan.  Amy Casto and the five high school students, Caitlin Cox and Keshia Harney (12th grade)

With today being Veterans Day, I want to take this opportunity to announce several features at The Herald-Mail that focus on veterans.  “Through a Veteran's Eye” is a relatively new television show on HMTV6.  Fred Shinbur (Maryland's Veteran of the Year for 2011 and the current chairman of the Maryland Veterans Commission) and I are the hosts. The purpose of this show is to inform veterans about benefits and services available in our area. The show airs Tuesdays at 8 a.m., noon and 4 p.m. on Antietam Cable channel 6, and on a random basis throughout the weekend.

The annual meeting of the Washington County Historical Society in January 1967 featured a presentation on the Mason-Dixon Line, which described he hardships experienced by the surveyors as they passed through the mountainous portions of the terrain and encounters with the American Indians in the 1700s. This sparked a suggestion that the State of Maryland might be encouraged to establish a state park to recognize the Mason-Dixon Line. With Victor D. Miller III at the helm as president, and coupled with a renewed interest in establishing an Elizabeth Town village near the Hager House, the historical society board was looking at the possibility of adopting new projects as they went forward.  Judge Irvine Rutledge was appointed chair of a committee to look at potential locations in Washington County, which incorporates about 40 miles of the Mason-Dixon Line, more than any other county.

Hagerstown Rescue Mission has on occasion accepted people convicted of violent crimes in other jurisdictions, a move that has prompted local officials to question and criticize the practice. Hagerstown Police Chief Arthur Smith said last week that the Hagerstown Rescue Mission at 125 N. Prospect St. most recently accepted a Worcester County, Md., man who was on parole following convictions for sexual offenses. “This is not the kind of guy you want loose in your community,” said Smith, who discussed the matter shortly before he was to retire.  Smith said Washington County Community Supervision, formerly known as Parole and Probation, told him that man arrived at the shelter Aug. 1. The Hagerstown Police Department picked him up and drove him back to Worcester County the next day. In November 2011, the man, described in a newspaper account of the court proceedings as having mental problems, entered Alford pleas in Worcester Circuit Court to a charge of abuse of a vulnerable adult resulting in physical injury and to a second-degree sex offense, court records said.