Forgotten In Time

Get a glimpse of what life was for miners and their families in the Appalachia coal country of Southwest Virginia.

Even the memories of this old mountain corner grocery store called The Commissary are forgotten. The Commissary was the local pit stop for the area coal miners to grab a sandwich for their lunch bucket going to work or to take home the milk and bread on their way back home. The Commissary also kept on hand work clothing articles and tools Not many people living around here speaks of the times when mining  was not only the bread and butter, but also the way many men lost their lives just Two miles from this location. When this store was built, mining companies were not regulated with safety laws and regulations as they are today and daddy never coming back home was a very common occasion. God Bless the men who with honor gave their lives to keep the lights burning in America. Half of the nation’s electric power comes from coal.

In 2006, 1.030 billion tons to produce 50.5 percent of coal was consumed to meet America’s expanding energy consumption and is expected to increase 1.5 percent by 2007 according to the National Mining Association Forcast.

Coal companies are reclaiming land in Appalachian Mountain area by the scores. As a Nation we should make sure that Congress pass the proper laws to keep our coal miners as safe as possible and the big and small mining industry alike be held more accountable for the safety of all mining workers and that the people living near these mining area are compensated for the lose of natural resources, such as having their drinking waters polluted and their mountain tops raped by strip mining. America needs this vital resource and owes the Appalachian people a well overdue debt of thanks, prayer and support for all of their sacrifices.

The Commissary was photographed by: Knight (R. W. Baxter)  Editorial column By: R. W. Baxter

Prayer Of A Veitnam Veteran

I sit here thinking of both young and old War Veterans alike. I think of the young blood which so very many of my little and big brothers and sisters of war have stained the soil of foreign countries in the name of freedom, independence and democracy. Young men who know nothing of the terrors of war until one day they find themselves engulfed with the realities of bloodshed and horror. To see dismembered limbs and flesh shattered beyond recognition. To hear squeals and load cries of pain, agony, torment, remorse, sorrow, love, hate and utter disbelief. The silent cries wishing they were back in the security of the love and comfort of their own homeland.  

I see boys and girls who just yesterday were playing in their own backyards with other neighborhood kids. I see boys trying out for sports teams and girls showing up for cheerleader practice. I see boys and girls alike just a few months ago asking mom and dad for the car keys. I see both boys and girls alike who will never see their first child born or their sister’s newborn back home. I see young men that will never see a gray hair on his head and a young girl that will never bake her husband a cake for their anniversary. 

Now if I can see so many things and more, how much greater things can our heavenly Father in heaven see? I see but a small measure of things present and things past and yet God himself being all knowing sees ALL. If I be grieved in my spirit and morn over the sorrows of my heart, how much more does our heavenly Father morn for us all? Every time a soldier falls to the ground, every time a hair falls from a soldier’s head, God knows and not only does God count that hair, He also grieves even as He already knew it would happen. 

Is God the blame for all the wars and all the life lost to mankind? God seems to get a bad rap for most of our heartaches and sorrows. We find ourselves by the multitude saying things like: God why did you let this happen? God why did you take our son or daughter away from us?  Many of us grow up in life if we survive, to blame God for many things and to also learn to hate Him for things He does not cause. Although God does permit things to happen, He does not cause or make them to happen. 

A true personal story of how one of my grandmothers died in my arms as a young man left me feeling desperate for answers. She first of all had leukemia and at her deathbed the doctor told us that she would have one or two violent seizures right before death. He told us that all we could do is try and give her a bit of air passage to breath. Now my grandfather had brought her home and the only medical devices there was an oxygen machine. The first seizure came and everyone ran chicken from her room. My father, mother, uncles, grandfather all left the room. Not knowing really what to do, I began to pray asking God to help her and to help me help her. I felt so very helpless and knew she was in great distress. The second seizure came and I found myself on top of her fighting to keep a small passage to her mouth open. By this time her tongue had swollen three times’ normal and her eyes bulging out of her head. She was going to leave me and I had nothing but an unanswered prayer as I thought to be the case.  

I instantly started blaming God for her death. I was so very grieved and felt so God forsaken as if He were ten billion miles away. I began thinking there were no God of heaven at all.  I was also so full of self pity, that if God had appeared to me in a burning bush, I would have just gotten a bucket of water and put Him out. 

After a few years of military, the Vietnam War and tragedy upon sorrow, I one night late to my amazement reading from the King James Version of the Bible I find these teachings of Jesus saying:  The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. Joh 10:10  I instantly knew in my heart of hearts that God was not at all responsible for my grandmother’s death a bit more than any other terrible thing that had ever happened to me. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy~ 

So now with this thought in mind, I offer a prayer for all of my young fellow soldiers.  

Heavenly father I ask you to hear all the prayers of your people and also all of the prayers of all of the young men and women fighting in wars all around this world, I pray not for these alone father, but also for all the innocent civilian men women and children who are involved in violent conflicts. I know that you are not the thief and I know according to your own testimony that you sent your son Jesus that we might have life and that we might have it more abundantly. I ask you are life giver to send us peace in our lands of war, peace to our homes of trouble, peace to our hearts that our broken and eternal peace to the lives that have been lost by the thief. I ask you to stand against any thief that tries to terrorize any soldier that has a heart for you, for those that you hear your voice, for those who know your name and for those who our lost without you, I ask that you reveal you love, compassion and tender mercies. I ask you to touch the hearts of stone and replace them with a heart of flesh, with the understanding that you are God and you do care about their lives. I understand that there will be wars and rumors of war until you return and yet I pray that you will turn the hearts of the war hungry people into hearts of compassion and loving kindness toward their fellowman. I ask you to reveal your will of abundant life to all of those who blame you for their heartaches and disappointments. Regardless of how they were taught, I ask you to give them an understanding of who the God of heaven and earth is. Help them to understand, you are the way, the truth and the life. In the name of Jesus the Christ I ask these things. Amen