The Class of '83 - Robert Burnett and today Andrew Burnett; Jackie Oslonian and today Peyton Hisel

The Statler Brothers introduced the world to the song, “The Class of ’57”. The chorus simply says that The Class of ’57 had their dreams. Well The Class of ’83 had her dreams too. Dreams about the careers we would pursue, the families we would build, and the difference we would make. Our teachers taught us that we could make a difference by simply being ourselves, working hard, and thinking about others first. I must say it would be nice if every bought into this dream too, but nevertheless The Class of ’83 has made a difference. That year the Maroon and White Bobcats of Bell County High School selected Jackie Oslonian and Robert Burnett as the Most Athletic in our Senior Superlatives. Our children grow up looking like us for the most part, acting like us more than we will admit and we pray achieve more than we did. Peyton Hisel, Jackie’s daughter, and Andrew Burnett, Robert’s son have both made their parents proud and have moved the dreams of the Class of ’83 to the next level.
Jackie Oslonian was without a doubt a great student athlete and when I asked her what she felt knowing her daughter signed to play in the Ohio Valley Conference at Jacksonville State in Oxford, Alabama she said, “I feel blessed and thankful on many different levels. My daughter has the opportunity to play at the next level, and she earned it”. Peyton is finishing her senior year of high school at Tates Creek in Lexington, Ky. Her statement and thoughts about playing at the next level are quite simple. “Competition is all about getting better and this is a challenge I welcome.” She was recruited by Eastern Kentucky University, and the University of Tennessee-Martin just to give you a glimpse of who was interested in her talent, skills, and determination. With a NCAA Division I full scholarship to join the Gamecocks Women’s basketball program at JSU Peyton will make a difference from the classroom floor as she seek an academic career in the area of nursing and or sports medicine.
Andrew Burnett has defied all the odds as a Brentwood Tennessee High School Senior.
He signed to play NCAA Division I Lacrosse at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. “You could be the best player in Lacrosse in the State of Tennessee and no would care”, Robert Burnett shared with me when I spoke with him about his son’s accomplishment. “There are 60 Division I teams in the Nation and only 10-12 kids per team and my son sought out his dream and he did it”. Andrew is what is known as a Faceoff specialist. His winning percentage at this position is 59.8% winning 255 out of 376 faceoffs. For those not familiar with Lacrosse, Andrew plays in a position that requires hard nose, totally aggressive and a mental toughness to get the ball in a one on one battle. Andrew does this with exception skills and technique. Getting the ball puts your team on offense and this is the position you want to be to score first and win your game. When asked about his thoughts of signing to play Lacrosse at the Division I Level Andrew said, “This is hard to explain because all the odds were against me reaching my dream. I took one skill set, winning at faceoff and it turned into my opportunity”.
Parents who watch their children succeed at their dreams are parents who are also blessed to remember their own goals. They become parents who now watch their dreams (their children) with even greater wonder than their own hopes when they were elected to the highest honors we could give back in our day. Peyton and Andrew you should know that there are many members of the Class of ’83 who applaud your success and who applaud your ever basket, great defense and faceoff win and score that you each achieve. Your grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and yes, even your grandparents friends and folks you may never meet celebrate your success too. One of the great traits of mountain folks is that we get excited when folks show us a picture or tell us a story of your success. On behalf of the Class of ’83, please allow this columnist to say congratulations and that you have more fans than you know from here in the mountains of Southeastern Kentucky.

Until then

First Christmas In Heaven

Christmas is a time of that year that brings solemn thoughts as individuals reflect upon this Christmas, their First Christmas, without a loved one. I first published this poem in 1998 as it was used to minister to me in the loss of my grandfather. Each year at this time of the year I publish it again in my column with the prayer that this poem gives each of us hope through faith in Jesus Christ. There is nothing that will replace the loss of a loved one, but the comfort of their presence in Heaven with Jesus does provide me with peace, especially at Christmas.

My First Christmas in Heaven

I see the countless Christmas Trees around the world below
With tiny lights, like Heaven’s stars, reflecting on the snow.

The sight is so spectacular; please wipe away the tear
For I am spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.

I hear the many Christmas songs that people hold so dear
But the sounds of music can’t compare with the Christmas choir up here.

I have no words to tell you, the joy their voices bring,
For it is beyond description to hear the angels sing.

I know how much you miss me, I see the pain inside your heart
But I am not so far away, we really aren’t apart.

So be happy for me, dear ones, you know I hold you dear
And be glad I’m spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.

I sent you each a special gift, from my heavenly home above.
I sent you each a memory of my undying love.

After all, love is a gift more precious than pure gold.
It was always most important in the stories Jesus told.

Please love and keep each other, as my Father said to do.
For I can’t count the blessing or love He has for each of you.

So have a Merry Christmas and wipe away that tear.
Remember, I am spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.

Until then

Horse Creek Road Baptist Church - Thanks for the difference!

Now that you have visited with family and friends, and no doubt had a plate if not two plates full of food, have you turned the page to Christmas yet? As you know, I am in doing my own tradition that I began several years ago. Forget the fluff and pomp of most holiday traditions. Mine is very simple. I just spend the time leading up to Christmas being thankful for the blessings I have experienced, the friends that have made a difference in my life and the situations that have changed me because I was there. Over the years I have personally been amazed at the responses to my thanksgiving tradition. Let me say thanks now for your emails and phone calls. Appreciation is something that I would say one must work at. Learning how to say thanks is easy. Most folks allow thanks to fall from their lips with total ease, the only problem I hear most of the time is the lack of genuine heartfelt thanks when they say such. It is like when you hear the expression, “I will be praying for you”. Now if this is a challenge to you, then so be it, but you want to believe folks will do what they say especially when it involves prayer, but for some reason I think many people use those words because they make us feel good. Many times folks don’t know what to say, so we say spiritual and religious sounding phrases that make us feel good and hopefully will present us in a respectable and positive view by others.
Having the privilege of serving a congregation and a community as pastor is a most humbling opportunity and gratifying position. Horse Creek Road Baptist Church in Corbin, Ky., was the first church I had the privilege of serving as pastor. I could write that I am not sure what they were thinking when they did such, but looking back to 1992 it wasn’t so much what they were thinking or what I was thinking. It was really all about what God was doing! My spirit of thanksgiving continues remember what God did at Horse Creek Road and three special deacons that God used in my life. C.C. Pope was the first voice of association with HCRBC. C.C. was calling me to see if I would be willing to help fill the churches pulpit on Sunday’s while they were looking for a pastor. A very small congregation, Horse Creek is located in the Sweet Hollow Area of Laurel and Knox County as the church was founded in September 1884. Just 20 years ago it was very easy to imagine the Sunday scene. Folks riding to church on horses and mules, using the trees that filled the church property to tie their livestock to I can see clearly still. I can imagine the foot paths used by those early settlers as the church bell rings down the valley signifying it was church time.
Deacon Bill Blankenship, Phillip Howard and C.C. Pope were the forces of faith, hope and change. I had just returned to Kentucky from Fort Worth, Texas and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary when I accepted the call to be pastor of Horse Creek Road. These three deacons had been faithful to Horse Creek. Serving in the role they too had accepted and with a deep love for the community they each filled various leadership positions. Through the years they had seen lives be changed by the love and grace Jesus Christ gives to all who ask, and they had also witnessed change. Some of the change was just reality of a small church. The Bible says that His ways are higher than ours and that He does exceedingly above and beyond what we ask or think. HCRBC was an example of just that and served as a changing force in the lives of so many. Galatians 6:9 says that if we don’t grow weary, in due season we will reap if we faint not. C.C., Bill, and Phillip witnessed that truth from God’s word as did all of us who came, attended, participated and even watched from a distance.
A young man called to serve as Minister of Youth was Mike Wilson. He later served the largest SBC church in Tennessee, Two Rivers in Nashville and now he leads MYlifeSpeaks and directs an orphanage in Haiti. The blessings of a committed time continue as the current pastor, Scott Williams was also a product of that specific time and faith of three deacons who believed Horse Creek Road Baptist Church was a special place. And it is indeed. My thanks is overflowing for His work.

Until then

Thankgivings for Prayer

I am easily still within my “Season of Thankgivings” in which I am attempting to bring reasons for thanks to each of us as we have been blessed throughout the year and for many, year after year. One of the big thanks that gives me reason for smiles, hope and encouragement is prayer. Praying is one of those things that a lot of folks talk about doing, and it is a subject that maybe many individuals do without any clear direction of who they are praying to. Me, I know in whom I believe and His name is Jesus. I have discovered that He listens and that He also responds, which has kept me coming back to His throne time and time again.
Prayer is a powerful tool and the fact-of-the-matter based on Christian Scripture is that Christians can pray for anyone and that individual can be the blessed person because of the prayers of another even though they might not have even asked for prayer. Yes, the Bible says that the prayers of the righteous avail much. Considering the subject matter of prayer the Bible is also very clear about what happens when two Christians get together to pray and gather in His name. Positive things happen because two Christians agree and because they agree for God’s Will to be accomplished and not theirs.
There have been thousands of testimonies of God’s Hand-i-work accomplished in the lives of individuals who were given news of no hope and even advice to make preparations because of the exhaustion of medical procedures and treatments. News as this is never what you want to hear and sometimes not what you are prepared for or expecting either. People pray about lots of things. We pray for our children before they are born, as they are growing up and in some situations the children we pray for are those that come into our lives at different age levels and circumstances. Prayer is something we implore when we are facing decisions about work, or situations that require us to lead a group of people toward a goal too. Maybe the most common prayer would be for medic al outcomes, tests, results, surgeries and procedures. I say this is the most common prayer because of my experience over the past 29 years of ministry. Most folks want to pray when they are up against a wall or are facing trials they never imagined a way out of prior to that moment. There is absolutely nothing wrong with praying in emergencies either. I strongly encourage all to pray when such times arrive in our lives. It is often in these types of moments that we realize there is someone that cares and there is a peace that seems to exist when we practice faith. Jesus has the unique ability to hear a million prayers at once, well, actually all the prayers of the world which would include some 6,840,507,000 and counting every second. Not sure how he does it, but he does and I’m for one just thankful that He is able!
I am assuming that those reading this column will be able to admit we have all prayed at some point in our lives, the most precious prayers to the ears of Jesus are simply two. The most important prayer Jesus wants to hear from us is the prayer that comes from our heart where we ask Him to come into our heart and to forgive us and to fill us with His plan and purpose. The second prayer that Jesus longs to hear is the one of praise. If one spends time praying over situation after situation then you would think it would be natural to praise Him like no other when the answer comes, right? But so often that is not the case. The Bible tells of the one who returned to say thanks while everyone else went on their way without taking time to come back and praise the giver whose touch made the change they had been seeking. Finding the courage to express thanks is not only the right thing to do, but it is the example we should all follow as individuals who are grateful. Churches should never have a problem in finding someone to testify about the blessings of God but sometimes the praise is either shorted lived or never even spoken at all. I personally thing this is a great day and time of the year to live a life of thanks and a life of prayer.

Until then