Bibles help families cope with deployment stress

Peggie Knobles of Stockdale understands the grief of war.
She lost her oldest son, Lt. James L. Knobles, in Vietnam Sept. 20, 1970. She remembers the experience well—the ache of her loss, the eyes of her daughter-in-law, the tears of her second son, Kenny, as he mourned his best friend.
Her son has never healed from his brother’s death, Knobles said, even after 37 years.
But she believes a special Bible designed for military families, distributed to congregations by the Southwest Texas Conference, could help heal and encourage those left behind.

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Seguin congregation gives away $45,000,
gets $70,000 in return

Dale Kane of Seguin never dreamed his idea would work so well.
Around the time last year that Kane was looking for an out-of-the-box stewardship campaign, his church, First UMC, Seguin, received an $80,000 undesignated gift.
Then Kane’s daughter told him about a church in the Northeast that had given money back to the congregation after it had received an unexpected gift. Kane, chair of the First UMC stewardship committee, thought the idea was crazy. But he presented it to the stewardship and finance committees anyway.
Both groups thought it was just crazy enough to try. They would give and, as Luke 6:38 says, expect even more gifts to be given to the church.

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