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I am writing this short story of myself for two reasons. The first, is that my children and grandchildren might know me better. They may see something of themselves in my story. They may learn from my successes and my failures. I write it for them because I love each one.I am also writing this for me. I hope to see where I have come from and where I have gone. I hope to understand better who I am. But mostly I want to see where God has been at work in my life-whether I mention Him or not.The title is very intentional. It is not simply "my story", but my story as I remember it. The two cannot be exactly the same. Our memories are faulty. They color events with shades that can confuse the details. I do have journals to fall back on beginning in 1977 when I was 29 years old. But those journals only record part of my story-the part, perhaps, I wanted to remember.

God is always with you. He never leaves us. The deceiver will try to trick us, saying He has left, but in truth, it is usually we who have strayed. Start the new year knowing He is with you no matter what, and do not deviate from that truth. Isaiah 43:2 "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;And through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you.When you walk through fire, you will not be scorched,Nor will the flame burn you. 

How very easy and natural it is to become absorbed in the problems that bombard us daily. These difficulties may range from personal turmoils, heartbreaks with our children or marital conflicts to world dilemmas in general. Such distresses are real. They can hurt despicably and require and deserve answers and solutions.Time, energy, and general wear and tear can be saved if we learn to look straight through our immediate circumstances and behold our God as reigning King, working everything for our good as we learn to respond to Him rather than to situations or people. We can look beyond the immediate to the real reason we are on Planet Earth. We see that our Lord wants to use everything that enters our lives to get us ready to live with Him as His bride forever. Our sorrows and everyday experiences are no longer wasted, but they are used to draw us into a vital love relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ in which we receive and display His very life.

Dear Reader: A special request from the author: this volume, Real Country II, and the three additional volumes, have been "under construction" for about ten years. Several times the information has been brought up to date with extended title searches and new discoveries. This is a process that could be extended interminably. Therefore, I ask for you to consider that this work was complete at the end of 2015. Your additional investigation takes off from this point. abbScott County, first settled by Europeans and Africans in 1775 and 1783, had its formal beginning on June 22, 1792 when Woodford County, established by the newly created Commonwealth of Kentucky from Fayette in 1789, was divided longitudinally. At the time of their creation, Scott and Woodford counties extended to the Ohio River. That extreme size did not last long. As population grew and demanded access to county seats, Scott yielded territory to the formation of all of present Boone, Kenton, and Grant counties and portions of Gallatin, Owen, Pendleton, and Harrison. Scott was not to achieve its present size until 1819 with the creation of Owen County. Today's Scott County encompasses 284 square miles. This volume relates to the northeast quadrant of Scott County. This territory includes parts of two of Scott County's three geophysical sections - the Lowell-Nicholson soils of the middle segment (the waistband) of Scott County, and the Eden Shale northern sector. The region is rich in history from the settlement period (c. 1785-1825) and the antebellum period (c. 1825 to 1865) into the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the ultimate focus of this work. Founding families who claimed large grants of land or who bought them once they got here are treated at length in these pages. A major challenge has been indexing names of the individuals comprising these families, and their descendants, so that you, the reader, will be able to locate them and their activities as the decades moved forward.

I  began writing this book on a rainy night in August 2015, eight months to the day from the historic speeches of these two Presidents, signaling a thaw in diplomatic relations after fifty-six years of Cold War enmity. It was almost three months after my return home from an eleven-month stay in Cuba with my spouse, Kim. December 17, a date stuck right in the middle of our stay, could well prove to be one of Cuba’s most celebrated dates, establishing its place in the history of a Caribbean country whose calendar is already filled with many red-letter days. We could not have chosen a more interesting or significant chunk of time to be there, given the tremendous changes that the completely unexpected December announcement began to unleash.            With all the stories of the year still percolating in my mind, like strong, fresh roasted Cuban coffee grounds brewing in a stovetop cafetera, I finally resolved on that August day to go home and start pouring them out onto the page (the computer screen, to be more precise). I turned into the driveway in the late afternoon and got within shouting distance of our home on “The Old Place,” our name for the plot of Appalachian mountain land that has been in my family for generations. As it turned out, shouting distance was as close as I could get. Three large trees lying over the road hindered further progress. 

They say that tightrope walkers are most susceptible to accidents when they are almost finished and nearly "home." They''ve been on stage and risked their lives; they''ve done well. Now, it''s time to take their bow and call it a day. But as they approach the end, they have to watch their last steps. One slip and life comes crashing down. Think of that as a metaphor for life. Even after doing well for many years, it''s still possible to undo all the good we have done by becoming careless at the end. That''s the burden of our little book. Consider it a reminder to stay faithful.A note of explanation: In the chapters which follow both Bertha and Joe had input, but the voice you will be "hearing" is mostly Joe. Sometimes, when it''s necessary we identify who is speaking, but usually we don''t because it doesn''t matter.

Travel around the Upstate of South Carolina as Morning carries you along the path of a pastor and his wife, Dan and Donna Batson. Visit the cities where they lived and hear some amazing stories through the years to reveal a shared life of love, laughter, grief, and loss. Understand the totality of God''s acceptance and transformation of every mistake and every point of pain and confusion. After tragedy strikes and faith falls, participate with Dan in seeing God''s amazing restoration. No longer experience faith alone in the risen Savior but also walk with Him in the morning.  

In this collection of Advent Sermons, you will hear echoed time and time again that Advent is my favorite liturgical season. For me, this season is the richest season of the Church''s liturgical year. The combination of celebration, anticipation, repentance, and joyful preparation - all important themes of Advent - brings so many elements into our worship and into our life. I truly believe, perhaps naively, that if the world better understood and practiced Advent, then there would be less of a commercial bent on Christmass.  I have chosen to begin with the sermons first presented in 2011 to the parish family of St. Paul''s Episcopal Church, Mancos, Colorado, to whom this book is dedicated. These sermons, while referencing the appointed lessons from Lectionary B of the Revised Common Lectionary, (RCL) are mostly based upon the poem, A New World by John van de Laar.  

May 25th, 2019 was the first day of my new life without my husband. I had been married to Nathaniel longer than I had been single. We married when I was 19 years old and we were looking forward to celebrating our 27th anniversary that upcoming July. However, Nathaniel was diagnosed with a brain tumor on April 5th, 2019 and was scheduled to have surgery on May 9th. It seemed to have happened all too quickly: Unfortunately, the surgery did not go as we had hoped and prayed, or according to the surgeon''s "best case scenario." The two weeks between the surgery date and the day Nathaniel went to be with the Lord were the most emotionally draining days of our lives. Thankfully, our adult children, Joyce, Theo, and Kristine, made sure that I was never alone at the hospital or hotel. Joyce, our oldest, ran interference for phone calls or any other necessary business. Our churches, friends, and families encouraged us through their prayers and  by providing snacks and money. Nathaniel''s specific request was to have no outside visitors while in the hospital: although it was extremely difficult, we complied. Instead, several friends came to the hospital just to sit with me downstairs in the waiting area. Text messages were a tangible reminder of just how enveloped we were in love and prayers. They were our strength and fortitude during such a traumatic time of uncertainty.In the immediate days after Nathaniel''s death,  we had so much love poured on us through visits, prayers, food, snacks, and financial support. Admittedly, I was just walking around on autopilot, still in shock. There were so many special people who dropped by with prayers, hugs, and concerns. Too many to name. I am glad for most of the visits, but some people haven''t learned the art of just being with another in their pain; not always having to say something to fill the silence, not giving clich├⌐s of how the loved one is in a better place now, and not giving opinions of how the bereaved should feel, act, or respond. 

When St. Augustine was asked the purpose of a sermon, he thought back to what Cicero, the Roman statesman, said about oratory. The purpose of a sermon, St. Augustine said, is to teach, to delight and to persuade. The book of sermons you hold in your hand accomplishes all three. I should know. I read every word of these sermons. As I did so, I learned invaluable spiritual principles about the ways of God; I delighted in the anecdotes, stories and metaphors, and most importantly, I was persuaded to walk closer to Jesus Christ. It is not hyperbole to say that these sermons by Doug Hood, Greg Rapier and John "Skip" Randolph, represent some of the finest weekly preaching in the United States today. A big statement, But it is true! St. Augustine is smiling in the Kingdom of Heaven. Ask members of First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach Florida what they like about their church and you will receive a myriad of answers. Some will comment on the sublime music or the outstanding Christian Education programs for children, youth, and adults. Others will describe the caring fellowship in the newly remodeled facility, while others will affirm the outreach to the local community. But, everyone mentions the preaching! The sermons at First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach make the Bible come to life! Hundreds and hundreds of people come to each worship service anticipating that they will hear a "Word from the Lord" in these tumultuous times. This is not only the opinion of those who live in South Florida, but also those who worship on the internet from literally all over the world! I must tell you that it is quite unusual for three preachers of the quality of Doug, Greg, and Skip to preach regularly from the same pulpit. The fact that they are all associated with First Presbyterian of Delray Beach, Florida, is a testament to the strong leadership of the Senior Pastor, Doug Hood. Doug has purposefully surrounded himself with gifted preachers who bring out the best in him, even as he brings out the best in Greg and Skip. As a result of this excellence in preaching, First Presbyterian of Delray Beach is an enigma among mainline Protestant congregations in America: it is growing. It is growing in every measurable way: in worship attendance, on- line presence, membership, financial giving and volunteer time, but most importantly, in discipleship. People all over America, and the world, are experiencing the life changing presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in the worship services and sermons! Is it any wonder that so many people want to be a part of this special church family in Delray Beach, even from around the world? 

Where do I begin to tell of the role "Joy" has played in every area of my life? Well let''s start at the beginning...I was born in San Antonio, Texas on an army base. I was a happy child, but by the age of 5 I had my first experience with fear and anxiety. At such a young age, I did not understand what alcoholism was or realize it had become a disease my Dad had succumbed to. All I knew was that he was gone and would not be returning any time soon. I could tell my mom was very sad and scared, but she showed me something I will never forget: Joy in the face of Adversity.

Dyton Owen has a straightforward and compelling way of communicating the essence of what a healthy, balanced church is all about. In four chapters he outlines the basic traits by which every church should be measured. This book is an outstanding resource for pastors, lay leaders, and church members who want their local church to be what God intends the church to be. I recommend it highly.- Dr. Clayton Oliphant, Senior Pastor, First United Methodist Church, Richardson, TX

The title of this book came to me in a miraculous way: I saw the book''s title and cover in a vision from God. That was the sixteenth miraculous experience of my life. I have since then had 30 more miraculous experiences important enough to be included in this book. Some people seem to get all the bad luck; the prophet Amos told of a man running away from a bear, who then encounters a lion, and escapes inside his house only to be bitten by a snake (Amos 5:19) Some few exceptionally lucky ones win the lottery more than once. I like to say that I am truly the luckiest man alive because I won the God lottery many times: What is the jackpot? Over the last 47 years God has blessed me with more than forty-seven miraculous spiritual experiences. Any miracle is amazing but some of the things I''ve experienced have been completely mind blowing. This book is a report on what I experienced and what I learned from my experiences. As you read along, I believe you will understand why I say that I am truly the luckiest man alive. The miraculous experiences I''ve experienced fall into only four categories: 1. Signs & wonders God performed to communicate a message2. Appearances of God - Father, Son & Holy Spirit 3. Hearing God speak to me or to others for me, and4. God using me to rescue people from injury, illness, or rape. 

If, as the Apostle Paul told the Athenians, God is not far from any one of us (Acts 17:27), then there must be circumstances, events, or occasions in which God''s nearness is especially discernable. The preacher''s task includes, at least in part, an effort to rummage through the cascading clutter of the time being to discover and uncover such moments. The greater part of the task is to interpret these moments from the perspective of God''s self-disclosure in Jesus of Nazareth. The best, and the hardest, part of the preacher''s task is to enable a congregation to embrace these moments with deep reverence and unspeakable joy. Fred Craddock was a master storyteller. He taught us that what makes a good story good is it''s power to awaken in us an appreciation for our own stories. A good story evokes a response of recognition and participation. "Something like that happened to me once. I remember that feeling. That story is my story too." So the sermons I have gathered here, and the stories and events they convey, are offered in the hope that they invite you to celebrate your own stories of occasions of the nearness, perhaps, of God.The circumstances, events and occasions woven into the fabric of these sermons, if not commonplace, are at least commonly accessible. They are ordinary moments more or less, moments broadly shared. There is a sermon delivered the Sunday before the Olympic Games began, and another for the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day. There is a sermon noting a successful day for the Hadron Collider; another for the Sunday after I painted my front door; yet another for the Sunday after a long-lost Renoir masterpiece was recovered.Of course there are also sermons occasioned by the familiar celebrations of the church year: Pentecost, All Saints Day, and Christmas Eve. Some of the sermons mark occasions during what the church calendar calls Ordinary Time: Sundays when the Lord''s Supper was served; and of course Mother''s Day. And in several of the sermons in the collection, the "occasion" is embedded in the Bible story itself: the day Jesus healed a blind man on the second try; the day estranged brothers met after twenty bitter years apart.I have gathered these particular sermons because they are each, in some way, tethered to a moment, event, or real-life circumstance. They cover a wide variety of themes. But if there is a common thread running through these pages, it is that God shows up in a lot of places where you wouldn''t ordinarily expect God to be, does a lot of things that you might not expect God to do, and loves a lot of people that you might not expect God to love.The Psalmist declared, "I was glad when they said to me, ''Let us go to the house of the Lord!" (Ps. 122:1) The Gospel is good news. "Aren''t you glad you''re here this morning?" I often asked. As you will see in the pages ahead, I wasn''t reluctant to ask folks to follow me into the tall grass or down a rabbit hole. Occasionally folks would greet me after worship confessing, "I didn''t know how you would ever dig yourself out of that hole." I knew what they were thinking. Their bewildered glances and puzzled expressions told me when to ask. "Aren''t you glad you''re here this morning?"The sermons assembled in this volume are presented essentially as they were first delivered. I have resisted the temptation to tidy them up. They are now what they were then: conversational, occasionally awkward, and seasoned with the incidental banter I enjoyed with a congregation whose names I knew, whose Sunday morning faces I cherished, and whose friendship I will ever treasure. 

Grief is done differently by every person. It is personal. My brother had been suffering for many years with cancers. Ignoring grief leads to numbers of coping problems. Grief comes because we love. We are not released from grief. Being rich or poor makes no difference. Being gifted and successful in life does not matter. All the 7.5 billion people living on earth today will know grief.David's death and all my losses in life have been tender times. No other human can understand. Our brothers or sisters each grieve differently. Spouses grieve in differing ways throughout the world upon the death of their partner.Because each loss is unique, we need to seek the help of a friend with gifts in grief counseling. When I went through my times of grieving, I sought someone who had had similar losses to help me through this dark journey. I could not handle recently losing my parents, losing my brother David, and losing feelings of worth, being insignificant, unloved, and unwanted by those with whom I wanted to continue sharing the joy of the Lord. One of the gifts David left was a thick book on the history of the McReynolds family. We are a part of everyone who lived with or without our genes. We will understand this in the Next Place.James E. McReynolds is a preacher, teacher, author, coach, and retreat leader who shares the joy of the Lord. He is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He lives in Elmwood, Nebraska.