Hall Chronicle
Saturday, May 27. So much sadness in this world. A dear missionary friend, Dr. Jim Kraakevik, who went back to Nigeria as a widower to help get Bingham University up and going was felled by a massive stroke Wednesday morning and has been flown to a modern hospital in South Africa for recovery and therapy. Then this morning we learned of Arlene Coulter's father being felled by a stroke. We pray God to lay His mighty hand of power and restoration on these, His servants.
So glad our daughter, Natalie, has joined the rest of the blogging family. Welcome, Natalie!
Now, it's back to work on Touchstone!

Hall Chronicle
Today, May 24, 2006. Just another day? No, never. This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. But it will be another day of working on the Touchstone magazine. I have information from Joe Lee, a former student of mine at Davis College, who for several years now, along with his wife, Dawn, work amongst the Navajo Indians near Gallup, New Mexico. I will be writing an article on them and their ministry.
This time with Touchstone I'm taking a new approach. Formerly we have always asked a variety of authors to write an article. We provided basic information such as the theme and the length and trusted each one to produce something that was publishable. What this did was to produce a lot of fear and procrastination in the lives of some of them and sometimes the article had to be heavily edited and if they wrote too much, shortened. Others kept to the length suggested and wrote a publishable piece. But, overall, the quality varied and it made for some rather formidable editing challenges.
The new approach is to assign a few articles to be written by others, but for the most part, I am assuming the role of a reporter doing an interview and then writing the story. Of course the stories that will appear in this coming issue of Touchstone will not have the writer's name attached because if that were the case, almost every story would have my name attached! Now, we can't have that, can we?
Starting tomorrow and for the next ten days leading up to Pentecost, I will be leading a prayer meeting at one of the SIM Village apartment buildings. We will have a one-hour session each day. This responsibility was thrust on me rather suddenly as the person originally scheduled to do it is physically unable at the present time.
Yesterday Betty and I discovered a little Italian restaurant just off the circle in downtown, historic Sebring. Having grown up in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, and with Binghamton, New York, being so close by I practically grew up on Italian food. And for 11 years we lived in either Binghamton or Johnson City. If you are from there, or probably most any other place in the Northeast, you know that the best popularly priced restaurants are Greek or Italian. Well, this one we discovered here in Sebring, Cafe' Divino, is excellent and the prices are very reasonable. Visit us in Sebring and we'll demonstrate to you that "seeing is believing."

Hall Chronicle
Well, I'm back from taking Sam to the dentist. The dentist wants so see me and as soon as I muster the courage, I'll get the work done he's recommended. Being a coward at heart and admitting as much to every dentist I've ever visited, I have to say it is not my favorite chair to sit in. But better there than in a chair on the witness stand! And speaking of witness chairs reminds one of the judicial system and that reminds me of the Prison Ministry I have.
Generally, when at home, I go at least once a month with fellow SIMer, Earl Day, to the prison. We have no way of taking musical instruments into the prison, so Earl takes a tape recorder with recordings of well known hymns sung by the late SIM Missionary George Beacham. So, we get by with that. Then I do the preaching. We have two services on a Sunday morning, one with the women prisoners and then one with the men. About 12 to 15 women attend and about 20 to 40 men attend. They are expected to go back to the cell block immediately after the service and there is a guard making sure they do. Hence, there is no opportunity of any one-on-one counseling. We trust that the Holy Spirit will use God's Word to bring about conviction and conversion.
Our next service is coming up this Sunday, May 28th.
Right now I'm busy writing articles that will appear in the next issue of the Touchstone Magazine of Davis College, Johnson City, N. Y. I am the founding editor of this magazine that began 20 years ago. I serve today as the Managing Editor and our daughter, Natalie G. Wilkins is the editor. Normally she does most of the heavy lifting, but asked me to take over for this issue. Anyone reading this blog who would like to subscribe to this magazine "of information, inspiration, and Christian thought" may do so by contacting: touchstone@davisny.edu
The mailing list manager, Sharon O'Connor will be happy to add you to the list of subscribers. There is absolutely no cost and you will not be solicited for funds. Davis College is a college of Bible and Ministry and has operated continuously for 106 years training men and women for ministry. Well known graduates include Woodrow M. Kroll (Back to The Bible), Ron Hawkins, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences of Liberty University, and many others. Davis College was formerly known as Practical Bible College and before that as Practical Bible Training School. The name "Davis" is for the founder, Dr. John A. Davis. He was trained as an evangelist by D. L. Moody. His honorary D. D. degree was from Taylor University. So that gives you a bit of an idea as to the kind of college it is. Betty and I served there for 11 years and after retiring, I went back for two six month periods to help the college achieve Middle States regional accreditation.

Yes, every journey has a first step. This is my first step at, what is the term, blogging?
The title of "our" blogspot is Hall Chronicle. When I say "our" I am referring to Don & Betty. It will be our blog. Being something of a history buff, our blogspot will have that tinge to it. Being a politically opinionated person (Don, that is), I suppose some controversial opinions will be shared and reaction to these opinions is invited!
Well, for today, that's it. I have to take a friend to an appointment and I dare not be late.