Tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Hug your kids and grand kids tonight! 

Here's the list of all the victims from yesterday's heartless shooting in Connecticut.  Please pray for the parents, grandparents, family members and friends of these precious souls that were murdered yesterday.

All six adults killed at the school were women.  Of the 20 children who were shot to death, eight were boys and 12 were girls.  All the children were ages 6 or 7.

The names and birth dates of the victims:

Charlotte Bacon (2/22/06), 6 years old, female

Daniel Barden (9/25/05), 7 years old, male

Rachel Davino (7/17/83), Staff member, 29 years old, female

Olivia Engel (7/18/06), 6 years old, female

Josephine Gay (12/11/05), 7 years old, female

Ana M. Marquez-Greene (4/4/06), 6 years old, female

Dylan Hockley (3/8/06), 6 years old, male

Dawn Hochsprung (6/28/65), Principal, 47 years old, female

Madeleine F. Hsu (7/10/06), 6 years old, female

Catherine V. Hubbard (6/8/06), 6 years old, female

Chase Kowalski (10/31/05), 7 years old, male

Nancy Lanza, 52 years old, female (mother of shooter Adam Lanza)

Jesse Lewis (6/30/06), 6 years old, male

James Mattioli (03/22/06), 6 years old, male

Grace McDonnell (11/4/05), 7 years old, female

Anne Marie Murphy (7/25/60), Staff member, 52 years old, female

Emilie Parker (05/12/06), 6 years old, female

Jack Pinto (05/05/06), 6 years old, male

Noah Pozner (11/20/06), 6 years old, male

Caroline Previdi (9/07/06), 6 years old, female

Jessica Rekos (5/10/06), 6 years old, female

Avielle Richman (11/17/06) 6 years old, female

Lauren Rousseau (June 1982), Staff member, 30 years old, female

Mary Sherlach (2/11/56), Staff member, 56 years old, female

Victoria Soto (11/04/85), Staff member, 27 years old, female

Benjamin Wheeler (09/12/06), 6 years old, male

Allison N. Wyatt (07/03/06), 6 years old, female

Hobby Lobby's Dictation from ObamaCARE

Per Snopes:  this is true and in November of this year a Federal Judge up held Obamacare and told HL to comply.....

    http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/hobbylobby.asp

A Letter from Hobby Lobby Stores CEO By David Green, the founder and CEO of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. When my family and I started our company 40 years ago, we were working out of a garage on a $600 bank loan, assembling miniature picture frames. Our first retail store wasn't much bigger than most people's living rooms, but we had faith that we would succeed if we lived and worked according to God's word. From there,Hobby Lobby has become one of the nation's largest arts and crafts retailers, with more than 500 locations in 41 states. Our children grew up into fine business leaders, and today we run Hobby Lobby together, as a family. We're Christians, and we run our business on Christian principles. I've always said that the first two goals of our business are (1) to run our business in harmony with God's laws, and (2) to focus on people more than money. And that's what we've tried to do. We close early so our employees can see their families at night. We keep our stores closed on Sundays, one of the week's biggest shopping days, so that our workers and their families can enjoy a day of rest. We believe that it is by God's grace that Hobby Lobby has endured, and he has blessed us and our employees. We've not only added jobs in a weak economy, we've raised wages for the past four years in a row.. Our full-time employees start at 80% above minimum wage. But now, our government threatens to change all of that. A new government health care mandate says that our family business MUST provide what I believe are abortion-causing drugs as part of our health insurance. Being Christians, we don't pay for drugs that might cause abortions, which means that we don't cover emergency contraception, the morning-after pill or the week-after pill. We believe doing so might end a life after the moment of conception, something that is contrary to our most important beliefs. It goes against the Biblical principles on which we have run this company since day one. If we refuse to comply, we could face $1.3 million PER DAY in government fines. Our government threatens to fine job creators in a bad economy. Our government threatens to fine a company that's raised wages four years running. Our government threatens to fine a family for running its business according to its beliefs. It's not right. I know people will say we ought to follow the rules; that it's the same for everybody. But that's not true. The government has exempted thousands of companies from this mandate, for reasons of convenience or cost. But it won't exempt them for reasons of religious belief. So, Hobby Lobby and my family are forced to make a choice. With great reluctance, we filed a lawsuit today, represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, asking a federal court to stop this mandate before it hurts our business. We don't like to go running into court, but we no longer have a choice. We believe people are more important than the bottom line and that honoring God is more important than turning a profit. My family has lived the American dream. We want to continue growing our company and providing great jobs for thousands of employees, but the government is going to make that much more difficult. The government is forcing us to choose between following our faith and following the law. I say that's a choice no American and no American business should have to make. The government cannot force you to follow laws that go against your fundamental religious belief. They have exempted thousands of companies but will not except Christian organizations including the Catholic church. Since you will not see this covered in any of the media, pass this on to all your contacts. Sincerely, David Green, CEO and Founder of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.

Little Nashville, Indiana - Thanksgiving 2012

My wife, Coletta and I "escaped" to the land of Little Nashville, Indiana for our Thanksgiving get a way this year.  Beautiful town about 4 hours southwest of our town.  It's a quiet tourist town known for their scenery, craft shops and artists.  We got a packaged deal at the Brown County Inn, which included a HUGE Thanksgiving Buffet on Thursday, and a nice Breakfast Buffet Friday morning.
Great R & R,  but, it's also great to be home again. 

My Snow Skiing Accident in West Virginia Monday

  I was in a ski accident Monday morning Feb. 6, 2012 at Snowshoe Mt. Resort, in WV.  I had been saving for this trip and looking forward to it for months.  It was kind of a Christmas/Birthday gift from my wife, and I took a young father from my church, Scott Dicke, one of our trustees, as he loves snow skiing also and had never ski'd outside of Ohio before. Monday was Scott's birthday, so this was his birthday present from his wife.   I wanted him to experience one of the best in the East, and Coletta INSISTED that I take another guy with me "in case something would happen."

I had a new goose down black ski jacket, a new bright green florescent shell wind breaker, new gloves that matched my helmet and I was ready to take on the "Double Black Diamonds!"   My first skiing for this winter, and Scott wanted to start out on the beginner slopes until he got warmed up.   That was fine with me, cos the beginner slopes at Snowshoe are long and beautiful and have some pitch to them also.

We were both acting like Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed as we were strapping our helmets on and shoving our gloves on at my mini-van.  Temps just under freezing and the sun was bouncing off the granulated snow.  We beat most people to the chair lift, did a few stretches, and snapped our boots into our skis.  Scott asked me to lead the way, because he didn't know which slope to start with.

We took two long runs and had a blast.  At Snowshoe, one major difference is that you start at the top where the lodge's, restaurants and shops are, you park up on the top and then ski down to a mountain lake.  THEN, you ride the chair lift back up where all the cars and stores are. 

On our third run down a beginner slope, it was pretty steep to start out with, so I let the "steep" gravitate me to a high speed and then when the steep slope leveled, I hit a thick groove of granulated snow and instead of the ski's just crashing though the "ice snow,"  it caught my sky tip on my right ski, and as the ski's stayed, I went.

I rolled about three times and the impact was so hard I think I would have cracked my skull,  but thank the Lord, I wear a helmet.  Scott stopped beside me asking me if I was O. K. and I tried to get up, could not, and I said, no, I'm hurt.  I thought my back was broke.  I asked Scott, my friend from our church to stick my ski's uphill from my body in the snow making a cross with the ski tips pointing upward towards the ski and holler for help.

The ski patrol took me on a board sled to  a chair lift and hauled me up to the top of the mountain in a mummy sled strapped to a straight board with my neck in a brace.  An Ambulance took me to Pocahontas Memorial hospital in Buckeye, WV.

The E.R. staff pulled my outer clothes off of me and started doing all the normal checks for ski injuries.  Monday, I had 2 E.K. G's and all total in this ordeal, I had three CAT Scans.  After nearly a day strapped to a hard board with a neck brace on, the E. R. staff at the Pocahontas Hospital gave me morphine and at the same time a nitroglycerin pad on my chest due to my severe back, chest and arm pains.  The E R. doc thought possibly my heart was bruised.

I started to pass out from the morphine and nitro, so E R did a "stat" and about 7 hospital staff people ran into the E. R. and started working on me like crazy with some real FEARFUL LOOKS.  Most "good Christians" would tell you they weren't afraid at all.   I will tell you the truth.  I was horrified!  But, I prayed to Jesus and asked Him to comfort me and give me peace.  I told him I was ready if he wanted me (but, I didn't want to go to heaven right then).  Jesus did give me peace!  

The E. R. Staff  were all being quiet, whispering and asking me some very serious questions.    My blood pressure dropped like an elevator going down to the basement and my heart rate also dropped rapidly.  Life Flight was called from W V University Medical Hospital Trauma Center.

A rain storm came and the chopper could not land at Pocahontas Hospital, so the Helicopter dispatcher asked ambulance to drive to Buckhannon Airport where the storm had not come yet and the skies were clear.  The ambulance took me on a 2 hour drive.  The chopper and medical flight team met us at the Buckhannon Airport and flew me on to Morgantown, WV.  I learned that I was being taken to the top trauma team in the state of West Virginia. 

They called in a Priority "One" from the chopper and after landing on the hospital roof, the Medi-flight nurses ran me into the Trauma E. R. due to possible heart trouble and the allergic reaction I had to the morphine and nitro.  The next morning, the Trauma Center chaplain and the main Trauma doctor of the hospital both explained to me that when they get a "P-One" on their communication radios from a chopper that that means, "Move all the other patience out of the way and bring in your main trauma team now!"

I thank God for Scott Dicke for sacrificing your birthday ski trip to stay by my side through such a nightmare, and a wonderful church family and friends around the world praying for me. Someone asked me,  "When did you know you were going to be O. K."  And I said when my beautiful blue eyed "Coletta" walked into my hospital room!  Thanks also to Deacon Fabian Canales and his wife, Dolores from our church for driving my lovely wife to West Virginia to be with me, and the return trip back to Van Wert, Ohio.  Another huge blessing is that  I just learned yesterday that I had people in China and Africa praying for me.

However, of all of this,  probably the thing that has stirred my heart the most is that my brother, Johnny who has been a Medi-flight pilot in OK City, OK for years learned about my accident and already knew that the medical flight company that flew me is the same company Johnny flies for.   He has called me 4 times, then waited until my helicopter flight crew got back to their base airport in Buckhannon, WV.  and called them at 2:00 in the morning to thank them for flying his "little preacher brother" to help save my life.

I'm home now and getting better every day.  I can't say enough to thank you for praying for Coletta and me through all of this.  I'm closer to God now, and all my pastoral E. R. calls in the future will never be the same.  I also picked up several new sermon illustrations and have some good used ski equipment for sale.

I only broke two ribs right behind my collar bones, my chest, back and shoulders are very bruised, but, my head and neck are O K,  and PRAISE GOD,   my back is not broke.  

Thanks for your phone calls, Emails and prayers.

Love in Christ,

Jim Burns, Pastor

Liberty Baptist Church

Van Wert, OH

PS.  We have met our health insurance deductible!

Email:  jimmycburns@aol.com