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Letter: God wants love, not division

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By Chris Reuter, Clarendon

God loves everyone!

I was doing a study in my Bible the other night, and the Lord led me to some scripture that brought a ton of wisdom to light about certain subjects I was having slight confusion on. Remember, God is not the author of confusion. Man using God’s word for his own agenda is. It’s a fault in mankind. That’s why we must correct one another in Love and in scripture.

1 Corinthians 4:21 talks about would you rather I come in love or with a rod? First and foremost, this is a stand for God and kingdom living. A stand for unity in Christ. Clarendon used to be unified by its churches. Now, we are more divided than ever. Why? Don’t we serve the same God? Don’t we love the same way the Bible tells us to?

The word Sanctuary originally means from the holiest places, temple, or church. Now, it’s a word used for anyone to feel safe or protected. So, shouldn’t sanctuary city be a place for people to run to, instead of running from? Psalms 133 talks about brotherly unity in Christ, not division. It’s really important for us to consider the subjects that divide us the most. Not what does our heart say or our emotions based off experience say, but what does God’s word say about it? 1

Corinthians 13:7-13 is one perfect example of scripture defining love and how to love in a kingdom manner. 1 Corinthians 6:1-11 talks about avoiding lawsuits with other Christians. Galatians 5:25 mentions living by the Holy Spirit and walking by the Spirit. Verse 26 mentions again not to be conceited or provoking one another. 1 John 4 is a great chapter on testing things with God to see if they are real or not. Verse 1 says, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, instead test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets and teachers have gone into the world.”

I’m asking us as a whole to seek this out together in scripture. If every church here opened their doors and was called a safe place or safe haven or sanctuary for women to run to or girls to reach out to or troubled youth seeking help could call or go to, they would never even make it to the other end of the spectrum. They would never have to make decisions to put them or anyone else at risk. We should be open doors, not closed minds. Changing our mindset and resources will accomplish more than we know. Statistics prove certain issues are lower in communities that have these safety nets in place.

The only way we should be seeking to change our inner-city walls is with the Lord and a kingdom living mindset. I’ve never seen any man-made law or city ordinance stop the worst of crimes, but then again maybe some do. State and federal laws are already in place to prevent certain things from happening. Some issues are just better handled on a larger scale rather than by city ordinances.

The whole point is this. If we want to correct the issues that may or may not be up for discussion, we must do it in love and put things in place that help people not cause them more worldly issues that they may face. That’s what God wants from us, not all this division.

God loves all of us. Even the people you think are doing the worst things in the world could possibly stop with God’s love given to them. Stand for what is right; stand for kingdom living. Read your bible and form your own opinion on what God is showing you.

Senior Thang to be held June 1

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The public is invited to come join the Donley County Senior Citizens Center for their fourth annual That Senior Thang “FAM FEST” on Saturday June 1 from 3:00 to 8:00 p.m. This event is designed to raise awareness of the Center and its needs with a fun-filled family night. The date of this event has been changed to avoid extreme weather of August and the back-to-school rush.

The day will kick off with barbecue chickens which can be picked up at 1:00 p.m. and followed with loads of fun. The concession stand and country store will satisfy every taste bud. There will be plenty of good food and snacks to keep you fueled for all the games and activities.

There will be everything from free carnival games for the little ones to ladder ball and horse shoes for the kids at heart. Competitions for those who want a challenge include Corn Hole, Two on Two Basketball, Water Dodge Ball, Texas Skis and Water Balloon Blast can be played for a small fee with the winner taking half of the entry fee as prize.

Be sure to get your raffle tickets on the quilt and the 50/50 drawing. Don’t forget to stop by the Estlacks’ table and pick a spot in the Chicken Drop Bingo. Local musicians will entertain from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

This event has something for everyone so Bring Your Own Chair and come join us next Saturday afternoon. Check us out on Facebook.

Pantex develops StrikeNet weather app

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When it comes to weather in the Texas Panhandle, what’s happening at one location may be completely different than conditions only a few miles away. For the more than 4,500 Pantex employees, weather onsite can be vastly different than what is occurring at their homes.

As the nation’s primary assembly, disassembly, and life-extension center for nuclear weapons, weather events at Pantex can impact both workers and production, so having access to real-time meteorological data across the entire region is paramount to everyone’s safety.

To address regional weather events, Pantex Meteorologist Steve Kersh is working with school districts and private landowners to refurbish and upgrade area-wide weather stations formerly maintained by a local TV station. These sites include new weather and lightning-detection software providing real-time data on wind speed, temperature, rainfall, and lightning from each location, which is now available to the public on the StrikeNet website at https://strikenet-tx.com.
Pantex also initiated development of the StrikeNet weather app, which is free and available to the public on Google Play and the App Store.

On both the StrikeNet website and app, all available weather data are listed in its drop-down menu. For example, when lightning maps are enabled, the strikes are represented by the lightning symbol, with the most current strikes in the red circle and the estimated distance from Pantex indicated on the symbol itself.

“Severe weather can have a direct impact on Pantex operations, both from a safety standpoint for our employees and for our mission. Enhancing capabilities that track weather events to specific locations using our newly developed sensors is a huge step forward for the site and our surrounding area,” said Pantex Site Manager Colby Yeary.

Initially,10 sites signed up to the StrikeNet network including schools, homes, ranches, and businesses, with an additional 11 sites quickly added. School officials indicate that the lightning detection data would be used to help with determining whether to seek shelter if and when thunderstorms approach during regular school hours and extracurricular events, while ranchers and farmers can access real-time weather conditions aiding in crop and livestock production.

Pantex views StrikeNet as an opportunity to offer accurate and localized weather information to Texas Panhandle residents, internet users, and weather station owners at no cost.

Broncos advance with win over Sudan

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The Clarendon Broncos beat Sudan last Friday to win the Area Championship and will face Ropes this week. Enterprise Photo / Tara Allred

By Sandy Anderberg

The Clarendon Broncos claimed the Area Championship with big wins over Sudan last week in Floydada. The 18-1-2 Broncos defeated the Hornets 11-10 and 9-2.

The Broncos will take on Ropes in the Regional Quarter Final game in Plainview on Thursday, May 16, at 4:00 p.m. Game two will be played thirty minutes after game one and game three will be played on Friday, May 17, at 11:00 a.m. if needed.
Game one against the Sudan Hornets kept the Bronco fans on edge and it went down to the wire. After a back-and-forth contest, the Broncos earned the win in the ninth inning when seniors Easton Frausto and Harrison Howard went to work.

Frausto connected with a huge double that brought Howard to the plate knowing he had to bring him home. With two outs on the board, Frausto worked to put himself in scoring position at third base. Howard knocked one down the third base line and Frausto was able to get to Homeplate for the score and the win. Overall, the Broncos posted 10 hits in the game and committed four errors.

Howard was on the mound for five innings and Frausto went in for the final four innings. Both pitchers faced 23 batters. Howard allowed one hit, four runs, two walks, and struck out nine. Frausto posted five strikeouts and allowed eight hits, six runs, and three walks.

The Broncos made big hits all game long and earned four stolen bases. Bryce Williams had two singles and two RBIs in the game as did Howard plus a stolen base. Jared Musick posted a single, triple, an RBI, four runs, and one stolen base. Musick was on his game defensively as well and racked up 14 put-outs in the game. Frausto finished with a single, a double, two runs and one solen base, while Levi Gates had a single and one run. Mason Allred had a single, one run, and one stolen base and Shane Hagood helped with one stolen base.

The game two win came a little easier for the Broncos. They had nine runs, nine hits, and committed three errors. Musick got the call and threw for six innings striking out nine. Mason Sims pitched the last inning and had one strike out.

The Hornets earned the first score of the game in the second inning on an error in the field, but the Broncos were able to put two runs on the board in the third. After a Frausto single with one out, Howard knocked down a huge triple to score Frausto. The Broncos were able to get Gates and Allred on base due to Sudan’s back-to-back errors. Bryce Williams was able to put some wood on the ball and get Howard home for a run.

A crucial fourth inning gave the Broncos the advantage they were looking for going up by five runs. Heston Seay slammed a single that brought Sims home and Frausto connected with a triple that scored Seay. Hits from Howard and Allred allowed one more run before the end of the inning. The Hornets scored two runs in the fifth, but the Broncos ran away with it in their next at bat and put two more runs on the board and went three and out against Sudan’s batters in the sixth to secure the win. With Sims on base, Seay reached base on an error that allowed Sims to take third base and score on the next batter for the final run of the game.

Jerald Dalton “Jerry” Askew

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Jerald Dalton “Jerry” Askew, 87, of Amarillo, died Thursday, May 9, 2024, in Claude.

Services were held on May 14, 2024, in Robertson Funeral Directors Saints’ Roost Chapel in Clarendon with Curtis Odom, officiating. Burial followed in Citizens Cemetery in Clarendon.

Jerald Dalton “Jerry” Askew

Arrangements are under the direction of Robertson Funeral Directors of Clarendon.

Jerry was born November 27, 1936, to William Dalton and Mary Helen Henderson Askew. He married Karen Janelle West on June 1, 1955. He had worked in ranching for many years and was a truck driver prior to his retirement. He had been a resident of Amarillo the past 18 years. He loved square dancing, going to car shows and air shows, and playing with his grandkids and great grandkids. He was a very devoted caregiver to his wife for many years. He was a Baptist.

He was preceded in death by his parents; and his wife on June 25, 2022.

He is survived by his children, Danny Askew and wife Terry, Andi Odom and husband Curtis, Leigh and Cathy Askew; his grandchildren, Dale Askew, Katie Andrews, Dalton Askew, Jarod Hudgens, Alex Tidwell, Barry Askew, and Bayleigh Elder; 13 great grandchildren and his sisters, LaReece Miller and Ronda Brown.

Early morning fire destroys Clarendon home

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Firemen work to control flames at a Clarendon home last Thursday morning, May 2. Enterprise Photo

The Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department responded to a house fire in the 800 bock of Johns Street in the early morning hours of Thursday, May 2, and the property was a total loss.

Fire Chief Jeremy Powell said the department was dispatched at 4:43 a.m. and arrived on the scene within about six minutes to find the home of Terry Sims fully engulfed.

Sims had made it out of the house, and Powell said it was likely that the fire had been burning 15 or 20 minutes before the call went out. Fire fighters worked to keep the fire from spreading to other nearby structures.

CVFD responded with four trucks and 12 firefighters and had the blaze knocked down by 5:15. They remained on the scene until 7:30 a.m.

Powell said the house was burned so badly and so completely that the department was not able to determine a possible cause.

Red Cross personnel were contacted to help Mrs. Sims following the loss of her home.

Christ’s Kids needs summer volunteers

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The Christ’s Kids Ministry is in need of volunteers to help with the summer lunch program.

There will be volunteer meetings May 13 and May 16 at 7 p.m. at the ministry, 416 S. Kearney, for those interested. You only need to attend one meeting to get the information you need.

For more information, contact Felicia Atkinson at 806-205-1096 or Bobby Ellerbrook at 806-662-7650.

Sheriff lists phone numbers for office

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The Donley County Sheriff’s Office would like to inform the public that in the event of a phone outage, a cell phone is available to reach the sheriff’s office.

Sheriff Butch Blackburn says 911 will always be available, but for administrative calls people can usually dial 806-874-3533 or 806-874-3534. However, in the event of a landline outage, the department has a cell number, 806-277-0414, people can call for administrative purposes.

City should skip acting on Sanctuary proposal

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The hardest thing for anyone to do is often standing up for what is right when it is unpopular to do so. That’s the position the Clarendon City Council will find itself in Thursday night, May 9, when the subject of abortion will again be on the city agenda.

Roger Estlack, Publisher
& Editor

Abortion is illegal in Texas, and that isn’t going to change in the foreseeable future. Nationally, the Supreme Court now holds that abortion is a matter left up to the states, which is what President Trump wants, and that also is unlikely to change. But that’s not keeping activist Mark Lee Dickson from his crusade to “ban abortion” by getting cities to pass ordinances to become “Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn.”

The proposed ordinance Dickson sent to Clarendon city officials last month is 17 pages long, declares abortion to be unlawful except to save the life of the mother (rape and incest are not exceptions), bans abortion in the city, prohibits abortions being performed for Clarendon residents anywhere in the world, prohibits the sale and possession of certain drugs in the city, and seeks to prevent people from coming through Clarendon to get an abortion. Enforcement of the ordinance is basically left up to citizens policing each other and filing lawsuits against each other and/or abortion providers. That’s the short version. The entire proposal is posted on our website here: https://www.clarendonlive.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/SCFTU.pdf. I encourage you to read it.

It is a far-reaching ordinance which seems to vastly overstep the city’s authority, but at the end of the day, it probably doesn’t even matter. The legality of abortion has been and will be decided by state and federal authorities. So, what’s the purpose behind all this?

Dickson is a longtime anti-abortion activist. According to his movement’s website, 69 cities have passed ordinances to “outlaw abortion” and become Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn. Two of those cities have since reversed that action. He even has a bigtime attorney who has represented President Trump and who promises to represent the city if it gets sued. If Clarendon passes the Dickson ordinance, it will be just another notch in his belt. The real consequence though is the division the proposal creates in the community, the introduction of partisan politics into local government, and the waste of taxpayers’ money and resources as city employees deal with the drama Dickson brings to town.

Last month, city council members had only a few days before their regular meeting to be introduced to the Sanctuary ordinance. They heard from a couple of people who properly filled out the public comment forms, and then the council prudently took no action on the ordinance to learn more about it. Before this month’s agenda was even set, the city was bombarded with emails and phone calls – some of them hateful in their tone – seeking to get the item back on the agenda. City employees have been put under immense stress as they try to deal with this issue, they have had to take time away from their other duties, and legal opinions have been sought. How much has this cost the city already in terms of money and lost productivity?

Abortion has nothing to do with running the City of Clarendon. We elect our mayor and city council and then they hire employees to do important things that affect our daily lives. Their priorities are to make sure the streets are fixed, see to it the trash is collected, maintain a water system, and provide a host of other city services. At this time, they should be making sure the aquatic center is ready to open in a few weeks, working on implementation of the next downtown revitalization grant, figuring out how to deal with the TxDOT’s upcoming replacement of the US 287 bridge at Kearney Street (and relocation or replacement of the sewer line there), stopping vandals from destroying the rock walls of our city park, and the list goes on and on. These are the things that the city council should be focused on instead of wasting their time on an issue that the city literally has no control over.

But instead of dealing with our real city issues, Dickson and his followers are hijacking the city agenda, forcing people to take sides, creating stress where it is not warranted, and, in some cases, behaving in a markedly un-Christian manner. Sowing the seeds of division and hatred are not how Jesus would act. If you want to minister from a point of love and compassion and promote alternatives to abortion, that’s one thing. But if you want to whip up controversy, start acting hysterical, and ignite arguments between our residents, then you just need to take that show down the road. What would Jesus do? Not this.

Thursday’s city council meeting is scheduled to be held at 5:30 p.m. in the Mulkey Theatre. The city is expecting a large crowd to attend. Abortion is probably the single most controversial issue in America, with vocal groups on both ends of the spectrum and many people landing in some shade of gray in the middle. Regardless of what comments are made at the city meeting, it is unlikely that anyone will change their personal position on the issue.

The challenge for the city council is to remember that they represent all the citizens of Clarendon, regardless of their personal position on this issue, and to also be mindful that this is not a pressing matter requiring the city’s attention. There will be pressure to pass this ordinance, but the appropriate thing is for no action to be taken. Keep partisan politics out of our city business and let our council and city employees get on with the business of serving our community.

Broncos win Bi-district title

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2024 Bi-District Champions Enterprise Photo / Tara Allred

By Sandy Anderberg

Clarendon senior Harrison Howard took the mound in the Broncos’ Bi-District opener against West Texas in Amarillo at Palo Duro High last week and made easy work of the Comanches shutting them out 8-0.

Howard went wire to wire from the mound posting 16 strikeouts in the game. It took Howard 100 pitches in the seven innings which consisted of 63 pitches in the strike zone.

In their first at bat, Easton Frausto got on board first on a single to left field. Jared Musick grounded out before Levi Gates singled to left field and scored Howard. A quiet second inning led to one score and the Broncos were on top 3-0.

Another two runs were collected in the fourth when Howard slammed a triple that scored Mason Sims and Musick. The Broncos went wild in the fifth inning as they took advantage of several errors made by WT and left the inning with three more runs to get the win.

Along with his triple, Howard had one single, three RBIs, one run and a stolen base. Frausto had two singles, one RBI, one run, and one stolen base, while Levi Gates added a single, RBI, and one run. Bryce Williams and Mason Allred collected one run each and Allred had one RBI.

The big test came in the second game. With a game up in the best two out of three, the Broncos were in a good spot, but the Comanches were not finished and began the game full on. They were able to gain the early edge scoring two runs in the first inning on a double and a line drive single to center field. Musick got the call and was able to strike out the next two batters to end the inning.

A determined West Texas team went on to score two runs in the next inning, then proceeded to stop the Broncos after only four batters in the third.

It was the bottom of the fifth before the Broncos began to turn the game around in their favor. Allred, Williams, and Grant Haynes were hit by pitches to load the bases. Sims was able to slam a hit to the shortstop who turned a double play to pick off Williams at second. Allred was able to reach home plate to put another run on the board. With WT leading by five, things looked bleak for the Broncos. With a possible game three on their minds, the Broncos went to work to avoid a third game in the series.

In their next at bat, Gates’ single to right field advanced Musick and put a Frausto run on the board. With bases loaded, Haynes reached base on an error. With two outs and down to runs, the Broncos turned up the heat at the plate with a walk, a Shane Hagood single, and two more base on balls. Howard was able to send a hard-hit ground ball to left field that scored Hagood and Frausto to take the lead.

Gates then knocked down a single to center that scored Musick for the final run of the game. Frausto sealed the win from the mound with a WT ground-out, strike-out, a walk, and another ground out for the win.

The Broncos will play Sudan in the Area Round in Floydada Thursday, May 9, at 5 p.m. Game two will be held on Friday, May 10, with a game three immediately following if needed.

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