I’ve got another good one for you – courtesy of an e-mail buddy.

"This Pastor has Guts!!

"Thought you might enjoy this interesting prayer given in Kansas at the opening session of their Senate. It seems prayer still upsets some people.

"When minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard:

"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your word says, ‘Woe to those who call evil good,’ but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.

"We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your word and call it pluralism. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

"Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!’

"The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest. In six short weeks, Central Christian Church, where the Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively.

"The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa and Korea.

"Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, The Rest of the Story, and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired.

"With the Lord’s help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called "one nation under God."

Amen to that!

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We welcome Wendy Wallace to our staff this week as our new office assistant and look forward to working with her.

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Our centennial edition of the newspaper is set for publication Wednesday, Aug. 24. The 80+ pages have been almost a year in the making, and I must confess I wanted to "throw a party" when I was finally able to deliver it to Waynesboro where it is now being put into page format.

The history section will be inserted into the regular edition of The Millen News. We will also have available for purchase a limited number of bound copies in book form for $10 each. You don’t want to miss this one!

A Centennial Breakfast is being planned for Wednesday, Aug. 17, on the lawn of the Jenkins County Courthouse. At this time, the time capsule of 1980 will be opened, and the items in it will be retrieved and returned to those who contributed them. New items will also be accepted for enclosure in the capsule. Additional details of the event will be published in next week’s edition of the newspaper.

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Happy birthday this week to: Wesley Kent, Emma Coney, W.H. Saxon, Rachael Boynton, Jackie Landrum, David Waters and Lisa Troisi.

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Celebrating wedding anniversaries this week are Mr. and Mrs. Robbie Reynolds.

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Military Active Duty List: SPC Grade E4 Arthur Lamont Milton Jr., HHC 1-36 Infantry Support, Friedberg, Germany; Staff Sgt. Gilbert C. Sheppard III, 48th Brigade, 118th Field Artillery, Ft. Stewart; Airman Jamie A. Yager, U.S. Navy, Great Lakes, Ill.; Andy D. Crosby, U.S. Navy, Leyete Gulf Destroyer, Norfolk, Va.; LCPL Dwain "Cade" Lee, 1st Marine Division Combat Service Support Group II Security Element, ArRamadi, Iraq; Jimmy Cooper, U.S. Army National Guard, 878th Engineering Battalion-Augusta, Persian Gulf ; Thomas Kelsey, U.S. Army National Guard, 878th Engineering Battalion-Augusta, Persian Gulf; 1st Lt. J.R. Taylor, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Iraq; SPC. Daniel Stuart, 18th MEDCOM, 121 General Hospital, Seoul, Korea; SFC Floyd Bolton Jr., 7th Battalion, 159th Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, Ft. Campbell, Kentucky; SFC Maria Bolton, 61st Medical Detachment, 21st Combat Support Hospital, 4th Medical Brigade, Ft. Campbell, Kentucky; 1st Lt. Andrew P. Thomas, U.S. Marines, 2nd Marine Division, Small Craft Company, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; Sgt. Steven Yager, 362nd Sig. Company, Korea; MM3 Jeffrey Sweat, U.S. Navy, USS Kauffman, MM3 59/E-Division, A-Gang, Norfolk, Va.; Cpl. Larry Lamont Clark, U.S. Marine Corp, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C. Bagdad, Iraq; Khan Young, U.S. Navy, U.S.S. Kitty Hawk, Persian Gulf; Robert Milton Jr., E-3, U.S. Army, Ft. Stewart, Hinesville, Ga., Mission Kuwait; SFC Ronnie Perryman, E-7, Georgia Army National Guard, Battery A, 118th Field Artillery Regiment, 48th Brigade Combat Team, Iraq; Arnold R. Mosley, 2nd Lt., U.S. Air Force, Randolph AFB, Texas; Debra A. Mosley, Tech. Sgt., U.S. Air Force, Randolph AFB, Texas; and 1st Lt. Donald Slade Burke, Moody Air Force Base, Valdosta.