Lost Lake Tribune 3/18/2015
LOST LAKE TRIBUNE March 18, 2015
Longest-Tenured Pastor Will
Leave Small Church
NEILLSVILLE, WI- On Sunday March, 8,
Pastor Mark Fugate told his parishioners that he will be leaving Bible Baptist church
in six months. The 56-year-old senior pastor cited health concerns among other
issues for his reasoning to leave the church, started in 1970. Pastor Fugate
was diagnosed with Lyme disease last fall. He has experienced regular fatigue
and swelling at least every other day even after taking prescriptions for the
disease. He is regularly visiting a chiropractor in the north metro area of the
Twin Cities area of MN. Pastor Fugate’s wife, Sara, is a preschool teacher in
Marshfield, WI and has been married to Mark for over 30 years. The two will be
looking for new jobs over the next few months.
Pastor Fugate visited the church as
fill-in speaker in February 2001, with his then teenage son, Benjamin Fugate.
The church asked Pastor Fugate to candidate in March and called him to be their
sixth and eventually longest-standing pastor. The Fugate family of five moved
to the town of 2,500 in June. The Lord worked through many trials, blessings,
and losses in the church over the past 14 years. Although the church is
currently in numerical stagnation at about 15-25 attendees on a Sunday, the
Lord has seen fit to keep the doors open to minister to many lives in
West-Central Wisconsin. The Fugate’s daughter, Rachel Anderson is married and
now lives with her husband and two children in Tennessee. The other son, Aaron,
lives with his parents and is considering other opportunities in the working
world. The oldest son, Benjamin, is the editor of the Lost Lake Tribune and is
the Sunday School Superintendent at West River Road Baptist Church in Brooklyn
Park, MN. The Fugates covet your prayers in the next stages of their lives.
LLT Editor Speaks to
Local Assembly
Lost Lake Tribune Senior Editor Benjamin
Fugate preached on Colossians 3:18-4:1 on Sunday, March 15, in the PM Service
at West River Road Baptist Church in Brooklyn Park, MN. Here is the outline of
his message.
How Familial and Work Relationships Matter
When We Focus on Christ
I.
Putting
the Christian Home in the Correct Order is the First Familial Priority
A.
The husband-wife order of love and submission
1. Christian wives are expected to
submit
2. Christian husbands are expected to love
B.
The parent-child order of concern and obedience
1. Christian children must obey.
2. Christian parents must have concern
II.
Placing
Christ First in the Life of the Christian Employee and Employer is Paramount
A. The Christian servant/employee
must obey all of his superiors
1.
The Christian laborer must serve his boss
2.
The Christian is working to please the Lord
3.
The Christian worker will be rewarded by the Lord for his efforts
B. The Christian boss/employer
answers to another Commander
March Madness Starts with
Bottom-Feeder Controversy
INDIANAPOLIS -- NCAA officials said
Sunday the men's basketball selection committee may revisit the principle of
locking in the last four at-large teams into the First Four in Dayton after a
possible UConn win Sunday would have sent the Huskies into the general at-large
field, even though they would have been the last team on the bracket.
UConn would have been an automatic
qualifier with a win over SMU in the AAC tournament and thus would have avoided
the First Four in Dayton. The Huskies lost, 62-54.
The First Four is limited to the
last four at-large schools and the worst #16 seeds. The last four at-large
schools were Ole Miss, BYU, Boise State, and Dayton.
NCAA tournament selection committee
chair Scott Barnes, who is also the Utah State athletic director, said Dayton
would have dropped from the field if UConn had won.
Dayton would have avoided the First
Four at home if the Flyers had beaten VCU in the A-10 tournament title game
Sunday since automatic qualifiers can't be in Dayton outside of #16 seeds.
NCAA vice president Dan Gavitt, who
is in charge of the men's basketball tournament, said there were four scenarios
for the First Four based on the A-10 and AAC title games Sunday. He said one
scenario had UCLA and Texas playing in the First Four in Dayton.
The NCAA officials added that had
Dayton become an automatic qualifier and moved into the general at-large field
(and UConn lost, as was the case) then UCLA would have been in the First Four. Instead,
the Bruins are a #11 seed against #6 SMU in Louisville, KY. Barnes cited the
"eye test" for UCLA as to why it made the field. They last beat a
team from the field on Feb. 14 (Oregon) and were 4-3 after that point.
Barnes said there was lengthy
discussions at the top of the bracket, as well. He said Wisconsin earned a No.
1 seed after beating Purdue on Saturday in the Big Ten tournament semifinals,
making their outcome of an overtime win against Michigan State in Sunday's
final moot.
Barnes also said the committee was
made aware of the suspension of St. John's center Chris
Obekpa on Saturday night before the Red Storm made the announcement
Sunday. Lavin said that he didn't think it was "ethically right'' to
withhold the suspension from the committee and the public. But Barnes said the
Red Storm moved marginally due to the news.
The best four teams left out of the
NCAA tournament in order were Temple, Colorado State, Old Dominion, and
Richmond -- the four #1 seeds in the NIT. NIT acting director Reggie
Minton said the committee was given the four #1 seeds, per the principles. This
means the #2 seeds in the NIT -- Miami (Fla.), Tulsa, Texas A&M, and
Stanford -- weren't as close as originally projected.
Sunday's selections and bracketing took on a new twist with
all five championship games affecting the bracket. NCAA officials said seeding
would have changed at least a line for Michigan State and Arkansas with wins in
the Big Ten and SEC finals, respectively.
Even in the Sun Belt final there could have been an alteration.
Georgia State, which received a #14, got a higher seed than Georgia Southern would
have received if they had won the title.
Meanwhile, the one major snub in the NIT was Yale. Minton
said the Bulldogs were discussed at length but didn't make the cut after losing
at Dartmouth in the regular-season finale and to Harvard in the one-game
playoff Saturday in Philadelphia. The Bulldogs had defeated the Crimson a week
ago to earn a share of the Ivy regular-season title. "This season hasn't
ended fairly," Yale coach James Jones said, "Our RPI is 61. Miami, Rhode
Island, UConn, Texas A&M, Saint Mary's, Illinois, Pitt, and GW all have
higher RPI than us. This is just plain unfair.''
Inexplicable Violence Continues in St. Louis
Suburb
A 20-year-old Missouri man has been arrested in the shooting
of two St. Louis County police officers Thursday, county officials announced
Sunday.
Jeffrey Williams was arrested Saturday night and is charged
with two counts of assault in the first degree, three counts of armed criminal
action and firing a weapon from a vehicle, St. Louis County Prosecuting
Attorney Robert McCulloch said during the afternoon press conference.
Williams, who has attended several demonstrations in
Ferguson, Mo., told police that he fired shots at someone he had a dispute
with, and hit the officers, who he alleges were not his intended target.
McCulloch said Williams’ story of a dispute with another
person -- including that he did not target the police -- is still part of the
investigation, which is ongoing.
McCulloch said the .40-caliber handgun that matches the
shell casings recovered at the scene of the officers’ shootings was found in
Williams’ residence, which police searched after obtaining a warrant based on
information received from the public. Williams, who is being held on $300,000
cash bond, had a warrant out on him because he is on probation for receiving
stolen property and has failed to appear to his parole officer for the past
seven months, McCulloch said.
Tips from the public were key in leading police to Williams,
and McCulloch urged anyone with information to contact local law enforcement
with further information.
The two officers were shot after midnight Thursday as
demonstrators gathered after the city's police chief resigned in the wake of a
scathing federal Justice Department report.
A 41-year-old county officer was shot in the right shoulder,
and a 32-year-old suburban officer was shot in the right cheek.
Protests have happened in Ferguson since the Aug. 9 shooting
of an unarmed man by a police officer. The officers were shot Thursday as
protests were winding down following the resignation of Ferguson Police Chief
Tom Jackson. Jackson was the sixth city official to leave office following a
Justice Department review of the city's law enforcement practices. The review
was precipitated by the fatal shooting last August of Michael Brown, an
18-year-old black man, by a white police officer, Darren Wilson.
Both wounded officers were released from the hospital
Thursday, and Belmar -- who called the attack an ambush -- said they could have
been killed. One was shot in the right shoulder, the bullet exiting through his
back. The other in the right cheek, just below the eye. The bullet lodged
behind his ear. The shots were believed to come from a handgun across the
street from the police department.
The gunman may have fired from up to 120 yards away, a
distance longer than a football field. But with a line of roughly 20 officers
standing in front of the building, the shooter did not have to be particularly
accurate to hit two of them, Belmar said.
Belmar said Friday detectives were working non-stop to crack
that case. The department's top priority, he said, was to continue "a
tempo of service and protection and relationships" that ensure Ferguson
does not "have a regression from all that we've done since last
fall."
The gunfire drew instant, broad condemnation from activists.
Dozens of protesters gathered again Thursday night in Ferguson, expressing
sympathy for the wounded officers and praying for peace during a candlelight
vigil.
"We cannot afford these kinds of incidents happening.
That gets us absolutely nowhere," said St. Louis activist John Gaskin III.
He called the gunfire "disgraceful and cowardly" and said people
"need to be working for reforms and justice, not revenge."
Robinson said the wounding of the officers "definitely
set us back." But he believes protesters can regain what they lost.
"Even last night as we protested, police were very gracious to us,"
he said Friday. "That shows a lot of trust to us."
Gaskin said protesters should take stock in the Ferguson
house cleaning they helped achieve. "Although the work is not nearly
done," he said, "this is a time for practitioners of democracy to pat
themselves on the back for significant change."
Attorney General Eric Holder said Sunday that the arrest
"sends a clear message that acts of violence against our law enforcement
personnel will never be tolerated" and praised "significant
cooperation between federal authorities and the St. Louis County Police Department."
President Obama condemned the shooting of the officers,
saying that though the city's law enforcement practices were "oppressive
and objectionable," there was "no excuse" for violence.
"Whoever fired those shots should not detract from the issue -- they are
criminals, they need to be arrested," Obama said. "And then what we
need to do is make sure that like-minded, good-spirited people on both sides --
law enforcement, who have a terrifically tough job, and people who
understandably don't want to be stopped and harassed just because of their race
-- that they are able to work together to come up with some good answers."
Some Minnesotans Are Willing to be Test
Subjects
Linda Griffiths’ ALS regularly makes itself known in the form
of something else she no longer is able to do. Linda accepts the new life the
disease has forced her into, but she won’t call it a death sentence. Not yet.
Less than a year ago, Griffiths, 56, of Golden Valley, was
diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, an incurable disease that attacks
nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, robbing patients of their ability to
move and eventually, even to breathe. Most die within two to five years.
Griffiths’ body is deteriorating rapidly. Standard treatments
have been limited to muscle relaxers and antidepressants, along with stretching
routines and massages from her husband, Jim.
An experimental drug called GM604 has showed positive results
in a small sampling of test patients, but has not yet been approved by the FDA.
Griffiths says she is running out of time and would like to try it: “If I’m
going to die from this disease, my feeling is, give me a chance, at least.”
Under the proposed Right
to Try Act, patients diagnosed with terminal illnesses would gain easier
access to drugs, procedures, or medical devices that are still undergoing
clinical trials. If the bill is approved by the Legislature, Minnesota would
join five states in passing the Right to Try Act. An additional 26 states have
introduced similar bills this year. The movement started with the Goldwater
Institute, a Phoenix-based conservative and libertarian think tank.
Under the bill, the medications still must pass the first and
most exhaustive phase of FDA clinical trials, and patients must have a
physician’s signoff. Manufacturers are not obligated to supply any drug,
treatment or procedure.
“At its core, it is a personal freedom and choice effort to
allow patients who have been told they’ve exhausted all of their options with a
terminal disease to try investigational medications,” said Craig Handzlik, at
the Goldwater Institute. “This allows patients to say ‘I know there are risks
here, but I really want to try it, and the only definite outcome if I don’t try
is death.’ ”
The government allows dying patients to take experimental
drugs under what’s called “expanded access,” or “compassionate use.” But Right
to Try advocates bemoan the bureaucratic red tape and say that the waiting
period is often longer than the patient’s life expectancy.
Not everyone favors greater access. Dr. Steven Miles, a
bioethicist at the University of Minnesota, said the movement is merely an
attempt at deregulation. The first phase of FDA testing, he said, is to
determine whether the drug shows immediate toxicity. The second phase
determines whether it actually works, while the third phase measures long-term
harm and benefit. The end result could be patients desperate to try anything,
regardless of whether it works. The same thing happened during the peak of the
AIDS epidemic, Miles said. “We can take down all the federal protections, but
at what point do we want some oversight, or do we want this to become the Wild
West of providers selling miracles?”
Although the bill defines terminal illness as “an advanced
stage of a disease with a terminal prognosis and no known cure,” Miles is
concerned that it isn’t more specific. Another key omission has him concerned.
“What happens to kids under this bill?” he said. “It’s not limited to adults;
it essentially empowers parents to choose nonvalidated therapies for their
kids.”
Cost of living vs. cost of dying
At a recent hearing, the bill’s House sponsor, Rep. Nick
Zerwas, R-Elk River, assured Health and Human Services Committee members that
the state, drug companies and doctors would bear no liability for whatever went
wrong with experimental medications.
Kurt Altman, National Policy Advisor for
the Goldwater Institute, said the measure does not pre-empt federal law, citing
a 2006 Supreme Court ruling that upheld Oregon’s right-to-die law over federal
challenges. This same legal concept would apply to Right to Try. It’s too early
to determine whether the law has benefited anyone, Altman said, given that it’s
less than a year old. There have been no legal challenges to it.
Since insurance rarely covers experimental treatments, Rep.
Joe Mullery, DFL-Minneapolis,
said he worries that taxpayers would be expected to foot the bill for emergency
room or other costs should such treatments go wrong. Altman said that even if a
patient doesn’t receive an experimental drug, hospital visits will take place
anyway as terminal patients receive end-of-life care. Mullery was unsatisfied,
and said he would like language added to protect taxpayers. “There could be a
lot of triggers to other emergency services that are far in addition to what we
would put in for a person who’s dying. Often a person who’s dying in these
circumstances actually doesn’t cost that much, whereas this could trigger a
whole bunch of costs.”
Zerwas, who was born with a heart condition and says he is
alive today because of experimental surgery, was indignant. “I was 15 years old
and I’d picked out who was going to be my pallbearers and who was gonna read at
my funeral, and the doctor said ‘No, there’s one last thing we can try,’ ’’ he
said. “That’s what this bill is about, and I’m sorry, but I have a very
difficult time with the idea that it’s cheaper to send someone home to die.”
Tell me when
It’s not hard to see the love between Linda and Jim. “Tell me
when,” he says softly, as he stretches the atrophied muscles in her right leg.
In lighter moments, they finish one another’s sentences with punchlines. “I
would give up a kidney… a lung, I’d do anything for her,” Jim said.
Neither of them cries when they talk about her condition.
They’re way past that point. But the sadness is palpable when they talk about
one of their more difficult moments just a few weeks ago. Her doctor’s appointments
often are scheduled so early-stage patients don’t interact with late-stage
patients. But a scheduling mix-up left Linda and Jim in the waiting room
surrounded by patients on respirators and feeding tubes, unable to move
anything but their eyes. It was devastating.
Linda Griffiths, who initially fought using a cane and walker
until she realized the safety they provided actually gave her more freedom,
wanted to take control. She began researching experimental drugs and found
GM604, which is in its second phase. She learned that in clinical trials, seven
of eight ALS patients saw their disease progression slowed or stopped.
Griffiths said she’s willing to try the drug or others like it, even at the
risk of side effects. She points to the first stage of testing mandated under
Right to Try — if the drug, for instance, accelerated symptoms, it wouldn’t
have made it to the next stage. She knows GM604, or any other experimental ALS
drug, may not be for her. But to a dying person, hope can be everything.
Griffiths also wants to provide that hope for those who come
after her. “There are other diseases this could help,” she said. “Cancer
patients, Parkinson’s… ALS is not the only life-threatening disease out there.
It happens to be the one I have, but it’s not the only one.”
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