Hugh's News & Commentary

Are you aware that our IPHC military chaplains go where our troops go in battle in harm's way?

Whether they are Army, Navy, or Air Force chaplains they are deployed just like any other officer or enlisted person. They are highly trained and all of them have graduated from a four-year college and have a Master's degree from seminary or graduate school. Chaplain, Major (Select) Randy Sellers is a graduate of Southwestern Christian University, and Oral Roberts School of Theology. He is an ordained minister in the Heartland Conference where Bishop Frank Tunstall is the conference superintendent.

Chaplain, Major (Select) Randy Sellers is now in Bagram, Afghanistan. He arrived there on Monday, July 5, 2010. He is scheduled to be there for six months. He has hit the ground running and has had very little sleep. He has been very busy ministering to the wounded. His sleeping quarters are only 25 yards from the hospital, so he is close to his work and ministry.

I am asking my readers of Hugh's News to join in what I call a Prayer Shield for Chaplain Sellers and his troops. There is power in corporate prayer and we can make a Prayer Shield from coast to coast, and around the world. We want to pray for Randy's health, his mission to minister to soldiers, sailors, airmen, and guardsmen. Of course, we desire that God will protect him and his men and women in the area where he is serving, as well as in all of Afghanistan. In our prayers, we want to remember Randy's wife, Sheila, and their children.

Secondly, I am asking that your consider participating in giving so I can provide 250 Psalm 91 Prayer Bandannas for Chaplain Sellers to give out. When he gives a bandanna to a soldier, you will be there presenting that bandanna. One of my readers called and told me she was sending $100.

The bandanas cost $7.99 a piece. That is $1,997.50. If you would like to help me purchase these bandannas for Randy to give to those to whom he ministers, you may make out your check or money order to Hugh's News, Inc. Then, you can mail it to:

Hugh's News, Inc.
17 Sweet Apple Lane
Winder, GA 30680-3349

Your gift is tax deductible.

I have given the first contribution to this project. My philosophy on giving is that I will never ask you to give unless I have first given. I believe that leadership always gives first. That principle is throughout the entire Bible. Jesus said that it is more blessed to give than to receive. I believe that. On my tombstone I want these words engraved, "Hugh Morgan was a giver not a taker."

This is one major way you can support our troops in Afghanistan. These bandannas can be carried with the soldier, airman, marine, or sailor wherever they go as a reminder of God's love, presence, protection, provision, and promises.

Thank you for your contribution.

We are all very proud of Chaplain Randy Sellers. Let us stand with him with our prayers and giving to provide for the 250 Psalm 91 Prayer Bandannas. You may write me by sending your e-mail to: hugh@hughsnews.com.

I talked with Randy's conference superintendent of the Heartland Conference (former Oklahoma Conference), Bishop Frank Tunstall, today at the Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek Resort Hotel at Youth Quest. He told me he had sent a contribution to help with the purchase of the Psalm 91 Prayer Bandannas for Randy Sellers, one of his ordained ministers who is an Air Force chaplain. Bishop Tunstall supports our military chaplains and he has been a great friend for several decades. It is vital for the director and endorser of Chaplains Ministries, IPHC to be connected with church leadership all across the United States and around the world.  The Council of Bishops of the IPHC are meeting here today in our hotel as I compose this newsletter.

We are grateful for the support of all our conference bishops and hold them and their respective councils in high esteem. They are the gatekeepers and we depend heavily upon them for their screening and certification process of all ministers in the IPHC. We never by-pass them at any level.

Chaplains Ministries, IPHC supports Youth Quest every year. We purchase a full page advertisement which has been designed by Arlette Revells, CEO, founder and owner of Great Works Creation, Inc., in Athens, GA. She is one of the very best graphic arts designers I know, and she has worked with me on a myriad of projects over the past 25 years.

In addition to our advertisement, we rent a exhibition table. Lieutenant Junior Grade Adam Erwin, our first Navy Chaplain Candidate to graduate from our Master's degree program at Southwestern Christian University is here, along with beautiful bride of one year, Kuhiwa (former Kuhiwa Coody, daughter of the Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Ted Coody, pastor of Honea Path Pentecostal Holiness Church in Honea Path, SC, helping me man our display booth.  Adam achieved Royal Ranger of the Year two different times. So, he is quite familiar with Youth Quest and is very close to the age of many of the youth who are here in Orlando this week. We are here planting seed for the future, and may recruit a youth pastor or a pastor for the military chaplaincy.

Adam will be doing a year of residency in CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) at St. Mary's Hospital in Athens, GA, for the coming year. Our chaplains are required to have two years of pastoral ministry leadership experience before going on active duty. Both chaplain candidates and chaplains must be a member of a local church and credentialed in one of our conferences as a licensed or ordained minister: chaplain candidates must have a ministerial license; chaplains must be ordained.

[Editor's note: Let me tell you about our webmaster, Mel Tinney, of Greenville, South Carolina:

I am indebted to Mel Tinney, my webmaster with Martus Solutions in Greenville, SC, for his day-to-day support of Hugh's News. He sizes all the photos and has set them up in a neatly organized folder. He is a professional in his business and does his work with a great attitude, a spirit of cooperation with efficiency and productivity that amazes me. God has given me favor, and I want to express my gratitude to Almighty God for His guidance and leadership in making Hugh's News what it is today. Without God's help and the men and women who support this ministry by prayers and financial support this newsletter would not be in existence. So, from sunny and very hot Orlando, Florida, I am reporting today.

My role is to write, receive and research the news, and organize it in a form you will enjoy reading. All these other persons do the real work.