Forney Charities
Improving communities by helping residents, one person at a time.
Category: Uncategorized
Fire From an Old Stump
As a young boy I was immersed in our family’s history. Both sides. From my father’s side, it was West Virginia and the Forneys who had been on that land since 1804. There’s where the family graveyard sits, on a small portion of those180… Continue Reading “Fire From an Old Stump”
Instruction Shall Go Forth
“Johnny, don’t go beyond the curb,” my mother would admonish me when I asked to go outside. And if the ball goes out into the street, let someone go get it for you. All instructions to keep me safe. Later there would be other… Continue Reading “Instruction Shall Go Forth”
The Day is Coming
At a student conference at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, I first encountered a mature, muscular understanding of the Christian faith I had received from Sunday school. The Rev. Joseph Wesley Matthews had been holding forth for several days on an… Continue Reading “The Day is Coming”
And My Eyes Shall Behold
I remember that as my father got older and began to decline, he would sometimes ask me that I thought happened to us after death. While he was not a church-going person, he had grown up in the cradle of what we now know… Continue Reading “And My Eyes Shall Behold”
Saints Steadfast to the End
If there’s somethin’ strange in your neighborhood · Who you gon’ call? (Ghostbusters!) If there’s somethin’ weird, and it don’t look good. Who you gon’ call? (Ghostbusters!). Well Halloween’s over and the vampires, skeletons and ghosts have put their costumes away for another year. But… Continue Reading “Saints Steadfast to the End”
An Eruption of Prayer
It has oft been said that there are no atheists in foxholes. When shells are bursting all around, the air is rife with prayer every bit as with smoke. Deafening explosions and smell of cordite bring forth from the human breast desperate sighs and… Continue Reading “An Eruption of Prayer”
Love in A Leprous Time
In 1985 the noted Columbian novelist, Gabriel García Márquez wrote Love in the Time of Cholera. The story is set in an un-named, steamy South American country at the time beset by multiple outbreaks of cholera.[1] The main characters are caught up in tempestuous… Continue Reading “Love in A Leprous Time”
On Keeping the Main Thing, the Main Thing
Looking at our president’s business history, I remember telling my wife that we could be a lot richer if I followed his example. First, stiff all the workers and if they complained, threaten them with massive lawsuits. Secondly, strip all the assets from our… Continue Reading “On Keeping the Main Thing, the Main Thing”
To Seek the Lost and Lonely
On some days when I would arrive at the Long Beach office of our family construction company, which I helped my dad run, I would find him to be in an absolute tizzy, frantically hunting for his hearing-aids he had misplaced. Sometimes we would… Continue Reading “To Seek the Lost and Lonely”
Intentional Soul Making
Last week when weighing in at the dialysis clinic I was chatting with some of the technicians who know I’m a clergyperson and always welcome me with the greeting, “Father.” They also know a little of our work with our Garden of Hope at… Continue Reading “Intentional Soul Making”
Forney Charities 