The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1217670
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, March 4, 2020 A-3 LOCAL Call: 812-354-8500 Email: news@pressdispatch.net or bring in a hard copy: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg NEWS BRIEFS Refuge Friends offer an evening with the Woodcocks March 7 Saturday evening, March 7, the Refuge Friends will offer a unique birding experience for the whole fami- ly at Boyd's Trail parking lot on Patoka River National Wildlife Refuge at 7 p.m. Eastern/6 p.m. Central for a brief presentation on the woodcock and a walk over to Maxey Marsh Trail in hoping the woodcocks are in the mood to put on a show. This event is open to all, regardless of age or expe- rience. Questions or directions available on Facebook at PatokaRefugeFriends, or call 812-569 -4009. Boy Scouts collecting for Somebody's Place Petersburg Boys Scouts will be going around Peters- burg hanging grocery sacks on doors. It is the second year for them to do the food gather activity. The Boy Scouts will return on Saturday, March 7 to collect the grocery sacks and take them to Some- body's Place. 'Protecting your children' training March 12 On March 12, from 6 -8 p.m. EDT, at the Otwell Wes- leyan Church, there will be a free training for all mem- bers of the community. The event is hosted by T TR Haven Over The Hilltop, Inc. This is approved for fos- ter parent training hours. Topics covered: • Extent of the problem – who the offenders are and why they molest children. • Common seduction, manipulation and "groom- ing" tactics used by offenders. • Talking to children about abuse and people with "secret touching problems." • Practical child and family "rule" for safety. • Responding to sex-abuse disclosures and report- ing child abuse. Did you know? Every 98 seconds an American is sexually assaulted, every eight minutes that victim is a child. Of sexual abuse cases reported to law en- forcement, 93 percent of juvenile victims knew the per- petrator. Presented by CBI Consulting, Inc. Southwestern In- diana Child Advocacy Center Coalition, Cory Jewell Jensen, M.S. Law Enforcement Investigators. Free weather spotter training March 16 at VUJC The Dubois County Emergency Management Agen- cy, in conjunction with the National Weather Service in Louisville, Ky., will host Severe Weather Spotter Training on March 16 at 6:30 p.m. EDT at Vincennes University Jasper Campus, Classroom Building Lec- ture Hall, 850 College Avenue, Jasper. The training is free of charge and is open to anyone across the region, including weather spotters, emer- gency responders and the general public. The topics covered will include identifying and reporting severe weather, severe weather safety, severe weather clima- tology, thunderstorm types and the related threats. Joe Sullivan, Warning Coordinating Meteorologist with the National Weather Service Office in Louisville, Ky., will be conducting the training. Registration is not re- quired to attend. 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Judy 812-354-8721 ext. 107 judy@tri-cap.net www.tri-cap.net TRI-CAP's health, housing and education services change lives, empower families, and improve communities. Miller is new pastor at First Baptist Church By Andy Heuring Mike Miller, pastor of the First Bap- tist Church in Petersburg, was looking for a new church for his growing fami- ly. Instead, First Baptist found him and he found a new family. Miller and his wife, Karis, were look- ing for a new church for their children, Kyleigh, 9, and Cohen, 5. Miller was youth pastor at a church in north- ern Indiana on a part-time basis and he was working full-time at Lifeline Youth and Family Services. It is a fa- cility that worked with at-risk teens. The church where he was youth pas- tor had a youth group of about 30 kids. However, it didn't have much for his younger children. So he and Karis de- cided they needed to look for a new church for their family. At the same time, Petersburg First Baptist had been going through a search for a minister to replace Charles Baxter, who had retired. Miller previously had preached a sermon for a church in Seymour as part of a pastor search. The interim minister, who was there at the time, later was the interim at Petersburg First Baptist. He gave Miller's resume to the search committee at Petersburg. Jon Craig, who was on the search committee, said Miller's resume was one of the first they had gotten, but it came through an unconventional method. They were going through the resumes they had been getting from the American Baptist Church. Then they returned to Miller's and eventu- ally, he was the guy for them. "It is a testament to how God just di- rects our paths. And often surprises us with it. I just wanted to find a church for my family. What I ended up with is a position I felt called to by the Holy Spirit. It uses my gifts in a way that is challenging," said Miller. "It has been a good five months," said Miller of his time in Petersburg. "They have been so caring and sup- portive. Because of how well they have treated us, I want to make sure I do my best for them. They have done so much for us. I set out to find a new church and we found a new family," said Mill- er. "They sent a team of people and trailer, helped load the truck and came back down here, and when we arrived, there were like 20 people waiting on us. Within an hour, it was all unload- ed," said Miller of the help First Bap- tist gave them moving to Petersburg. Miller said at First Baptist, he wants to help the church find an identity. "So that five years from now, if you say there is someone from First Baptist, they say that is the church that loves everyone. They are about providing leadership, good influence, teaching and training disciples so they can go out into the community to teach, care and share Christ with other people." Miller's journey to being a pastor started as a young boy. He said when he was young, his parents didn't go to church consistently. His dad took him occasionally. Most of the time, it was his grandmother. He attended an Awa- na group. "When I was in about the third or fourth grade, a guy preached something about hell. As a kid, you go for fire insurance. I prayed and asked to be forgiven and then I was baptized in a couple of months." Then as a teen- ager, he and his parents started attend- ing a large church. "I found the pas- tor really cared about kids. . . My pas- tor started small groups before I had heard of it. That is where I started to really understand the Gospel. I rededi- cated when I was about a sophomore." He also found that you could be a Christian and still be popular by watch- ing his youth leader. "He was very pop- ular and a very committed Christian. It showed me you could be both. It wasn't an either or thing," said Miller. "So probably about my sophomore or junior year, I realized I hadn't been taking my commitment seriously. It isn't just important to ask Jesus to be saved from something, but to be saved to something. It is easy to forget him when you are thinking of him as a tal- isman to save you from something. It is hard to forget when you think of him as a savior." "I realized it is a lifelong commit- ment. I think of salvation as being three fold. There was a time I prayed to ask him to forgive me. There is this on- going process of sanctification. Then when we reach heaven, I will be per- fected. That sanctified work will be fin- ished and I will see Jesus face to face," said Miller. Miller said he had some tough times growing up. His mom and dad separat- ed. He lived with his father. "We lost our home and moved into my Grandmother's basement for a cou- ple years. It was a blessing. I was re- moved from friends who would have been a poor influence on me. It also ig- nited a fire under my dad to start go- ing to church. So I look at hard times as a blessing. Sometimes I feel like I'm flying by the seat of my pants. Then I can look back and see the road I'm go- ing along, and see God's hand in it and how it brought me to this," said Miller. Miller said his pastor as a young man instilled in him the Christian walk was one of service. "That was in- grained in me from an early age." "I credit my pastor there. The se- nior graduating class in that church, out of a dozen people, seven are in full- time ministry. It proves early training makes a difference in our life," said Miller. "The Holy Spirit really called me in- to full-time ministry. There were times that pulled me away, frustration or not being where I thought I should be. I got a job, but felt like God wanted me elsewhere, but he just kept pulling me back to this. That is why I pursued full- time ministry. Every time I was pulled to something else, I was pulled back. My spirit has never been happier than when I was doing ministry," said Mill- er. Even when he wasn't in full-time ministry, he always wanted to be serv- ing in some way, whether it was teach Sunday School or singing in the choir. So wherever he went, Miller tried to serve. While in college, he worked at youth camps and then at Ameri- can Family Lifeline. There he not on- ly counseled with kids, he also worked in the facility and eventually became an administrator there. He said the combination of working with Ameri- can Family Lifeline and being a part- time minister gave him the experience he needed. "If I'm not pastoring in that church, do I have enough experience for some- thing like this, where I have adminis- trative and pastoring responsibilities? God took the best of both the jobs I had and brought me here. Jesus has carried me safe thus far. And he will safely lead me home. Whatever hap- pens from here will be with the Lord's guidance and blessing." Karan Thacker, AFSP Owner 704 E. Haub Street Haubstadt, IN 47639 THACKER TAX SERVICE 512 S. 8th Avenue Haubstadt, IN 47639 812-615-0071 (office) 812-789-3852 (cell) kthacker01@gmail.com Mike Miller is the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Petersburg. Miller and his family: Cohen, Karis and Kyleigh are pictured together. New water line for library Petersburg city workers William Rainey and Jay Raney were installing a new six-inch water line along 10th St. on Tuesday. The bigger line was for the Petersburg Branch of the Pike County Library to meet requirements for their sprinkler system.