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Berkeley
Border Guards
Camp #199
Martinsburg, West Virginia
December 2008 Vol. 41
In the spirit of the season, this month’s newsletter in its entirety is a Christmas message from our camp Chaplain, Kermit Hoffman. May God bless and keep you and your families not only during this Christmas season, but throughout the coming year.
Chaplain's corner – "Hark the Herald Angels Sing - For a Child Will Be Born to Us"
Scripture texts – Isaiah 9:6 – 7, Luke 4:17 – 21
This time of year, as we are in the season of advent heading toward the Christmas season, I find that one of my favorite Christmas hymns (or carols) is "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" by Charles Wesley, brother of John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement in England in the 1700's.
Maybe it's partly because of my Methodist roots, but I know it is also because of the hymn's clear expression of Biblical theology, truth about the meaning of Christmas, that I appreciate singing the hymn so much!
The hymn expresses the central reason for Jesus Christ's birth in the third stanza - "born to give them (the people) second birth" (our salvation by faith on him as savior). In the second stanza it says "Christ the everlasting Lord" – which points to when he will finally come back to this earth to set up his government of justice, righteousness and peace.
The third stanza says "risen with healing in his wings '' – speaking of his resurrection from the dead, and his healing power which is grounded in the power of his resurrection. These six words in the third stanza I find particularly striking. All three themes of personal salvation, Christ finally setting up his kingdom on earth and Christ as our healer are found in our texts above from Isaiah and the gospel of Luke.
It's Christ as our healer that I want to especially point out in this missive, because so often it is as "healer" that we miss who Christ can be for us. The Thorndike Barnhart dictionary defines "heal" as "make whole, sound well" or "get rid of something bad." When we get salvation through faith in Christ, we are spiritually healed, or made whole.
When Christ comes back to set up his government over this world, disposing from it once and for all it's corruption, disappointment, despair and evil, this world will be healed – and yes, Christ can, has and will heal our emotional and physical infirmities.
The Lord knows in the little over past 30 years of pastoral ministry, both part-time and full time – that I'm in, that I've seen much of his healing in terms of people getting salvation and being healed physically and emotionally.
Christ is a god relevant to our everyday life, right where we are! I've seen healing in the "man on the street." in the four walls of the church building and in the inmates among whom I do my ministry work as pastor (along with my regular job as correctional case manager).
No wonder Isaiah 9:6 (a prophecy of Christ's coming written hundreds of years before his birth by the prophet Isaiah) says "and his name will be called wonderful counselor" no wonder in Luke 4:18 Jesus is recorded as saying by St. Luke (who by the way was a physician) in the beginning stage of his ministry on earth, "the spirit of the lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind ..."
Merry Christmas to you and yours,
Chaplain Kermit
January meeting, January 21, 2009 7:00 p.m.
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Berkeley
Border Guards
Camp #199
Martinsburg, West Virginia
February 2008 Vol. 35
Commander’s comments February, 2008
I
would like to begin by thanking those who were at the last
meeting who reelected me as commander. I hope I can lead the
camp properly for the next two years, and will try to give the
camp the leadership it deserves. I want to Congratulate Don
Silvius on his reelection as well, it is a testament to his
leadership and abilities to keep camp 199 together and help it
move in a positive direction. Congratulations are also in order
for Paul Williams on being elected Lt. Commander. I think his
energy and previous leadership experiences will be invaluable to
the camp. A very welcome addition to our camp’s officers is
Rev. Kermit Hoffman, our chaplain.
As we gear up for the year we have some good activities on tap, and maybe others that will come along as well. I’m very excited about May 10th and placing the head stones in Greenhill Cemetery for the two previously unknown Confederate Soldiers.
I’m hoping that this year is a good year for preservation. The state is joining the Civil War trails program and is placing 150 markers statewide. The SCV is trying to get a Stonewall Jackson license plate for the 150th anniversary of the war. The Falling Waters Battlefield Association seems to have some positives coming up. The Bath-Romney Campaign Preservation group is starting to move forward and is trying to get involved with the Civil War trails program. The Shepherdstown Battlefield is on the verge of being saved. The CWPT saved land at Summit Point. The Shenandoah Battlefields Foundation is saving land left and right. Let’s be a part of this. Let’s get some money in the coffers, so we can make donations to these groups to help them in their efforts. As the only SCV camp in the Tri-county area, we need to support these groups, and show them the SCV is about heritage and preservation and not a racist organization or just a meet greet and eat kind of group.
One thing our camp has to do a better job of is publicity. We always do a couple of good things a year and we never get credit for it. It’s never covered in the local papers, or in the SCV magazine. We need to appoint someone to be in charge of PR for the camp. This person would draft the PR stories, press releases, etc and submit them to camp leadership for approval and they could then be submitted to the proper media outlets. This would be a huge benefit in terms of our visibility and our recuiting opportunities. We should also create our own photo/video DVD of camp activities, with good Confederate music, to put on a lap top when we do recruitng type events.
Hopefully in 2008 we can make some of our dreams become realities, so please join me and lets forward the Colors! Deo Vindice!
Commander Robert S. Ambrose, Berkeley Border Guards Camp 199
Chaplain’s Corner (A new part of our newsletter by our chaplain, Rev. Kermit Hoffman)
Matt. 16:24 "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me."
On Feb. 6, Ash Wednesday, we in Western Christianity will enter the church Liturgical 40-day season of Lent, which ends the Saturday before Easter. The purpose of Lent is for the Christian believer to prepare himself/herself, through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial for the holy week commemoration of the death of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
A few years ago, a friend of mine at work gave me, a Protestant, a Catholic prayer card, which I still have. The card commemorates the work and life or the Apostle, St. Andrew. Catholic Church tradition, and perhaps history, tells us that Andrew was crucified by the Romans on a cross that was in the shape of an X. This is commonly called St. Andrew’s Cross. The card has on one side a picture of St. Andrew being crucified on this cross, and on the other side is a prayer regarding St. Andrew.
The Episcopal Church, which came directly out of Roman Catholicism, and is sometimes referred to as “Anglo-Catholicism” has as part of its symbol, this cross, with stars running down each side of it. The Episcopal Church was a major church of the “old South.” Many of our great Confederate officers, Generals Robert E. Lee and W.M. Pendleton, were devoted Christians and Episcopalians. In fact, Pendleton was an Episcopal priest and was Lee’s pastor after the war.
I remember somewhere back in my reading pertaining to Confederate history that the X symbol, with the stars designating the Confederate states, found in the battle flag, 2nd and 3rd Confederat National flags and the Naval jack, was inspired by the Episcopalian St. Andrew’s cross, to symbolize the Godly righteousness of the Confederate cause. Of course, implicit in this symbol on the flag, since it is a crucifixion symbo, are the Biblical Lenten principles of self-sacrifice and self-denial, principals which so many of the Southern populace, in and out of uniform, gave in blood, sweat and tears to try to preserve the Biblical God-given principles of self-determining government found in our U.S. Constitution.
May we, especially as we worship during this Lenten season, and perhaps visualize, or gaze upon the St. Andrew’s cross o the Confederate flag, know deeply that the true Godly freedom that any person, family or nation can enjoy can only come from Godly self-sacrifice and self-denial.
Chaplain Kermit Hoffman.
Adjutant’s comments
I recently had a very unique experience with someone at work, not a student, but a co-worker. My job is basically technical support for students, staff and faculty at Shenandoah University in Winchester, VA. People come to me with their computer problems.
One of our admissions folks came to me with a computer problem that I knew would be a 20-25 minute job and he had the time, so he sat down and waited. I do not like to sit in silence with students, etc. – my “customers” waiting in my office, so I will find something to talk about and in this case, since it is an election year, we talked about the election process, etc.
In the course of our conversation we came upon the fact that we could see our first African-American president and how without the Civil War, that would be an impossibility.
Now, I enjoy working in the academic world, because there are a lot of smart people there and, as we have at our meetings in the inevitable “round table” period of the meeting, some of the historical discussions are quite stimulating.
This was one of those discussions. For the first time in my life, I heard an African-American, my “customer” say that the Civil War was not started, ended or even about slavery. He talked about the black Confederate soldiers quite freely and knowledgeably. In other words, this guy has read and understands what really happened and acknowledges that what we learned in school was only a small part of what really happened.
I instantly had a new level of respect for my co-worker; and I had respected him before. We need to learn from my experience.
As we all know and as we all have seen, there is much prejudice in our society. I, myself, was fortunate to have been raised in a Christian home where we were taught that people are people, regardless of the color of their skin, their religious beliefs, etc. In short, we were taught that God created us all equal. I was fortunate to have had neighbors who were black and grew up knowing that the only difference between them and me was the continent our ancestors lived on.
I am not as knowledgeable on this subject as our chaplain, but I believe that God intends for us all to live together and to respect and love one another despite our differences, and I believe that overcoming those differences makes us stronger in our beliefs and our faith and just maybe that was God's purpose in creating so many different people.
For this reason, among others, I believe that, the “Southern cause” had nothing to do with slavery. When the war was over and the dust had settled, the end of slavery was one of the results of the war, but it was not the cause of the war.
Much the same as today, there were different ideologies that Americans lived by and believed in. This was what contributed to the start of the war – intolerance of those differences – and as we are in much the same situation today, let us hope that the coming trials and difficulties of restoring our country’s greatness do not lead us down that same path and let us pray that we, and our fellow Americans will be wise enough to choose the right leader to bring us face to face with those trials and difficulties.
Adjutant Donald R. Silvius, Berkeley Border Guards Camp 199
Meeting schedule
• February meeting – Feb. 13, 2008, 7 p.m., BCHS Archives
• March meeting – Mar. 12, 7 p.m. BCHS Archives
• May 10, Heritage Day, Belle Boyd House and other locations
• May 10, 4:00 p.m.; tombstone dedication at Green Hill cemetery, sponsored by Berkeley Border Guards, Camp 199
All meetings are held at the Berkeley County Historical Society’s Archives and Research Center at 136 East Race Street, Martinsburg, WV
Contact the editor or submit items for publication by contacting Don Silvius at 304-229-8815 or dsilvius@comcast.net. Meetings are open to everyone and membership is not required to attend.
Camp Officers elected at the January, 2008 meeting
Commander Robert Ambrose
Lt. Commander Paul Williams
Adjutant Don Silvius
Chaplain Kermit Hoffman
February 13, 2008 Meeting agenda.
Opening of meeting
Prayer, pledges, minutes, financial report
Presentation by Chaplain Kermit Hoffman, who will tell us about his ancestor’s experience during the War
Set camp schedule for 2008
Fundraising
Publicity officer position discussion
Martinsburg entry sign – we already have the sign, need to talk to Chamber of Commerce to put it up
Unknown tombstone update
Membership update
Round table
Closing prayer, adjourn
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Berkeley
Border Guards
Camp #199
Martinsburg, West Virginia
January 2008 January 16, next meeting and election of new officers Vol. 34
Commander’s comments January, 2008
With
2007 drawing to a close and 2008 dawning full of promise, it’s time
to sit a back and reflect on the year past and time to think about
the year ahead.
This past year started out badly for our camp, as we were very close to losing our charter with membership at the required minimum of seven. We had a few set backs, but made some good contacts and as the year moved on things improved. Camp members took part in a Memorial Day ceremony, then we had our own Veterans Day Ceremony at Elmwood Cemetery in Shepherdstown. This fulfilled a long-time dream of making head way in Jefferson County. We ended the year with twenty members in our camp – more then any year in the camp’s modern existence.
Moving on to 2008, we have made progress and expect to be placing two government military markers in Green Hill Cemetery in May for soldiers who were previously unidentified. We still need to recruit new members, for there is strength in numbers, and to work on procuring speakers for our meetings, as well as events for camp members and families. We will move in that direction, I am sure.
At our next meeting we will be holding elections for camp officers. Again I hope and pray we make good decisions during our election as we have made a few mistakes over the years and have had a hard time overcoming some of those mistakes.
I would like to thank you all for helping make this camp more successful than it has ever been in 2007 and it is my hope that we continue this in 2008. I would like to thank one person specifically for their dedication to the camp and that is Don Silvius. Don has been with the camp since day one, and has kept it going through thick and thin. He is the only adjutant the camp has ever had, and really is the man who runs things from day to day. If it were not for his dedication and efforts this camp would not exist today. Thank you Don, from myself and all of camp 199.
As, for elections, I am not going to say vote for me for commander for two more years, because I feel that I have not been the commander the camp deserves, but I do believe I have been a good commander, just not the one I should be. It has been hard for me and other camp members as our meetings have revolved around my work schedule, and I thank everyone for bearing with me, but it is not fair to the camp in my mind. If nominated I will run, but if I’m not nominated that’s ok, too. I have enjoyed my time leading the camp. So, I guess if you want to continue on the path that has been set, I am your man, but if you wish to chart a new course, or expand on what we have start thinking about who the man is!
As for officers for 2008, or I should say positions in the camp, right now we have only a commander and adjutant, this being decided two years ago when membership was low and it seemed redundant for half the camp’s members to be officers. I envision the following positions and who will fill these roles (But I’m not saying who). Commander, Lt. Commander, Adjutant, Treasurer, and Chaplain.
So, as we move to 2008 let us count our blessing and thank God for ALL the good things he has done for us as individuals and for our camp in 2007, and let us pray for his protection, strength and guidance as we move on in 2008.
May God Bless us all, deo vindice!
Commander Robert S. Ambrose, Berkeley Border Guards Camp 199
Adjutant’s comments
It’s hard not to be political in an election year.
Our election system is an example of democracy in its purest form. Millions of Americans cast their vote for their candidate of choice and when all is said and done, the candidate supported by the majority (in most cases) becomes the leader of the country and even those who supported other candidates recognize him or her as the official leader of the country.
In other countries, elections often result in civil wars – our United States was not immune to this after the 1860 election. We can feel pretty secure in the fact that we won’t see that happen this year, but truthfully, there is much division in the country and conditions today are quite similar to what they were in 1860. There is much divisiveness and the economy is (to use a modern analogy) swirling in the bottom of the toilet.
Our country is divided over the basic issues of liberal vs. conservative. Do you know the definition of these two words and the difference between the two?
Conservative is defined by Merriam Webster as “tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions or institutions – or adheres to traditional methods or views.”
Liberal, likewise is defined by Merriam Webster as “open-minded or not strict in the observance of orthodox, traditional, or established forms or ways.”
In the past 16 years, I have heard the term “liberal” used as though it were describing one of a criminal element or a lower form of life. I, myself, lean toward liberalism although I am politically a moderate. I am open-minded and I do not adhere to strict observance of orthodox, traditional or established ways – these are times like we’ve never seen before.
If any of you are familiar with the Pentecostal churches (I grew up in a Pentecostal family), certainly very common in the south, Pentecostal services are certainly not conservative with high energy ministers and certainly the services are not generally quiet. Pentecostals are not criminal elements or lower forms of life.
When my wife and I got married, in a Pentecostal church, in 1993, we talked over what type of ceremony we wanted with the wife of the minister who married us. This minister, by the way, is a son of the south, hailing from Kannapolis, North Carolina, and is someone I have known for 34 years and is considered a part of our family because he and his family have been with us in the best of times (weddings, births) and the worst of times (deaths) for 34 years.
Back to the wedding, we used all non-traditional music; the only traditional part of our wedding was the vows – and those wedding vows are something that was taken seriously and were between my wife and I and God. Ours was a “liberal” wedding, although it is a “conservative” marriage.
Open minds. There is the old quote that “a mind is like a parachute, it doesn’t work if it isn’t open.”
If it weren’t for liberal thinking, the United States of America would not exist. Those colonists in the 1770’s would have just sat back and lived with all the injustices that were being forced upon them by old King George and we’d be paying homage to Queen Elizabeth, II.
If it weren’t for liberal thinking, many of our modern conveniences would have never been invented. Inventions certainly are born of open minds.
Since it is an election year, and this is most likely the most important election this country has ever seen, don’t limit your thinking by labeling candidates as liberal or conservative. Listen to what they have to say, listen to their views on the issues that concern you the most. Have an open mind and base your decision on the facts, not a political ideology. Political ideologies are the cause of what is wrong with our country today.
Educate yourself and don't judge people - candidates for office or those you meet on the street - by labels. We have one of the greatest sources of information at our fingertips in the Internet. Don’t waste that resource. Research the candidates and find the one who can best suit your values and ideals. I am not now and will not ever tell you who to vote for - it isn't my job, but you should vote and you should research the candidates. Be informed.
The recipe for an educated voter can be best described as follows: open your mind and apply information liberally.
In the bonds of old Virginia, and in the hope that the United States of America CAN be united again…
Adjutant Donald R. Silvius, Berkeley Border Guards Camp 199
Meeting schedule
• January meeting and election of officers – Jan. 16, 2008, 7 p.m., BCHS Archives
• February meeting – Feb. 13, 2008, 7 p.m., BCHS Archives
• March meeting – Mar. 12, 7 p.m. BCHS Archives
• May 10, Heritage Day, Belle Boyd House and other locations
• May 10, 3:30 p.m.; tombstone dedication at Green Hill cemetery, sponsored by Berkeley Border Guards, Camp 199
• June (first Saturday) - Confederate Memorial Day service, Elmwood Cemetery, Shepherdstown, WV, sponsored by the United Daughters of the Confederacy
All meetings are held at the Berkeley County Historical Society’s Archives and Research Center at 136 East Race Street, Martinsburg, WV
Contact the editor or submit items for publication by contacting Don Silvius at 304-229-8815 or dsilvius@comcast.net. Meetings are open to everyone and membership is not required to attend.
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