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Member Spotlights at Community Presbyterian Church |
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Member Spotlights at Community Presbyterian Church |
Betty Haughin
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This is the day the Lord has made. Rejoice and be glad in it! (Psalm 118:24) is aptly one of Betty Haughin’s favorite Bible verses, as she rejoices in a life of dedication and service to family, community and church. She has been an active member of CPCBA, and Woodland before that, for over 45 years. For many years she sang with the choir ("Until my voice descended into the bass register as I aged!" she says), and also sat on the Board of Deacons and served as its President. She served as an officer in the Ala Carte Fellowship (the couples group which is no longer operating), as a Sunday school teacher, and found service wherever needed in the church family.
One of the Luther-terians in the congregation (she’s not alone), she grew up in Bellevue attending and taking catechism at Emanuel Lutheran Church. "Once a Lutheran, always a Lutheran in doctrine, perhaps," Betty says, but feels we are all brothers and sisters with God as our Father. Her spiritual path has been marked by a sense that she truly met the Lord Jesus at a prayer group many years ago, while singing He Touched Me, hymn 628:
Shackled by a heavy burden, ‘neath a load of guilt and shame,
Then the hand of Jesus touched me, and now I am no longer the same.
He touched me, O He touched me and O, the joy that floods my soul!
Something happened, and now I know, He touched me and made me whole!
Since I met this blessed Savior, Since he cleansed and made me whole
I will never cease to praise Him, I’ll shout it while eternity rolls.
She found this a personal and amazing experience and shares this poem (by an anonymous author), one of her favorites, to express her feelings:
I had walked life’s way with an easy tread, followed where joys and pleasures led,
Until one day – in a quiet place – I met the Master, face to face.
With station and wealth and rank for my goal, much thought for my body, but none for my soul,
I had entered to win in life’s mad race, when I met the Master, face to face.
Met Him, and loved Him, and blushed to see that His pain-filled eyes were fixed on me.
And I knelt and cried, "Oh, make me meet to follow the steps of Thy wounded feet."
My thoughts are now for the souls of men, I have lost my life to find it again.
E’re since that day – in a quiet place – I met the Master, face to face.
Betty’s life has been brightened by her four children (son number three, Bruce, sings in the CPCBA choir), and prayed and waited fifty years for her grandchildren Casey Ann and Max, who are too far away, at the other end of the state near Philadelphia. For fifty-six years come November, her number one hobby has been her husband Ken.
For almost every week for the past 42 years Betty has authored a good news column, Chit Chat, which has appeared in three papers down the years, including The Lamplighter, City & Suburban Life, and currently, The Citizen. She has found her column to be a privilege, giving readers a forum to share happy and fun events. While every day the papers and TV inform us of terrible, sad, and upsetting events, Chit Chat shares smiles and pleasant thoughts.
Betty is reading through the Bible for the third time, enjoying a translation called The Book. This is a contemporary translation that may lack the musical phrasing of the King James but brings the passages alive in a new and different way.
She can list many favorite Bible passages, among them Luke 5:17: "Follow Me!" "Isn’t it amazing," Betty says of Jesus calling the disciples, "to see how these men left everything, and went with Jesus immediately? Wouldn’t it have been something to have looked into His eyes and have Him say that to us????? I believe that we do hear His voice inviting us. What a joy it is to answer that invitation!"
Thank you Betty for sharing your story and your enthusiasm and joy with us! If you see Betty, let her know you enjoyed reading about her. If you would like to volunteer yourself for a spotlight, please e-mail me at houser@nb.net, or call me at 412-732-9599.
Thanks, Susan Houser
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