Shelter celebrates a decade of assisting women and babies

By TOMIE LUNSFORD
Telegram Staff Writer

Pregnancy is new life.
There should be joy and hope.
But that's not the case for every expectant mother.
'I was depressed, hopeless and scared,' said Tyreena Mendez of Temple.
The month was March.
'I had one baby with me, and I was eight months pregnant with another,' Ms. Mendez said. 'I had no friends, no family, no where to go.'
She had come to Killeen from Puerto Rico to let her son Devyn see his father.
'He was locked up, about to go to prison for a DUI,' Ms. Mendez said. 'After that, I went to a shelter in Copperas Cove.' And that's where she learned about the Our Lady of Angels Maternity Shelter in Temple, a non-profit United Way agency that provides emergency housing to pregnant women.
By April she was an Our Lady resident.

Fantasy breathes life into Temple grad's career

By TOMIE LUNSFORD
Telegram Staff Writer

"They call me Daarken. It's my pseudonym, the only one that seems to fit. Everyone always says my work has a dark nature to it, so the name fits, and it's a lot more memorable than Mike."  - Michael 'Mike' Lim, 1999 graduate of Temple High School
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Nothing thrills him like the heroes and villains of his video games.
'I love fantasy,' said Michael 'Mike' Lim from the Temple High School class of '99. 'Comic books and video games have spectacular worlds, and for as long as I can remember, I've always been fascinated by the way the look.'
So Lim didn't dote on his schoolwork. He did what he needed to pass, and he focused on the images he sketched in his notebook. The harder he worked, the more interesting his images became.
'They became characters with back stories and personality,' Lim said.
After graduating high school, he went to study computer programming at the University of Texas, but quickly found that was the wrong approach.
'That was learning how video games worked,' Lim said. 'I wanted to know about the look of video games.'

Grandpa's gift makes the kids hunters for life

By TOMIE LUNSFORD
Telegram Staff Writer

'If you hunt and fish with your kids now, you won't have to hunt for them later.'
Kathryn Kyle of Austin said she grew up hearing those words.
'And now that I'm watching my own kids grow, I see how true those words are,' Mrs. Kyle said.
The motto comes from her father, Alvin Dusek of Temple.
'My mother, brother, father and me - we did stuff all the time outside,' Mrs. Kyle. 'I got married, so did my brother, and now we're doing the same things with our kids, going to hunt and fish every chance we get.'
To make that a little easier, Dusek bought everyone in his family a blue tag lifetime combination hunting and fishing license.
'It was a very generous gift,' said son David Dusek. 'All 11 of us, we're quite excited.'

Temple foundation empowers the women of India

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-financing_08tex.ART.State.Edition1.4b78b20.html
This story was picked up by the Associated Press.
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By TOMIE LUNSFORD
Telegram Staff Writer

He's a store man by trade.
He couldn't help it; his father owned West Brothers, a popular department retail chain in Louisiana.
So as Glen West grew up, he learned about merchandise, staff morale, productivity and the daily finances of a small business.
'It was second nature,' said West, who's now retired and living in Temple.
The shop talk hasn't left him. He's using it to carry out a life-long dream of Christian ministry.
'I had a profession of faith at 17,' West said. 'I've always wanted to do God's work. That's what this is about.'
For three years West has run a department store called West Brothers No. 2 in Ahmednagar, India, to generate the funds for a ministry he operates there.
'The ministry is a microcredit center,' West said. 'We give $300 loans interest-free to women in poverty, so they can start their own businesses and make a profit that will give them a good home. We're there to encourage the women that they can improve the lives of their families and that they can do more than they think they can.'

'I live by His rules now'

By TOMIE LUNSFORD
Telegram Staff Writer

Felon. Bigot. Addict.
'That was me,' said Robby Shadburn of Temple.
But those words are no longer accurate.
'He's a new man,' said coworker Mike Huisinger of Temple. 'Doing good is the only thing Robby's about now.'
God is the only explanation, said Johner Martin of the J.A.I.L. Ministries.
'That's right,' Shadburn said. 'It's as true as the chair I'm sitting in.'

Sermon captivates for more than 30 years

By TOMIE LUNSFORD
Telegram Staff Writer

Thirty years have come and gone, and he's still preaching the same message.
It's tradition for the retired Rev. Joe Baisden of Belton Church of Christ.
'I'm honored that the congregation regards the sermon so fondly,' Baisden said. 'And it's an honor to be invited back each October to give it.'
Baisden's been preaching a sermon called 'Come Before Winter' the first Sunday of October since 1971, his first year as pastor at Belton Church of Christ.
'It's the same message,' said Judy Cass of Belton, a longtime church member. 'But it never gets old. He presents the lesson from so many angles that it's always fresh and new and interesting.'

Former addict uses music to heal

By TOMIE LUNSFORD
Telegram Staff Writer

From jail to church, music's been the one constant in his life.
'And that's because of God,' said Todd Smith of Temple. 'He's the one who put the music in me.'
That realization didn't come easy.
Smith had to endure a 20-year addiction to cocaine 'before things started making sense.'
'I'm doing what I'm supposed to now,' Smith said.
Known in the community as GODINTODD, Smith shares God's Word through rap music.
'I probably do 30 shows a year,' he said. 'Most are around here in Temple and Belton, but within the last couple of months, I've been driving as far as Dallas to perform.'
He's got about a dozen titles to his credit, some on a new CD called 'True Grind.'
The song 'Come as you is' says looks and lifestyles don't matter when it comes to church.