OK, boys and girls. What do we know from reading Ben’s column for the past year? That I am looking forward to making yet another trip to Kentucky this year as part of the Kentucky Missions team?

Well, change that. I’m not going again this year.

I had hoped to go with the group from the Pickens Twelve Mile Baptist Association. We’ve had several meetings, and I am pleased with the spirit of the team, though we are doing fewer churches this year, and all teams look to be full.

As for me, I continue to have stomach problems (and not just the one where my stomach sticks out in front of my body). I am getting better, but slowly. And the last thing this team needs is a sickly member whose care distracts them from the wonderful children the trip is designed to help. The kids do not deserve that.

So I will back out now and at home my stomach will heal completely by next summer, so I can go and give 100 percent to the trip.

Fortunately there are other worthwhile activities I can be involved in here in Pickens County. One, of course, is Country Santa. Last year the weather was poor Christmas Eve and I had a cold, so I did not deliver.

Country Santa has plenty of volunteers to deliver gifts without me, I said to myself. What I didn’t remember is how great it feels to be able to play a part in some child’s Christmas, and though I would be making the final delivery, the credit would belong to the hundreds of faceless volunteers who actually give to Country Santa, and I felt I was robbing them.

So there’s more I can do here. When I am comfortable that I am doing all I can here in Pickens County, then I can worry about Bell County, Kentucky.