WEEKEND EDITION
NIXYAAWII DOMINATES
UMATILLA SPORTS/1B
TOP 10
ALBUMS
OF 2017
THE SEASON OF GIVING
MUSIC/3C
LIFESTYLES/1C
DECEMBER 23-24, 2017
142nd Year, No. 48
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Tim
Van Cleave
Shaindel
Beers
Joe
Engum
Bill
Young
Jade
McDowell
Comment
Home for
Christmas?
D
ream all you want of
a white Christmas,
but a white Friday-
before-Christmas is the
worst.
I’ve made it home for
every single Christmas
of my adulthood, but my
nemesis has always been
those last-minute storms
that sneak up the moment
fi nals are over or I wrap
up that last assignment
at work. Hence, my
frequent checking of the
latest weather as I write
this on — what else — a
Friday before Christmas
when snow is expected.
I’m supposed to head to
my parents’ house in The
Dalles after work.
Two of my brothers will
be there. The third threw
in the towel before even
seeing a weather report this
year. Last year it took him
and his family three days to
make it from Salt Lake City,
in a journey that featured an
overnight stay with relatives
in Boise, several hours at a
McDonald’s in Baker City
and a night in a cheap motel
in La Grande.
My own near-miss of
Christmas happened in
college, when snow and a
broken de-icer closed the
Portland airport. It took
four days, two canceled
fl ights and many hours
standing in lines before I
was fi nally able to get a
standby seat on a fl ight to
Pasco the afternoon before
Christmas Eve. My dad and
my brother drove straight
from Portland to get me
— they had been stranded
there for days after they
went to pick me up from
my soon-to-be-canceled
fl ight and the interstate
closed behind them.
My luggage was missing,
the Christmas shopping
wasn’t done, we didn’t have
time to make gingerbread
houses and the family
Christmas tree was looking
a little worse for the wear
after falling over at one
point — but none of that
See CHRISTMAS/12A
A look at how different faiths shape people’s views on hope
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
In our community and nation,
reasons to hope abound.
The East Oregonian contacted
local people from different faiths
and backgrounds for their take
on how their beliefs shape their
views on hope. We interviewed
four of them.
Tim Van Cleave is the pastor
of the Bethel Assembly of God, a
Pentecostal church in Pendleton.
Poet and teacher Shaindel Beers
is secular with a Jewish cultural
background and Baptist religious
upbringing. Joe Engum has been
practicing Buddhism for 25
years. Bill Young is a Pendleton
native and a second generation
member of the Bahá’í Faith.
———
Van Cleave, a pastor for 28
years, said for him and other
evangelical Christians, hope
stems from the center of their
faith: Jesus Christ.
“That’s the biggest source
of hope there is over any other
thing,” he said.
Faith, hope and love are three
building blocks, he said. While
the Bible teaches love is the most
important, he doubted we can
live without any of them. Van
Cleave said as a shepherd to his
congregational fl ock, he has the
responsibility of keeping hope
alive. His church, like others,
runs a “school of restoration,”
with the aim of healing past
hurts and bringing new hope to
people’s lives.
“I’ve seen hope come into
situations that seem hopeless,”
he said.
Getting there, he stressed,
takes effort. The hope Christ
offers is life altering, but
followers must engage with their
faith each day through study of
the Bible, prayer and action.
“It’s not one and done,” Van
Cleave said.
Van Cleave said connecting
people to Christ is his mission,
and God can bring hope to
anyone, from the follower who
opens the Bible and fi nds the
“Just about the time you think a situation is
really dismal and desperate, that somehow
there is an abundance of kindness that arises.
And it comes from every corner.”
passage that speaks right to
her heart, to inmates in prison
overcoming terrible lives to
experience spiritual awakening.
He also said Biblical heroes such
as King David remind followers
to stay hopeful.
He also sees hope in the
actions the church can take to
help others. Andi Davis and
Alex Bannick recently lost
their Pendleton home to a fi re.
Davis sometimes attends Bethel
Assembly, Van Cleave said, and
the congregation took up an
offering to help the couple and
their children.
Those actions can stir up hope,
he said, and reaffi rm “together,
we can do more.”
———
Beers said we should have
hope, but hope is passive and
should not keep us from taking
— Bill Engum
See HOPE/12A
12 new laws to keep in mind for the new year
Minimum age for
tobacco products
goes up to 21
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
You can pump your
own gas 24 hours a day
in Boardman starting in
January — due to a law that
will change with the new
year.
Thanks to one of more
than 850 laws passed
during the 2017 Oregon
Legislature, fuel stations
in counties east of Portland
with fewer than 40,000
residents (including all of
the counties surrounding
Umatilla County but not
Umatilla County itself) can
allow self-service fueling
24 hours a day.
A few other interesting
laws to keep in mind as Jan.
1 rolls around:
• Starting in 2018, drivers
must change lanes or slow
down when passing any
vehicle with fl ashing hazard
lights, fl ares or other signs
of distress parked along the
side of road not in a desig-
nated parking space. The
previous law only required
drivers to move over for
emergency vehicles and
tow trucks. Now, if there are
more than two lanes going
in the same direction, the
EO fi le Photo
Oregon voters became the fi fth state in the nation to raise the minimum age for purchasing tobacco products
to 21 years old.
driver must change lanes
away from the stopped
vehicle. If there is only one
lane in each direction the
driver must slow down to
at least fi ve miles under the
posted speed limit instead.
• One of the most
controversial bills of the
2017 session, which allows
a judge to order someone to
give up their fi rearms, kicks
in on Jan. 1. If a family
member or police offi cer
presents the court with
convincing evidence that a
person “presents a risk in
the near future, including
an imminent risk, of suicide
or of causing physical
injury to another person”
a judge can issue an order
of protection banning the
person from possessing
deadly weapons for one
year.
• Once the new year
begins, Oregonians under
the age of 21 will no longer
be able to purchase any
tobacco products. The state
became the fi fth in the
nation to raise the smoking
age to 21 this summer.
• The voting age in the
United States remains at 18,
but in January teenagers in
Oregon will be able to turn
See LAWS/12A