Fred, the guide dog trained by Murphy youth Hannah Nederhoff, was placed with his “forever person” on June 16. Hannah and her mother, Shari, traveled to Portland, Oregon after the call that Fred had completed his guide work at Guide Dogs for the Blind and had been matched with his “forever person”. Surprisingly, it only took Fred eight weeks to learn his guide work.

Shari describes Fred’s “forever person” as Jennifer, thirty-seven years old and from Portland, Oregon. Visually impaired since birth, Jennifer sees only shadows. She is married, a mother to three children, an author and a massage therapist. “He couldn’t have been placed with a nicer gal,” reports Shari.

The Nederhoffs were able to spend the entire day with Jennifer and her family. After sharing dinner with Jennifer’s family, Shari and Hannah watched with big smiles and happy tears as Fred guided Jennifer across the parking lot to their car. Since returning home Hannah has received numerous updates regarding Fred including the fact that his guide work is outstanding. The Nederhoffs gave Jennifer previous Murphy Messenger articles which chronicled Fred’s journey from Murphy, Texas to Portland, Oregon.

Members of First Baptist Murphy (FBM) are reaching out to the community with acts of kindness. On June 1^st ten people represented FBM at the Mr. Do Coin Laundry on 14th street in Plano. According to Pastor Don Cole they “paid for the washing and drying of clothes for everyone who showed up.”

On June 30^th the act of kindness group met at Seven Eleven in Murphy (corner of Murphy and Betsy Rd.) and paid for the first $5.00 of gas for customers. Along with the gas they offered to write down and pray for any prayer requests the customers cared to share with them. Grateful responses were heard from many recipients. One gentleman declined the offer of free gas, requesting that it be given to someone who had a deeper need than he.

Pastor Cole notes the fact that “We want people to know that FBC Murphy cares for people.”

The Texas Baptist Men (TBM) was called by Murphy’s First Baptist Church pastor Dr. Don Cole to cut down trees located on their property that connected to McMillen High School’s property.

The trees were deemed “Dangerous, ugly and dead” by Pastor Cole. An agreement was formed with PISD that if the church arranged for the trees felling, then the school district would provide a dumpster and remove the trees. Concern over the trees falling on parked cars or cars traveling through either parking lot or falling on a passerby instigated the tree removal.

As more people immigrated to the United States after the two wars for independence from Britain, those who originally roamed the land were displaced. Created in Cherokee County, Striker Town became a new home for those pushed out from Tennessee.

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MURPHY (June 20, 2012) The investigation into the burglary of a cache of weapons from a storage facility in Murphy has been handed off to the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), according to Lt. Adana Barber, Murphy Police Department.

“Because of the nature of the burglary and the fact that the missing property is listed as high priority, the ATF has taken the lead in the investigation of the crime,” she said.

While the Murphy Police Department will be assisting and providing local expertise, the federal agency will be spearheading the investigation and information on the case will be available only through the ATF.

The break-in occurred sometime between June 9 and 14 at one of the storage sheds at the Store More Storage Facility, 231 W. FM 544 in Murphy. The missing property, believed stolen, included an unknown number of weapons including military style collectables and other automatic weapons.

“Evidence at the scene indicated a forced entry into the shed. The investigation is continuing, until further notice, under the control of the federal officers,” said Barber.