Brethren, Greetings from the East!
Hello and welcome to our March newsletter! I hope everyone is having a good “Winter” here in the frigid south! It looks like Old Man Winter is going to be easy on us this year. It has been more like early Spring here for the last several weeks.
Brothers, I want to take a minute to thank all of you that came out to the 10th District Instructional Meeting in February. Acacia Lodge had a pretty good turnout of officers, and the meeting was well attended. Our District Deputy reports that every Lodge in the District was represented as well as a good number of out of District visitors. RWB Ronnie Thompson was very pleased with the overall turnout for his last District meeting, and I thank you for supporting your Lodge and our District as well as our District Deputy. The meal was outstanding, and I saw a lot of old friends and made a couple of new ones. We had a visitor from Denmark, Illustrious Brother Peter Beck Jensen VII grade has been assigned to Shaw AFB for the last 3 months as part of a joint NATO Task Force and has become quite the celebrity among SC Masons as he has visited about 22 different Lodges on 35 separate occasions as well as 2 or 3 Scottish Rite meetings and at least one York Rite meeting. He was awarded the Frederick Dalcho Certificate of Merit by MWB Ron Mitchum at our February Scottish Rite meeting. He was just about speechless. During his parting words, a few of us were ribbing him when one of the guys asked him if he was finished? His reply was “no, I am a Dane” Took a minute for some to make the connection. What a blessing to have hosted him and visited several meetings with him. It was a pleasure meeting such a wonderful, supportive Brother from a foreign jurisdiction. Peter travels back to Denmark on February 5th.
Brothers, as of this writing, I was just informed that our dear friend, W.B. Bill Grimes passed away last night (Feb. 9th) at his home. This is a tremendous loss for our Lodge, our Grand Jurisdiction and his Brethren not to mention his family and friends. At this time arrangements are still pending. Please keep his son W.B. Tim Derrick and all the rest of his family in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time. WB Bill was always very supportive and encouraging of me for many years. He called me a couple of months back and asked if I would perform his Masonic Rites. I have to say that this is a very humbling time, to realize that your Brother wants YOU to be the last to speak at his burial. I must admit that it is a very high honor to perform this service to a Brother and I am truly privileged to be there.
I will miss my friend!
Brethren, have a wonderful month ahead, share a smile, shake a hand, hug your loved ones. We only have them for a little while.
God Bless, see you in Lodge!
Fraternally,
Jeff Hall
Worshipful Master