Taking a final look back at 2025

BLADEN COUNTY – There were a lot of memories this past year and as we are into the early first week of 2026, we want to take a look back one more time at the life of Bladen County as it was shaped and fashioned to be a part of the history.

Taking tens of thousands of photos is an arduous job at times.

When you add gathering stories, writing stories, editing stories and setting stories for print – it seems almost overwhelming. Almost. In 2025 there were many stories and many great memories.

If you figure three main stories for 52 weeks and averaging between 20 – 25 stories per week, four ‘Seasons’ magazines, one yearly Discover Bladen County and special sections such as the White Lake Water Festival, one to 16 published pictures per story, well… you do the math. LOL.

Making people visible is what we try our best to do at the Bladen Journal. Choosing the top 10 stories of 2025 was a hard task this year and choosing some of our favorite pictures was also a challenge.

In last week’s paper we printed our favorite pictures from the first quarter of 2025. This week on pages 12 and 13 we have added quarters two and three. Next week we will close the books on 2025 and add our favorites from the fourth quarter.

We would like to thank intern CJ Candon, student writers Jenna Dove and Lucas Bridgers, Alex Brooks, Brenda Clark, Amy Hudson, Brad Briner, Terri Dennison, Sondra Guyton, Bo Wagner, Thecia DeLap and of course our new and incredible sports writer, Sonny Jones. They helped to carry the load in 2025.

There were many memories from 2025. The stories from the college including a $12 gift and an inspiring speaker from Virginia. We had a lot of in-depth stories of the people that helped to shape our horizon including the owners of both local vineyards. There were festivals, parades, bike races, 5Ks, water skiers, a triathlon and Christmas tree lightings. Commissioner stories and new business openings and remodels. West Bladen students and cutting-edge Cape Fear Valley health care stories. National recording artists onstage and weird weather occurrences. We had Marines helping us with a broken levy and a town and county that had a broken relationship. We wrote about people who have survived cancer and those who have gone on, but have left a legacy. We finally completed a bridge project and the Charters of Freedom were erected on the Bladen County courthouse lawn. There were stories about historical societies and stories about pets in crisis. From Canon fire in White Oak to Whoville in Tarheel, a food pantry in northern Bladen County to the children’s home just south of Bladen and Bikers for Christ at Camp Clearwater. Not to mention the columns, editorials and religious columns.

We tried out best to cover it all. The top three stories had the most hits on Facebook, our website and through other means of communication such as the telephone and emails. The “Best of our Best.”

Our top stories from 2025:

HEARING A WHISPER FROM HER HORSES – March 18, 2025

ELIZABETHTOWN – How much can be accomplished in 22 years of life?

If you are Adrienne Howell, living the dream is making dreams come true for others. It’s not just making an appearance in this life – but making a difference with a passion, a drive and an enthusiasm that makes those around feel as if they’d hung the moon.

At 22, she is not only accomplished in her craft, but is on a path to greatness.

The young cowgirl hails from Goldsboro in Wayne County, but has since made Bladen County her home for the past decade. Both of those chapters have forged her in the fire of competition, education and teaching.

“We moved to Bladen County when my dad took a job opportunity here,” Howell said. “He was doing government contracting and we were able to spend more time as a family. I graduated from East Bladen High School in 2020.”

She was one of those from that rare class of COVANDERS who couldn’t experience a normal graduation.

“We had graduation outside on a stage,” she said. “We had to do it with our cars. We had a lot of cars. One student would get out of their car and go up and shake the principal’s hand. There was a lot of lessons learned throughout that year because it seemed like the whole world shut down at once… and very out of the blue. We thought we were going to have a week off of school. A week turned into a month and then to another month. We learned a lot.”

She said that she felt that during that time she grew closer to the horses and the community.

Growing up in Bladen, she had two loves growing up, although horses, she said were not prominent when she had a chance to be propelled by an outboard motor.

“We were always on the boat in the summertime,” she said. “During the school year I was like, full-fledged with the horses. Water festival was huge and I can remember that everyone in the community was tight knit. I can also remember playing volleyball and softball.”

In the off-seasons she grew proficient in barrel racing and has been in several competitions.

“After high school I started at Cape Fear Community College,” Howell said. “I was originally going to school for elementary education and debated between vet med and physical therapy all at the same time. I wanted to be a teacher, if you can’t already know that by how much I talk.”

She began with general ed courses and eventually made her way to therapy to equine.

The skills that she learned to be a teacher has played a major role now as she continues to work with children, but the classroom is outdoors and sometimes in a barn. And the kids are special and close to her heart.

A “tough as nails” cowgirl, she still tears up when she speaks of some of her autistic and downs syndrome students. She is not afraid to show her heart and how, even at a young age, she exudes a tremendous amount of love and wisdom.

The step from actual decisions to choose the classroom and to find her path to therapy was a combination of a love for children and a love for her horses.

“It was actually kind of crazy,” she said. “The summer of 2021 it was right around the time that the Grand Regal got big at White Lake. I was speaking to Dean Hilton, one of their owners and he told me, ‘You should look into therapy to equine.’ He then got me in touch with the lady who was doing therapy to equine.”

She also did her homework and was actually going back to school – investigating what it would take to follow this calling. She worked with and learned by shadowing at some local barns.

“I fell in love with it,” she said. “Immediately – right off the bat.”

Although she is taking a semester hiatus from her education in her field, she is using the time wisely.

“I wanted to do a little bit of clinical work,” she said. “My hope is to go to Texas between May and June to shadow under a few professional trainers and a few bigger therapeutic equine facilities. Hopefully that will leave me with one semester left after that.”

Her current course of study is at St. Andrews University in Laurinburg, North Carolina. She is set on the field of therapy to equine and will come away with a Business Administration and Management with therapy to equine.

“Therapy to equine is actually using horses as a way of therapy and to improve someone’s mental, cognitive and/or physical function,” Howell said. “Anyone with mental or physical disabilities – you can use horses as way of therapy for them.”

Howell’s goal is to focus on those with epilepsy as well as patients with autism and downs syndrome. She is also looking at putting together special focus on veterans those who have been diagnosed with PTSD.

“I want to provide a safe place that allows them to feel like they are just like us,” she said. “I want them to feel like they can come similar things that we get to do every day while helping and improving them.”

Howell is working her way toward a plan to heal people as she works side-by-side with horses who have a capacity to love and a sensitivity toward those who need help.

Her AH Therapeutic Equine & More is an equestrian center that is located within the Elizabethtown Veterinary Hospital of North Carolina complex at 4629 US Highway 701, Clarkton, North Carolina. The hospital sits on a former Butler Farms which was started there and was a working Arabian Horse farm. Butler Farms is now relocated to 440 Devin Dr. in White Oak, North Carolina, and is run by Ted Carson.

The Elizabethtown Veterinary Hospital of NC is owned by CEO and Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Douglas Gensel and run by hospital administrator, Mallory Davis.

The horses that Howell uses to partner with her in therapy are all owned by Dr. Gensel and his wife Valerie. Her personal horse that she works with, rides and loves on is her beloved “MoJo.”

“I actually started working inside the vet hospital,” Howell said. “I was a kennel assistant, doing an internship after high school. It’s a program where you shadow and see if you like it. Vet med was something I was interested in. I also had a horse boarding here. Dr. Ginsel and his wife, Valerie have been very supportive throughout this whole journey. I eventually moved up to a vet tech assistant. I was also working with my parents (Jeff and Nancy Howell) who own White Lake Marina. I would work back and forth and was giving lessons here and lessons started getting bigger and bigger.”

Howell then approached Dr. Ginsel to use his horses and worked out a deal on commission. After an agreement was made, she worked with the horses and got them ready for her therapy equine business which started with lessons.

She has a way with her horses and a way with her now growing patient list which includes 20 which makes for a busy week. She doesn’t consider herself a horse whisperer per se, but she says that once you have learned to learn the horse’s body language, that’s a huge part of the job.

With her business and her talents as a trainer and therapy – she brings another whole new component to the complex. One that deals with the human interaction and healing.

“It was a surprising twist,” she said. “ I had some plans and God had bigger plans. I told somebody the other day, ‘I told God I had a plan. He laughed and gave me a better plan.”

Her life is blessed, her talents are strong and her focus is keen. You could almost see that divine hand speaking into the mix. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

And with those plans comes health and healing for those she reaches through her incredible young life. Not to mention the incredible bond she has with her amazing horses. To see her magic with the horses and with the children, you have to see it personally to understand. It’s not a job or a career for Howell… it’s a calling.

DOWNTOWN BUSINESS WOMAN FACES CHALLENGES AMID BLESSINGS – January 21, 2025

ELIZABETHTOWN – There are many eclectic shops, wonderful boutiques and magical emporiums in Elizabethtown, but there is a small shop that is tucked away in the midst of the downtown hustle and bustle that, no matter how stressed or poorly you are feeling – you will walk out feeling as if you’d hung the moon.

It isn’t because it’s a Christian bookstore or because of the merchandise or the ambience or the décor of the Faith Partner Christian Supply. It isn’t anything material, really.

But there is a woman there who says she’s been called by God to be there. When she speaks, you can feel the agape love and care that she shares with each visitor and customer who comes through her front door. Some come to buy a book, a Bible, a card, a gift perhaps, but then there are those who just come to spend time with her – to glean from the wisdom of all she knows and the strength of her faith.

She’s the genuine article.

Mildred Jackson was born in Loris Hospital in South Carolina, but grew up in Tabor City, North Carolina, about 39 miles north of the South Carolina border.

“When I was born, the doctor named me after his mom, and I think that’s the ugliest name,” Jackson said. “I don’t like it. In fact, while I was in school, I tried to change my name and the teachers told my mom that I was changing my name from Mildred to Anne.”

“Just a little humor,” she said with a smile.

She graduated from Central High School in Whiteville, North Carolina, where her family had located to. She said that it is a “Jonah story” as to how she made the transition from Whiteville to eventually become a business owner for 38 years in Elizabethtown.

“Have you ever heard about Jonah in the Bible?” she asked. “I had been sick for a lot of years. I didn’t work, I had a hernia, I used to bleed from my kidneys, I had asthma, so I couldn’t work. I used to stay home and listen to Kenneth Copeland, Charles Capps and Pop Hagen teaching on TV. They talked about healing. And one day, the Lord told me, ‘Don’t take any more medication, you are healed.’ I started crying.”

Jackson, who had five children at home at the time said that as a result of her healing, she was able to once again get a job. Her husband, Leon Jackson was a pastor at Minter’s Chapel – First Born Church of the Living God in Boardman, North Carolina, but then he also pastored in Wilmington where he was the presiding elder over the North Carolina district for the First-Born Church of the Living God.

The First-Born Church of the Living God was established in the state of Georgia, county of Ware, City of Waycross May 12, 1913. The founding fathers were J. Q. Croom, S. P. Croom, A.M. McNair, W.M. Holland, M. H. Hall, L.G. Lockhart, E.M. Goodson, Q.T. Granger and L.O. Golden.

“God blessed me with a good job,” she said. “I worked for four and a half years in management. It was good money and good bonuses. It was a knitwear company. And, it was only seven minutes away from my house. So, I had it made.”

Jackson who is a Godly woman lives the scripture in the Book of John 10:27 where Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice and I know them.”

She hears. Though there may be skeptics, she really does hear. God.

“I was at work one day, walking around my department and thought to myself that one day I was going to have a job not because of the money but something I would love to do,” she said. “I felt the Lord telling me that I was supposed to open a Christian book store. In Elizabethtown. Be careful what you ask for.”

She originally did what most people do when they don’t want to follow a calling. She thought of all the reasons she didn’t want to go to Elizabethtown.

“I was afraid to come,” she said. “So, therefore, I delayed my coming and thus, God provided me with a Jonah experience that was rather unpleasant. It was a time I was supposed to be taking a vacation and making plans that I ended up being laid up with a walking pneumonia. The Lord came again to me and asked me why I was still where I was.”

At times, we run from a calling. Other times, we just simply give in due to the uncomfortableness and the stench of the whale’s belly. She said that it taught her to listen more carefully and to trust more fully. So, she started making plans to do something she never did before in a place she’d never been before with people she never met before.

“My husband and I came up and we looked around at several buildings,” she said. “One day, while my husband was down in seminary in Georgia and we had three kids in college, I decided to answer the call and had to go and tell my supervisor that I was quitting.”

She explained to him that she was going to open a Christian bookstore, and immediately got opposition and tons of reasons why it was not a good move. Sometimes the scripture in Romans 14:22 can be so true. Painful but true. “If you have faith, keep it to yourself before God. Happy is he that condemns not himself in that thing which he allows.”

“So, we found a building up here,” she said. “It was a little building across from the courthouse. Then one day my husband heard someone say that there was a building downtown for rent. There was a Hallmark store under lease and the woman wanted to get out. She asked me if I would move over here and I’ve been here ever since.”

She has been in business in Elizabethtown since 1987.

For the last 15 years, Jackson has had to take care of business by herself as her husband passed in 2010.

There have have been many challenges and some uphill struggles, but through it all, her rock-solid faith has carried and sustained her. She has a wood-carved plaque behind her counter at the bookstore and it has the quote from Psalm 27:13 that says, “I have seen the goodness of God.”

She obviously notices how cruel situations and circumstances can be – but what she CHOOSES to see is God’s goodness.

Each time there has been too little coming in financially, each time the bill collectors have come to the door, each time she’s wanted to just take an easier road and close her shop, the one who called her to do what she’s doing has always been faithful to her.

She continues in her mid-70s and after 38 years of faithful business to the communities of Bladen and Columbus counties. She still drives each day from Whiteville. And though her income may be meager and she may live hand to mouth, she never forgets that it’s God’s hand to her mouth.

“I can remember days when I would cry and drive from Whiteville to Elizabethtown and pray and ask, Oh Lord what I’m going to eat,” she said. “So, He told me to go and buy me a dozen eggs and a pack of grits. I would eat one egg a meal and a little bit of grits. And that would last me all week long. And do you know, I still eat grits and eggs?”

She could write a book about all the times “God, just stepped in…” but that would take lifetimes to write and she stays busy keeping the lights on – not only at the bookstore, but the light that proceeds from her countenance as she does the weekly bulletins for her church and brochures for other churches, as she waves and knows each passerby and prays for each one, as she waits on customers – some who just need to come in and hear a word of encouragement.

When she smiles, she lights up a room and it’s as if the favor of God has illuminated her.

You can see under that little frame of a Godly woman that she bears a lot of weight from the rigors of the day and the toll that life has tried to take. There are times when perhaps to close the doors for a final time would be the solution for most people. But she is not “most people” and she knows that she can only leave when the one who called her to open the establishment will have to be the one to call her to shut it down. She said that the voice of circumstance can’t bully her – it’s not the right voice.

She is a woman of faith. Not the kind of woman that tells you she will pray for you – but will really become your intercessor. Not the kind of Christian that lives the life only on Sunday mornings, but she truly is a woman walking in a 24-hour anointing.

“It doesn’t matter what color your skin is,” she said. “If God be for you and He say go, He will make it work. I’m still eating grits and eggs now – not because I have to – but it reminds me of how He has sustained me in the big things and the little things. And oh, how I depend on Him.”

If you get a chance to visit Mildred Alderman Jackson at Faith Partner Christian Supply at 117 W. Broad Street in Elizabethtown, North Carolina, stay and feel how good it is to have seeds of encouragement sown into your day.

And… don’t forget to ask her about her miracle chairs.

A MAN OF FAITH; A VOICE OF WISDOM TO BLADEN COUNTY – March 11, 2025

WHITE LAKE – Mike Huckabee, Pat Robertson, James Lankford Bladen County’s own Cameron McGill have all been associated as passionate Baptist ministers and all have made a difference in the political arena.

McGill who gave his heart to God when he was 9 years old said that he was called to preach when he was 15. Most recently, he has been called to serve as the 3rd District Commissioner at large. His wife Tiffany was also called to serve in ministry at a young age.

There are some that have said that church and state should not intermingle and McGill is very passionate about the call upon his life and the following of that call.

“We’ve traveled with a ministry called the American Renewal Project which actually encourages Christians and church leaders to engage the political world. Even to enter the political arena. But our story began in 2019, which was BC (Before Covid) we were able to go to Israel with the American Renewal Project as the guest of, at that time, Lt. Gov. Dan Forest and his wife. We had a wonderful trip where we were encouraged to pray for our country to encourage church members to run for office.”

The couple went there first and foremost McGill said because his wife had a burden to go to Israel.

“God sometimes shows up in ways that we are not expecting,” he said. “At that point, we’d been in Bladen County for 20 years, we knew the community well and I pastored the First Baptist Church of Dublin for 18 years. We started the Lake Church (White Lake) as a mission and at in 2019 we were here at Lake Church full-time.”

In 2020, both Charles Ray Peterson and James McVicker said they felt led to come and approach McGill about running for the commissioner seat that was empty due to the unexpected death of Russell Priest.

“I was very humbled and honored,” he said. “I was out just working on the pier and I don’t know if I ever really took them seriously. They told me they’d give me a little bit of time to consider it. Now, I’d helped Coach Priest’s funeral at the ball field and my boys grew up under his leadership.”

After McGill got home he told her that he was approached to run for the empty commissioner’s spot in a “you’re not going to believe this” moment.

“Tiffany just immediately responded,” he said. “’Well, maybe that’s why God sent us to Israel.’ I then responded that we have so much going on in our lives right now. We talked, and by the end of that day, I called Charles Ray back and I told him that if they really felt like I would be the right guy to run, I’ll do it. And then the reality set in. Running and winning are two different things. Everything we do we try to do with a Biblical perspective and it says that whatever you find to do, do it heartily unto the Lord.”

McGill decided not to stress about running political campaign per se, but decide to go into it as he does every other decision and subsequent path in his life. He decided to go into it with 100% effort – win, lose or draw.

“I understood that statistically, I was probably a long shot,” he said. “But we ran a good campaign. I wanted to be the first to file and didn’t want it to be that I was running against somebody. Rather I wanted to show that I was running ‘for’ something. Anybody that is running in politics I want them to know that you should not run as a defensive mechanism to keep the other guy from winning, but more because you feel led to do it.”

With his family and his church family behind him and fully supportive, he went in as a David with a sling and a stone. He won the seat with a roughly 60/40 vote.

“So, is it OK for a Christian, especially a pastor to be involved in politics and I think, without a doubt, yes,” he said. Separation of church and state exists neither in the Bible nor the constitution. The constitution says that we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights. Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness.”

Four members of the Founding Fathers were either present or former ministers and were signers on the Declaration of Independence. Also, a number of signers were sons of clergy. At least half had studied “divinity” at their respective Universities. In addition, one United States President, James Garfield was an ordained Disciples minister.

“Not that we were endowed by government, but by God,” McGill said. “So that settles it to me. The Bible says in Proverbs, ‘When the righteous are in authority, people rejoice. When the wicked bear rule, people mourn.’”

With the experience to not only speak to people, but to counsel, to listen and to lead, a pastor with a moral compass can be one of the best selections.

“In our county we are so blessed,” he said. “Even the most liberal amongst us is extremely conservative when you compare what is going on in the nation. I think that God put us where we are. I consider myself not a politician, but public servant and a pastor who happens to be involved in a political process. I’m not a politician who happens to be a pastor.”

In his early start on this earth, McGill was born in Danville, Virginia,” he said. “And also was back and forth to Winston Salem due to my parent’s jobs. My dad was a professional photographer and my mom worked for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company for 30 years as an administrative assistant in the purchasing department.”

McGill said that his family began predominantly as a lower-middle class family. Growing up, he was 6 years old when Ronald Regan was elected and the first inauguration left some vivid memories.

“I can remember as a child just sitting and watching, totally enamored the wisdom of Ronald Regan,” he said. “He had an insight and wisdom that was truly beyond mortal man. There was a discernment from God that was upon that man. Growing up and all through high school I worked in small campaigns, canvassing and giving out palm cards and things like that. Looking back, it was God planting a seed in my heart.”

After graduating from Kerwin Baptist Christian School McGill went on to college at Wingate College where he was a member of the young Republicans and then went on to Emanuel Bible College which was in Connelly Springs, North Carolina.

“Saved at age 8, called to preach at age 15, and while at Wingate, I answered a small little add on the bulletin board for a church that was looking for a summer youth worker,” he said. “It was in Kannapolis, North Carolina. I went there in the summer of ’92 and then at the end of the summer, they kept me on. In the spring of ’93 I met Tiffany. I told her the day that I met her that I would marry her and spend the rest of my life with her.”

McGill said that it was “love at first sight for him and love eventually for her.” The love story blossomed and the couple married in 1995.

“By the time we were married, I was serving full-time as a youth minister in Spencer, North Carolina,” he said. It was 25 years ago now that we moved to Dublin to be the senior pastor and it was my first pastorate.”

According to Tiffany McGill, she said she was “pretty sure” it was love at first sight.

“I always said that I wouldn’t tell him I love him until I knew 100% sure,” she said. “I first met him at a thing he was doing for his youth group. Student from Wingate came and led the event. So, he talked me into going with him that weekend and there was an unexpected blizzard. It was March 13 of ’93.”

That divine intervention allowed the young couple to continue to talk and cultivate and plant seeds for the powerful and successful ministry that they both have to this day. She did hear him preach for the first time three weeks later.

“I was called into the ministry at 15 years old as well,” she said with a big smile on her face. “I was attending First Baptist Salisbury and had an amazing youth minister – and I had been on mission trips, I was very active in my youth group. One day we had a group from the African Children’s Choir come to church and through that I felt a strong call to the ministry, which at that time, I thought it would be missions.”

A year later, the man called to pastor and the woman with the heart of a missionary joined forces and the charisma and the love between them is unmistakable that a divine hand has been guiding them along their path together.

“I wouldn’t be pastoring the Lake Church and I certainly wouldn’t be in politics if it wasn’t for her,” he said. “When she was 15 and was called to missions, that call stayed in her heart. So, we came to Dublin and my goal was to be the best pastor, to have the best church and doing all the things a pastor was supposed to do. About 10 years after we were in Dublin, her heart for missions became so restless and she would say that she thought we needed to be more missions minded. Long story short, God developed a missions mindset in Dublin and we adopted and started partnering with a church in New York City and one in Moldova. We realized that ‘Here, there and everywhere’ was our missions strategy.”

On a trip where a Moldovan minister came to North Carolina to preach and to spend time with the McGill’s, he put forth a challenge to be missionaries also to North Carolina.

“So, when the Lake Church was birthed, her heart for missions came full circle,” he said. “We met in the Venue for seven years and then buying this property in 2017 and developing the camp – and now she’s the camp director here. From the time we met we’ve been in partnership in ministry. I would have bailed and left Bladen County within the first six months if she had not said, ‘Put on your big-boy britches and let’s fight through this.’”

When McGill came in to fill an unexpired term from 2020 – 2022, he got his feet wet and learned a lot about what the county needed. In 2022 he had won the hearts of the voters with his integrity, his wisdom, his love for community, his ability to not back away or back down from the issues and to speak out when his voice needs to be heard.

His current term runs until December 2026. If there are questions or comments, he is readily accessible at [email protected]

Bladen County is blessed to have this commissioner and his wife on board and from just a few moments with them, you will know without a shadow of a doubt that they are not here to just exist and collect a paycheck. They are life changers.