Stinking Creek

On our Christmas Road Trip we went by Stinking Creek, Kentucky. Oddly enough, I'd just read a wonderful article in the U.S.A. Today about Stinking Creek.

It's located in Appalachia in one of the poorest counties in the country.

The article's about Peggy Kemner and Irma Gail, missionaries who went to Stinking Creek over 50 years ago - and accomplished a miracle.

Peggy's a midwife, Irma's a teacher. How did they do the miracle?

Birth control.

When these two arrived in Stinking Creek the women were having 13, 14, or 15 babies, while living in shacks with no running water. The next generation had 4 or 5 babies. This generation is having one or two or none. Instead they're graduating from high school and even going to college.

How did Peggy and Irma get the job done? Peggy waited until she'd delivered the forth or fifth baby and would then talk to the new mother saying, "You don't have to live like this you know."

The men didn't like it. Peggy and Irma advocated birth control, education for women and civil rights. They just had to be communists!

On another note (but not really) Ellen Goodman's column in this morning's paper has to do with the "abstinence only" birth control program on which the current government has spent multi millions of dollars.

It's not working. It's a total bust.

Maybe the government should get a clue from Peggy and Irma.


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