elsie item issue 66 - USS Landing Craft Infantry National Association

Meet Our New Affiliate Chaplain:
Michael A. (“Mike”) Gatton
Affiliate Member Mike Gatton, son of John L. Gatton who served on LCI 96,
has taken his place alongside our old friend Chaplain David Cox to serve as a
second chaplain for our Association.
Dr. Michael A. “Mike” Gatton has been an ordained Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ) minister for thirty-five years.
A native of Louisville, Dr. Gatton has served churches in Benton, Hazel
Green, Old Grassy, White Oak, Somerset, and Louisville, Kentucky. He is a former
high school teacher and coach and continues to speak at national and
state youth events. Mike recently completed ten years in development ministry
with both the Christian Church Homes of Kentucky and the Presbyterian Homes and Services of Kentucky.
He presently serves as pastor of the Hurstbourne Christian Church in Louisville.
Mike is a graduate of the University of Louisville with a B.A. in English, Louisville Seminary with a
Masters in Divinity and Vanderbilt University with a Doctor in Ministry. He also has a teaching certificate
from Murray State University.
Gatton has won awards for Volunteer of the Year in both Marshall and Pulaski Counties. He was the
founder of the Agape Gang Youth Mission Team and presently serves on boards with the Christian Church In
Kentucky, the Fern Creek High School Alumni Association, the Luther Luckett Prison Ministry, the
Middletown Christian Village, and the Kentucky Association of Blind Athletes. Mike is also chairman of the
board for the Foundation for Older Adults and the Eastern Area Christian Ministries.
Mike lives on his Canaan farm near Jeffersontown, Kentucky, with his yellow lab, Joshua. He enjoys
travel, motivational speaking, and landscaping.
“I’m glad to be a small part of the LCI team, said Mike. “What a privilege to work along side of those I
consider heroes and mentors”.
Welcome aboard, Chaplain Mike!
6
The Chaplain’s Corner
With this issue, we’re pleased to begin “The Chaplain’s Corner” and have asked our new Affiliate Chaplain
Mike Gatton to introduce himself to you with a few words.
“We’ve Only Just Begun”
During World War II, after much bleak and discouraging news, there came a period when it seemed the
trend was reversed and the news more encouraging. Winston Churchill warned his people against complacency:
“We have victory—a remarkable, definite victory. The bright gleam has caught the helmets of our soldiers
and warmed and cheered all our hearts. Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But
it is perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
There are no permanent victories. There is never a point in life where we can say, “Now I have arrived.”
Sooner or later we wake up to the realization that regardless of our successes, achievements and honors,
there are no permanent destinations in our journeys, only intersections. There are some temporary destinations
we reach; but, forever, there is an agenda of unfinished business between us and God and each other.
There is never any ground for complacency. Our destinations are temporary, our victories fleeting. We cannot
remain where we are. We’ve got to keep on growing and opening ourselves to new possibilities. The
Apostle Paul realized this when he wrote: “One thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, and straining forward to
what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God…” (Philippians 3:14).
Regardless of our age or time in life, when a significant person or experience comes to us, we have a new
beginning. At each intersection of life, we are born again. And, as we enter this new year together, we need
to be aware that God has more truths for us to learn, more victories for us to win, more persons for us to love,
more rivers for us to cross, more loads to lift, more beaches to land upon, and more kingdoms to conquer. No
matter what age we might be, in the eyes of God, “We’ve only just begun!”
Agape, Mike