Marathon buddies, prayer buddies, clean-water buddies: Newton and Vaughn have been through a lot together
They're prayer buddies, running buddies, and water quality buddies – priorities that for them, go hand in hand.
Newton and Vaughn have known each other for 30 years from their affiliation with Olive Knolls Church in northwest Bakersfield and their association with Team World Vision, a faith based international charity that digs wells and builds water conveyance infrastructure for impoverished villages around the world. Team members find sponsors for their participation in marathons across the country.
Newton power-walked in the L.A. Marathon earlier in March, raising money for Team World Vision. Although the Bakersfield Marathon is not an official World Vision event, they and other team members will be there in uniform, raising money for the cause. And what a cause.
Olive Knolls Pastor Kevin Hardey visited Kenya earlier in 2025 to see the work his church's giving through World Vision had accomplished.
'They don't just do water,' said Newton, who is the Olive Knolls facility manager. 'They build wells and all that, yes they do, but they also provide schools, churches and animals. You can buy an animal for them – goats and chickens, so they have milk and eggs…they won't have sick children because of water anymore.'
Newton believes in his efforts' healing power. When his friend Al was down and almost out four years ago with Covid-19, Newton had a chat with God.
'In my heart he was telling me that he wanted me to do 10 days of half marathons to honor Al and to glorify him,' Newton said, gesturing skyward.
Bakersfield police search for 15-year-old last seen on Efada Drive
He told the church's office manager about what God had told him.
'And she said, OK, you start tomorrow,' Newton said. 'And I just went, 'Wow, OK.' One day it was pouring rain so I went on our gym floor and went 13 miles. In a circle on the gym floor. And everybody's like, 'What are you doing?''
On the 10th day, he and a teammate circled Al's hospital the equivalent of 13 miles, which initially had the security guard concerned. But it worked.
'And then shortly after that he started to come to,' Newton said of his friend Vaughn.
'Yeah, I came around,' Vaughn said.
Vaughn is a longtime marathoner who, at 79, with a heart condition, might have run his last marathon, but he is contemplating running in the Bakersfield 6k race next year.
In a sense, Newton was just repaying a favor Vaughn had done for him the previous year.
'I prayed for Richard when he had cancer, you bet,' Vaughn said. 'And we both had our down times. But the Lord keeps us faithful and gets us through it.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
4 hours ago
- The Hill
National Guard troops appear in DC as part of Trump show of force
National Guard troops have started showing up in the nation's capital after President Trump activated them to patrol Washington's streets, arguing that crime has gotten out of control. The District of Columbia Army National Guard began patrolling the streets on Tuesday and a group of service members met with Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll. Several Guard forces and Humvees were seen near the Washington Monument on the National Mall, an area of the city generally seen as safe. 'The speed at which the troops are making it in is happening quicker. As we get enough soldiers in, they are tasked to help civilian law enforcement,' a defense official told The Hill's sister network NewsNation. 'As soon as tonight you'll see soldiers out.' Around 800 total National Guard members will work in shifts of about 200 each. The locations were drawn out by the police task force, another defense official told NewsNation. Trump announced Monday at the White House that the Justice Department (DOJ) would take over oversight of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), declaring a crime emergency in the nation's capital under the city's Home Rule Act. The order has sparked pushback from other mayors, national Democrats and activists. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) used the federal takeover as a platform to again call for the District's statehood on Tuesday. 'We have seen a precipitous lessening of crime in the city, violent crime, especially after a post-COVID spike that we acknowledge, and we got after, and we drove down the numbers in 2023. We reported last year the lowest level of violent crime in 30 years,' she said on 'The Breakfast Club' radio show. 'So, we're not taking our foot off the gas.' Others have stuck behind the president, including his former Attorney General Bill Barr. 'I think the president's right on the money, and I think Judge Pirro laid out the case very well, and I'm glad she's there, because she has the right idea of what needs to be done in this town,' Barr said on Fox News's 'America Reports,' while referring to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro. The White House said that 23 people were arrested by federal officials Monday night for a wide variety of charges ranging from homicide and stalking to reckless driving and drug dealing, among others.
USA Today
5 hours ago
- USA Today
CDC shooting suspect died of self-inflicted gunshot: Officials
CDC shooting suspect Patrick Joseph White expressed "discontent" with the COVID-19 vaccines before firing nearly 200 shots that struck six different CDC buildings. The Georgia man suspected of opening fire on Centers for Disease Control buildings near Emory University, killing one police officer, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and expressed "discontent" with COVID-19 vaccines, authorities said. Hundreds of shell casings were discovered at the scene of the shooting, which broke out the afternoon of Aug. 8 in Atlanta, according to Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey. Nearly 200 bullets struck six different CDC buildings, Hosey said in an update on Aug. 12. The suspect, identified over the weekend as 30-year-old Patrick Joseph White, was found dead on the second floor of a building that included a CVS store. It was later determined that his fatal gunshot wound was self-inflicted. White was on law enforcement's radar weeks before the shooting because he had expressed suicidal ideation, prompting contact with law enforcement. He had no known criminal history, Hosey said. DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose, a 33-year-old husband and father of two with another child on the way, was killed by one of the shooter's weapons, Hosey said. "He served with honor, courage and unwavering dedication. His sacrifice will never be forgotten, and his commitment to protecting others is a profound testament to the very best of the law enforcement profession," Hosey said.
Newsweek
5 hours ago
- Newsweek
The UK Shows How Not To Do Online Age Verification
The first week of implementation for the U.K.'s Online Safety Act (OSA) has been anything but smooth. Upon going into effect on July 25, popular online services ranging from X to Discord and even Spotify, requiring users to show ID before engaging with content on their platforms. Users turned in droves to downloading virtual private network (VPN) apps to avoid the requirements of the law and browse with their privacy intact. It's a very American response to the imposition of the British government's age verification rules, and it led the U.K.'s Secretary for Science and Technology Peter Kyle to suggest on live TV that every time an adult uses a VPN, it leads to the harm of a child online. U.S. advocates of similar digital regulations should take notice of how badly this is going. The aim of protecting children online is a worthy goal, but it is impossible to ignore the OSA's nature, which is a thinly veiled effort to normalize censorship in the U.K. and expand surveillance of British citizens and guests within their borders. A boy participates in an online lesson for his kindergarten class while schools remain closed to help slow the spread of COVID-19, in Chicago, Ill., on April 3, 2020. A boy participates in an online lesson for his kindergarten class while schools remain closed to help slow the spread of COVID-19, in Chicago, Ill., on April 3, of the primary problems with the Online Safety Act lies in its overly broad language regarding the types of content it polices. The text requires sites that host pornography and other content deemed "harmful," whatever that means, to verify that users are over the age of 18. With penalties as steep as 10 percent of global revenue and potential jail time for repeat offenses by firms, platforms are understandably overcorrecting and taking an overzealous approach to requiring ID checks in hopes of avoiding liability. For example, in order to access your Spotify account, users will need to submit their ID so that they can listen to music again on the platform, or risk their account being scrubbed. The distinction here is worth highlighting, because while some music can be profane, you can see how the law flattens graphic video content and audio content, or, put more simply, words. It's no shock that users are soundly rejecting this approach by the U.K. government by turning to VPNs. These services, such as ExpressVPN or Surfshark, have quietly empowered individuals to take control of their digital privacy, whether to protect themselves on public Wi-Fi, avoid algorithmic price discrimination, or download large peer-to-peer files online. And yes, people use VPNs to access explicit content or simply new music that is geoblocked. When a new album by your favorite band drops, Australians are usually jamming to it 12 hours before most Americans. Originally designed in the 1990s to help businesses secure remote connections, VPNs are a critical and mainstream tool for everyday internet users seeking to protect themselves in an increasingly surveilled online world. By encrypting data and masking IP addresses, VPNs shield users from hackers, corporate trackers, and even government surveillance. In an era where data is currency and digital freedom is under threat, VPNs are not a fringe convenience or an indication of nefarious activity by the user. It may only be a matter of time before the United Kingdom considers restricting VPNs altogether. They make total control infeasible. That's why Secretary Kyle had to appeal to Brits with a scare tactic about harming children with VPNs. The government passed a law that standard digital tech makes a mockery of, and that most online users under 50 know how to bypass. VPNs aren't the only way users are skirting age verification requirements. Video gamers playing Death Stranding have tapped into more creative solutions for getting past such regulations by leveraging the in-game photo modes to fool age verification software. When U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently told President Donald Trump, "We've had free speech for a long time, so, er, we are very proud of that," one had to wonder—what exactly is he proud of? Is he referring to the 30 people a day his government arrests for posting "offensive" things online? Or perhaps he is proud of the fact that his government was threatening Americans with criminal charges for not complying with his government's Online Safety Act? And while the OSA was done under the guise of protecting kids online, the government is also inexplicably engaged in a Streisand effect moment, with its agency announcing it was investigating four companies operating 34 pornographic websites. Essentially, by calling it out, the regulator told minors where they can go to access pornographic content without the need to utilize age verification. The Online Safety Act is a masterclass in unintended consequences and symbolic rulemaking. Britons are pushing back with a petition to repeal the law, which has already gathered over 450,000 signatures. American lawmakers would be wise to pay attention and avoid making the same mistakes in Congress. We can protect children without sacrificing the foundational principles of a free and open internet. James Czerniawski is the head of emerging technology policy at The Consumer Choice Center. His work has been featured in the New York Post, Newsmax, U.S. News and World Report, and more. Follow him on X/Twitter @JamesCz19. The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
