About 160 men and boys attended the annual prayer breakfast, January 27th which was hosted by Mineral Springs. The MS men were assisted by the men from Arbor Springs in cooking a wonderful breakfast.Many items for the Righteous Oaks Residental Treatment Center were donated by the men and boys. An additional $400 will be sent to that ministry. The boys expressed great excitement about the coming pinewood derby. Over 50 cars have been distributed. On Sunday, Feb. 3, the track will be open from 2 to 4 at Pickensville FBC for trial runs. The race will be on Saturday, Feb. 9.

The Galilee Baptist Church of Panola will dedicate its new building on Sunday, August 12. Services will begin at 10am. Bro. Little invites anyone who can and wishes to attend to come and participate. Bro. Gary will be representing our association at this event. You will recall that this was one of the 9 churches burned by arsonists in February of 2006. The actual dedication service will be in the afternoon, beginning at 3:30pm. Mike Hall, Branon Pinion and Gary Farley will be speaking very briefly. The main speaker will be Bro. James Wright of Mt. Hebron, Aliceville. He will be accompanied by the wonderful choir of that church. Looking for a blessed time.

Hundreds of persons have donated time and materials, as well as money, to make this great day happen.

The service on Sunday was attended by about 500 persons. It was a joyful time. The Cloyd family, parents of one of the arsonists attended. The crowd expressed their support to the family. The choir from Mt. Hebron sang well. And Bro. James Wright brought an appropriate and challenging message.

A similar service at Morning Star is about two months away.

We love our churches. Dolly Jones and I talked about this recently. City churches last only about 50 years. Our churches, mostly are more than 100. Folks have met God in these churches. They are special places.

Earlier in the day I attended the homecoming at Springhill. The association will meet there on Oct. 8th for the first day of the 172nd annual meeting. We will make the 150th anniversary of the meeting house there. Should be a fine time. I met the Phillip Williams family there. They are on furlough from the mission field in Ethiopia. They serve under our IMB. Phillip is part of the Williams family which has been a part of this congregation from its beginnings in 1842.

The Campground at Unity Grove was blessed this past Thursday by the music of the Pickens County Singing Men. Joining them for the first time was our DOM, Bro. Gary. He sang whichever part he thought he could do, plus making up some unique parts as well. Their next performance will be in revival the week of August 7th at Big Hill. More on that later.

The more. We will sing at Big Hill on the 7th. 7 pm. We hope to enlist the pastor in our choir. We noted that he, Curly Ralph Smith, was wearing our uniform, blue shirt and grey pants over at the camp meeting. His singing, however, needs a little work.

For those serious about Southern Gospel music, the Perrys will be at Highland on Thursday, the 9th. 7pm. The Sacred Harp singing will be at Elmore=Center UMC on Wednesday, August 15, beginning at 10am.

Homecoming with the Capstones on August 5th at Crossroads of Carrollton.

Homecoming at Springhill, Carrollton, on the 12th. Brunswick stew.

We had another good year at the WMU Annual–just have a look!

This past week NPR interviewed Bro. Bob Little of Galilee again. He had some nice things to say about our collective work.

New Salem’s Hog Killing Ministry has become an annual event…