A Lifesouth Blood Drive will be held Sun., Feb. 26, from 1 to 5 p.m. in the Shady Grove Baptist Church parking lot, located in Neel. Each donor will be given a T-shirt and a voucher for a free pound of Papa Murphy’s cookie dough. All support for the blood drive will be greatly appreciated. Remember, the life you save could be your own.

Special belated happy birthday wishes go out this week to Thomas J. Johnson on Feb.21.

Happy birthday wishes go out to Blondie Morris, Charlice LaFavor, William Logan and, Cheyanne Terrell, all on Feb. 25 and Carson Roland on Feb. 26 .

Special belated happy wedding anniversary wishes go out this week to Harold and Peggy Holloway who observed their 51st anniversary on February 19, Eddie and Gloria Dotson who celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary on Feb. 19 and Paul and Emma Martin who celebrated their 24th wedding anniversary on Feb. 23rd.

McKendree United Methodist Church members Jeannie Alexander and Linda Huskey have been enjoying taking online learning classes this past month. With the encouragement of the District Laity Leader, Janet Brookman, both Jeannie and Linda enrolled through beadisciple.com and these courses are offered through Southwestern College in Kansas, through a Blackboard program with teachers who are able to give homework, share informational papers and include classmates from all over the country to give input.

Linda enjoyed taking a course in leading worship and was busy for four weeks with assignments, which included leading a service at McKendree UMC and taking feedback from the congregation.

Jeannie took classes in Multi-Media Technology and in Bible-Storying. In the technology there were three online “blackboard” sessions where participants were actually speaking with the teacher and each other. The Bible-storying class used You Tube videos of class projects for others to critique.

Both Linda and Jeannie found the classes helpful and hope to share what they have learned with McKendree Church members.

The courses can also be used as qualifications for lay speakers, who can substitute for pastors on occasion,. The classes are easy to take from your home with assignments done on your own schedule and at only a small cost compared to driving and time involved.

Both Jeannie and Linda encourage others to check out beadisciple.com and see if there are classes of interest to them.

I want to express Christian love and heartfelt prayers for the family of Mr. Paul Robertson who recently passed away,. Paul will be greatly missed by all of his many friends who loved him at Martha’s Auction,. May God bless each and everyone of you during your time of sadness,

I want to say a special hello this week to my friend, Mildred Wigginton, and I hope that you have a very blessed week,.