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St. Elmo News

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Thursday, September 4
• St. Elmo Business Association, noon, Mary Ann’s Restaurant.
• The Wheatland Unit of Home and Community Education, 1:30 p.m., in the home of Sandra Lovett.
• St. Elmo Women’s Civic Club, 7 p.m., St. Elmo Public Library.
Saturday, September 6
• St. Elmo Community Clothes Closet will not be open.
• John Cavaletto’s Summer Reading Challenge was won by the St. Elmo Public Library children, who had the most participants, turning in reading forms of 15 libraries in the Heartland Library System. A party sponsored by Cavaletto will be held from 10 a.m.-noon; a meet and greet with Cavaletto will be followed by pizza.
• Polio Survivors and Friends of East Central Illinois, 1 p.m., Sarah Bush Lincoln Education Center, Mattoon. Those who wish can eat lunch together at noon in the hospital cafeteria.
• Happy Hollow Farms annual 5K Pumpkin Fun Walk/Run, 9 a.m. Registration is 8 a.m. Registration forms are available on the farm’s website at www.happyhollowfarms.vpweb.com.
Monday, September 8
• St. Elmo Lions Club, 6 p.m., Mary Ann’s Restaurant.
Tuesday, September 9
• Avena Township Park Board, 6 p.m., St. Elmo Community Park Centennial Building.
• American Legion Post #420, 7 p.m., Legion Home.
• Fayette County Board, 7 p.m., Fayette County Courthouse, Vandalia.
Thursday, September 11
• Lunch Bunch, noon, Mary Ann’s Restaurant. This is for St. Elmo high school graduates.
• The St. Elmo District Library Board, 7 p.m., St. Elmo Public Library.
• The Effingham Chapter #110 Order of the Eastern Star, 7:30 p.m., Effingham Masonic Temple.
Future Event
Summer Breeze Wine House at St. James will have the Barn Days Wine and Fall Festival from 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Sept.13-14.
Assembly of God 75th Anniversary
The St. Elmo Assembly of God celebrated its 75th anniversary the afternoon of Aug. 24.The current pastor is the Rev. Robert F. Miller, who has been here since Feb. 16, 2007, and is the 20th pastor of the church.
Miller gave the welcome, prayer and acknowledged the previous pastors, though none were able to attend. They are John Dunn, W. V. Drake, M. L. Martin, D. B. Jaggers, G. L. McKinney, G. H. Hollister, J. K. Lloyd, Oris Holloway, Yale E. Roberts, Phillip Dunn, Raymond Rose, Jack Moody, Bill Henneberg, Sam Bush, David Lusch, Donald P. Andreasen, Todd Kolenda, Leonard Jones and Ronald Porter.
Richard Tucker on the organ and David Cox on the piano played a musical duet of three hymns: “It’s No Secret,” “Follow Me” and “The Family of God.”
Hymns sung by the congregation were “Blessed Assurance,” “Great is Thy Faithfulness” and “How Great Thou Art.”
Testimonies were given throughout the program by Dave and Peggy Cox, Debbie Hough, Betty Feezel, Wanda Julius and Phyllis Albright.
Linda Miodunski and Peggy Cox sang three songs: “Ten Thousand Years,” “This is the Time to Sing” and “The Old Country Church.”
Following the service, a variety of refreshments were served in the Fellowship Hall to the about 50 in attendance. The refreshments included a large cake that pictured on one corner the first church and on another corner the current church. The middle of the cake was decorated with: 1939 It’s Our 75th Anniversary Celebration 2014.
The back of the program tells the history of the church. Its beginning is traced back to 1938, when three men of the Pentecostal Faith were transferred to St. Elmo from Seminole, Okla., with the Carter Oil Co. during the oil boom. The men were Sam Rodgers, Byron Edgin and Charles Smith ,who began construction of the first frame building for the church at the corner of Hazel and Oak streets.
The church was organized and set in order on Aug. 22, 1939, and the Rev. John Dunn of Seminole, Okla., was called to be the first pastor; he served one year.
Several other families were transferred from different parts of Oklahoma and began worshipping with the infant congregation. Among the early ones who attended the church were Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Hayes and daughter Bernadine Finley, Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Ragsdale, Mrs. J. R. Williams and Mrs. James Revel.
The present brick building at First and Olive streets was built under the leadership of the Rev. and Mrs. D. B. Jaggers and dedicated in 1946.
The Rev. David Lusch was led to build the educational wing that was dedicated on Dec. 5, 1990.
Under the leadership of the next pastor, Don Andreasen, the basement was remodeled for a fellowship hall and kitchen. Anderson also prepared and built the current parsonage across the street from the church, and it was dedicated on Nov. 19, 1995.
Assembly of God members called to the ministry: the Rev. and Mrs. Delbert Arnold, the Rev. and Mrs. David Cox, the Rev. and Mrs. John Gallion, the Rev. and Mrs. David Garrett, the Rev. Ronnie Jennings, Mrs. A. L. Matejka (Lenora Hayes), the Rev. and Mrs. W. G. McClusky, the Rev. and Mrs. Joe Miller and Miss Donna Roberts.
Members called to missions: Ken and Barb Spragg; he served as an airplane mechanic with Wycliffe Translators.
Fayette County HCE Board
Membership update was presented at the meeting of the Fayette County Home and Community Education Board held Aug. 25 at the Fayette County Extension Office.
The June 1, 2013, year started with 108 members, and during the year, 12 new members joined and two died ,leaving a total of 118 at the end of May 2014. Eleven members didn’t rejoin, so the June 1, 2014, year started with 107 members.
To date, seven new members have joined and a Vandalia Day Unit member died in July, so the county membership in August now stands at 113.
Joining in June were Carol Behrends and Kelly Bruno for the Sefton Unit and Linda Rickman and Edith Runkel for the Vandalia Day Unit. Joining in August were Gena Diaber, Heaven Davis and Megan Runkel for the Vandalia Day Unit.
The chairman and secretary for each of the seven units in the county received a complete report that lists the members in each of the units, their phone number, address and the year they joined.
Several board members gave a report on attending the Aug. 21 District Workshop held in Effingham.
Each of the units received instructions for making sleeping mats made from plastic bags for the homeless.
Each of the units also received information on what the Cultural Enrichment, Family Issues and Community Outreach chairmen can report that their units collect during the year. Each unit doesn’t collect everything, some participate in a few of the collections and some units participate in many of the collections.
Cultural Enrichment collections are hand made items and include bears for hospital, garments for African children, autism blankets/pillows, lap robes for nursing homes, chemo caps, crafts for Relay for Life, book marks for library, nursing home favors, sleeping mats for homeless.
Family Issues collections include stamps for churches, card fronts, donations to local food pantries, Caring and Sharing, Vandalia Pregnancy Center, Christmas cards to vets, Valentines to vets, new clothing and other items to vets, items for women’s shelter, Pack the Backpack and water filters for water around the world.
Community Outreach collections include aluminum caps, can tops for McDonald’s, ink cartridges for schools, Box Tops for Education, various types of labels for school education, coded Coke tops for schools, old cell phones, plastic bottle lids, manufacture coupons for the U.S. air base in Japan, old shoes for Third World countries, old telephone books, eye glasses for Lions Club, sheets, etc., for veterinarians, used books for health department and used magazines for veterans, libraries and health department.
Units also received the October, November, December newsletters that are to be given to each of the members at the unit’s September meeting.
The meeting opened with the pledge of allegiance by Flo Allen, Panzi Blackwell, Shirley Klitzing of the Sefton Unit; Donna Blair, Carol Bridges, Ashley Davis, Joyce Mueller, Debbie Segrest and Anita Smith of the Vandalia Day Unit; Anna Jean Rhodes of the St. Elmo Unit; and Karen Hyde of the Wheatland Unit.
First Vice Segrest will schedule a meeting soon at the Extension Office for all the units’ first vice chairmen. They will decide on the programs for the 2015 year.
October 6-13 has been set for the Illinois Association of Home and Community Education HCE Week. Fayette County HCE will observe the week by giving a handmade quilt to the first baby born during the week (Oct. 6 or after). The quilt is being made by Klitzing.
After the close of the meeting, Allen, Klitzing and Bridges audited the Fayette County Extension books.
Those who ate lunch at Denny’s were Ashley Davis, Karen Hyde, Anna Jean Rhodes, Debbie Segrest and Anita Smith.
Each of the seven units in the county – Bingham/Ramsey, St. Elmo, St. Peter, Sefton, Vandalia Day, Wheatland and Wright’s Corner – welcome new members. Dues are $15; $10 stays in the county to help with the county expenses and $5 goes to IAHCE to help with the state expenses.
Lions Club
Caring and Sharing sponsored by the St. Elmo Lions Club has been set for Dec. 15-20. Applications will be taken from Nov. 1-15 at St. Elmo Foods and St. Elmo City Hall. Distribution will be made at the American Legion Home at 9 a.m. on Dec. 20.
This was the new business conducted at the Lions Club meeting held the evening of Aug. 25 at Mary Ann’s Restaurant. President Dave Maxey opened the meeting with all giving the pledge of allegiance and Pee Wee Denton giving the meal blessing.
Others present were Dave Cox, Don Crawford, John Crawford, Roger Fulk, Max Hollinshead, Holly Huffer, Mark Lash, Bob Lowe, Richard Lowe, Le Mar Marchman, Al Nevergall, Rex Reeder, Lloyd Stanley, Bob Wells, Will Williams and Randy Wolf.
The old business included giving thanks to Signature Label of Vandalia for donating PowerAid drink to the workers at the Aug.16 Fayette County Food Bank event at Pinnacle Foods.
The Labor Day Lions Club float was to be pulled by Holly Huffer with his tractor. The club had 65 pounds of candy to throw from the float.
 

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