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St. Elmo News

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Thursday, November 8
• Lunch Bunch, noon, Mary Ann’s Restaurant.
• The St. Elmo Library District Board, 7 p.m., St. Elmo Public Library.
• Effingham Chapter #110, Order of the Eastern Star, 7:30 p.m., Effingham Masonic Temple.
Friday, November 9
• Cub Scout Pack #444 spaghetti dinner and bake sale, 5-8 p.m., St. Elmo High School cafeteria. Joe’s Pizza and Pasta is donating spaghetti and sauce. The meal cost is $6 for adults and $4 for children ages 3-11; age 2 and under are free.
Proceeds from the dinner will go to the C.A.P.S. and the St. Elmo Food Pantry; bake sale proceeds will go to Pack #444. Also, non-perishable food items will be accepted for the food pantry.
Saturday, November 10
• A benefit for Kinley Walker, who is awaiting a kidney transplant, will be held in Luke’s Bar & Grill Texas Room in Altamont. A pork barbecue supper will be from 5-7 p.m. and a live auction is at 7:30 p.m.
There also will be a silent auction and raffles.
Sunday, November 11
• St. Mary’s Catholic Church’s annual turkey dinner, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
In addition to turkey, there will be all of the trimmings – dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetables and several kinds of salads and desserts. The cost is $8 for adults, $4 for children age 12 and under; preschoolers are free. Carry-outs are available by calling 829-3908.
• A cancer benefit for Billie Enlow will be held in the Brownstown Elementary Cafeteria, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. There will be a spaghetti dinner, 50/50 raffle, silent auction, dessert auction, servant auction and live music.
• Ministerial Alliance Thanksgiving service, 6 p.m., First Baptist Church. The speaker will be Rev. Jakob Barrientos of Freedom Reigns in Christ Church.
Monday, November 12
• St. Elmo Veteran’s Day flag ceremony at 11 a.m. at the Veteran’s Memorial.
• The St. Elmo Lions Club, 6 p.m., Mary Ann’s Restaurant.
Tuesday, November 13
• The Avena Township Park Board, 6 p.m., St. Elmo Community Park Centennial Building.
• American Legion Post #420, 7 p.m., American Legion Home.
• The Fayette County Board, 7 p.m., Fayette County Courthouse, Vandalia.
Wednesday, November 14
• Reverb Youth Group (grades 6-12), 6:30-8 p.m., St. Elmo Christian Church.
• Kid’s Klub (grades K-6), 7 p.m., First Church of God S.H.E.D.
Thursday, November 15
• The Vit-Em-In Sunday School Class is having a Thanksgiving dinner at 6 p.m. in the First United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall. The entire congregation is invited.
• The Threads of Friendship Quilt Club annual auction, 7 p.m., St. Elmo Public Library. Members are reminded to take to the meeting guests, finger foods and two items for the auction. There also is scheduled a round robin. Members are to take the finished walker bags to the meeting.
Haslett Obituary
Randell Haslett, age 85, of Scottsdale, Ariz., a former St. Elmo resident, died at 2:12 a.m. on Nov. 2, 2012. He was born on Feb. 13, 1927, to Harold and Emma Haslett and graduated in 1945 from the St. Elmo High School. His wife, Eileen Buzzard of St. Elmo, died in June 1996.
Survivors include a son, Brad of Anchorage, Alaska; and a daughter, Sharon Drake of Winberly, Texas.
November Exhibits at Fayette County Museum
Special exhibits in the Fayette County Museum in Vandalia, for November include World War II-Armistice Day Artifacts and Thanksgiving harvest displays.
In October, the Museum welcomed 284 visitors including many “treat-or-treat” children.
The museum gift shop has many items for gift shopping. Donations of one-of-a-kind-items, wren houses and bluebird houses have recently been added to the wide variety of inexpensive gift items.
Funds raised are used for the restoration of the upstairs.
Also another restoration fundraising project is the sale of raffle tickets for a red and white quilt measuring 100 inches by 116 inches.
Tickets are $1 each or six for $5 and may be purchased at the museum or from any board member.
For information, to order tickets, to schedule a group tour of the museum or to request a museum program at your group meeting, call the museum at 283-4466.
Fall museum hours are 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday through Saturday.
An Interesting True Story
Many stories are interesting. The following story tells about a Fayette County fellow who survived an accident that almost killed him, and how his life is being changed. This is about Christopher Mikeal Bauer of Shobonier, who was in a vehicle accident in the mountains in Wyoming on April 1, 2011, and tells of interesting coincidences.
He was driving a Freightliner that had a flat bed trailer hauling around 40,000 pounds of material.
At the top of the mountain on the back side of Yellowstone, he stopped and took pictures of the scenery.
Before he left on the trip, new brakes were installed on his truck. Before he left the mountaintop, he checked the brakes and they seemed to be fine.
Going down the 7-degree slope mountain he started building up speed.
He put the brake pedal to the floor, and the brakes were not working.
To his right, there was a sheer rock wall and to his left, a straight drop-off.
At a bend in the road, his vehicle went off the road, fell 250 feet down before crashing.
He doesn’t remember what happened, and he doesn’t know how long the accident happened before he was found.
The rescuers (who probably had been called by a motorist who saw the wreck) found him in a mud puddle, the only puddle of mud in the area.
He had fastened his seat belt, but it was found that the seat belt had been sliced as if cut by a knife.
The truck was completely flattened and if he had been in it, he would have been flattened too.
He said it seemed like a dream when he told his rescuers his name and gave them an Illinois phone number to call. An air flight took him to a small hospital, but because his injuries were critical, he was flown to a larger hospital, the Wyoming Medical Center at Casper.
The base of his skull to his shoulder was fractured. A top-rated Wyoming neck surgeon was visiting the hospital and he took on Chris’s case. To stabilize his neck, it was a very long time for the surgery. He had lost a lot of blood and the whole left side of his body suffered – his left arm wasn’t broken but the skin, nerves, etc., were gone.
He doesn’t remember how many days he was in intensive care, but when he was in the regular hospital room for three days, he was able to walk with help so then was transferred to the physical therapy facility for a week.
The EMT’s and flight crew visited him in the hospital and couldn’t believe he survived. They gave him a flight crew helicopter cap.
When he was discharged from the therapy clinic in Wyoming, he was flown back to Illinois and was in a wheelchair for awhile.
He had to go to the Fayette County Hospital for help with his arm – glass shards, etc. were still in the arm.
His arm had infection for at least three months and was stabilized in about a year.
The winter of 2011 he went to Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. His arm “funny bone” nerve was exposed.
On May 5, 2012, he went back to Barnes. A spinal surgeon took some bone from his hip to work on his neck.
The metal T-brace (skull down neck) was replaced with other metal pieces in neck area.
Chris says his head is “frozen” – he can’t turn it like he used to be able to. His left arm stays kind of bent and cannot be used as it should be.
Even though he has no feeling in his right leg, he says in other areas he is in pain constantly, but doesn’t take much pain medicine.
He says he is stubborn and has much determination.
Workman’s compensation has arranged for Chris to do volunteer work and in September, he started doing volunteer work each day at the Fayette County Museum in Vandalia.
He is training himself how to do the very simple tasks.
Parents of Chris, age 40, are Michael and Dianna Bauer of Shobonier. He was married, but was divorced after his accident.
He has two children, Patrick Mikeal, age 18, who is in Army National Guard training for ROTC and plans to attend in the spring a college in Bloomington.
Ashley Nicole, age 14, lives with her mother in Vandalia and is a Vandalia
Community High School freshman.
He is a member of Augsburg Immanuel Lutheran Church. Plans for his future are undetermined, but he does plan to go back to college.
Because of his accident, he has grown closer to God.
He feels that because his seat belt was sliced so he could be thrown from the truck that crashed 250 feet from the mountain top, that he landed in the only mud pond, that a top-rated neck surgeon was visiting the hospital the day he was admitted, that he survived a very-broken neck and now is able to do many things, God must have had a reason for him to live.
He has thought of possibly doing some mission work.
Zajicek Information
Frank Zajicek, a former agronomist at the Brownstown Experiment Farm, is a missionary for the South America Mission in Santa Maria, Columbia in South America.
He is married to a South American woman, Luz, and they have two children, Marie and Stevie.
A recent letter received from him follows:
Fall Season: From us to you a prayer for a joyful time of Thanksgiving!
Thank you for being on the team taking the Good News of Jesus Christ to the people of GAIRA!
In July Luz enlisted the help of three co-workers to form a new ministry to adolescent girls. Designed to show that the Bible message is relevant in their world, eight girls have committed to the weekly program.
Frank resigned recently from the Esperanza Church elder board in order to make room for a young local leader to serve in that post. Now Frank has more time for relating to local families through weekly visits.
Along with Pastor Julie and Luz, he is mentoring Deivis and Yeimi, a young couple with proven leadership skills. Frank encourages Jose Domingo and both share time leading a weekly Bible Study at our house.
Serving as director of the Esperanza Church Sunday School has allowed Luz to impact both teachers and kids. She continues to lead a weekly ladies group on the basics of the Christian faith. Along with two friends, Luz formed a sewing program for local ladies.
Stevie is advancing by leaps and bounds in both his OANSA assignments, as well as academic endeavors, especially in reading.
Marie is our goodwill, sweet smile ambassador. She has a reputation of a servant as well as an encourager.
Both are blessings to our lives.
Stevie reads his Bible, is learning to play soccer and helps Marie with homework.
Marie likes to entertain us and is a skilled sleeper. Both are precious gifts from God!
Thanks for praying for Marie. She has developed domestic skills while still finding academics less attractive.
Praise God for the relevant discipleship programs with both girls and boys in Gaira.
We are thankful for all those who participated in a recent health outreach in Gaira.
Please pray for the development of the couples ministry and Firm Foundation – Deep Roots Family ministry.
Women’s Civic Club
The program on “How to Get the Paper Out” for the Nov. 1 meeting of the St. Elmo Women’s Club was at the Devonian.
Connie Barnes, owner and editor, welcomed the members. Lettie Cameron was at one of the two computers to show the group how the newspaper is put together with layouts and designs.
She showed on the computer how pictures are used, how they can be altered and put in a certain space, how the news articles are arranged, etc.
Information for the weekly Devonian has to be put together by Tuesday afternoons so the information can be taken by 4 p.m. to The Leader-Union at Vandalia to be printed.
The papers are mailed or can be picked up on Wednesdays.
Brenda Feller works on the layout and design at the other computer. Kent Janes takes most of the pictures and does the sports news.
Proofreaders are Kathy Spitler (who writes the weekly library article) and Maybelle Barnes.
Cameron’s mother, Goldie Harris, was a guest at the program.
After the program, the following club members went to the St. Elmo Public Library for the business meeting and refreshments: Susan Belden, Karen Denning, Joyce Drees, Sheila Himes, Debbie Hough, Sharon Howard, Libby Kessel, Lucille Koeberlein, Mary Myers, Anita Pagel, Pat Porter, Anna Jean Rhodes and Elizabeth Stoner.
Porter opened the meeting with all giving the Club Collect and the pledge of allegiance.
Several members turned in cake, nut and candy orders to Rhodes.
The first order is being sent, but more orders will be accepted throughout November – any club member can be contacted.
Refreshments of apple cake with whipped topping, lemonade, raspberry-ade and coffee were served by Myers and Hough.
On Dec. 5, several of the club members will go to the Friendship Manor Nursing Home to decorate the Christmas trees.
On Dec. 6, the club will have a Christmas party at the Vandalia Ponderosa. They are to meet at St. Mary’s Catholic Church parking lot at 5:20 p.m. to carpool; they will eat at 6 p.m.  
Annual UM Church Conference
The annual Church Conference of the Wolf Creek Cluster of United Methodist Churches, Embarras River District, was held at the St. Elmo First United Methodist Church the evening of Oct. 28, with about75 in attendance.
District Superintendent Randy Reese of Effingham was in charge of the meeting.
Invited to attend the conference were lay members and ministers of the following churches in the Wolf Creek Cluster: Altamont First and circuit churches-Asbury, Dexter, Funkhouser and Salem; Brownstown/Emmanuel; St. Elmo First and circuit churches-Fairview and Trinity Chapel; and Vandalia Haley/ Luster chapels.
The sermon given by Rev. Reese was entitled “Extravagant Generosity.”
The church hymns sung by the congregation, with Joann Maxey at the piano, were “Go Make All Disciples,” “Pass It On” and “Here I Am, Lord.”
Those present from the churches affirmed God’s call into ministry by affirming the recommendations of the staff/pastor relations committee and administrative board of the persons called to ordained ministry, lay speaking and certified lay ministry; accepted the church various reports (parsonage, pastor, trustees, finance, etc); approved an order for the pastoral care of members; and adopted the order for the naming of the congregational leaders.
Following the service, all were invited to the Fellowship Hall for refreshments of many types of finger foods.
The table centerpieces of fall arrangements with humorous scarecrows were made by Rene Edwards, with assistance from Marilyn Sproat.
Elected to the St. Elmo First UMC official roll for 2013 are the following: Pastor Dan Laack; Secretary/Administrative Assistant and Church Treasurer Joni Springman; Church Council Chairperson Anna Jean Rhodes; Board of Trustees Chairperson Michael Maxey; Finance Committee Chairperson David Maxey; Nominations and Leadership Development Vice Chair Joann Maxey; Pastor Parish Chairperson Richard Lowe/Shannon Moss; Lay Leader and Lay Member of Annual Conference Delva Krost; Financial Secretary Brandi Maxey; Nurturing Ministries Representatives Rene Edwards. Rosemary Owen and Marilyn Sproat; Outreach Ministries Representative Kay Hanna; Cluster Representative and Coordinator of Camping Leatha Newberry; Church School Superintendents Shannon Moss/Andra Carson; Church Historian Kent Janes.
Required committee members follow: Committee on Finance-Chair David Maxey, Lloyd Stanley, Ed Lane, Kathy Spitler and Jackie Wright; Board of Trustees-Chair Michael Maxey, Helen Koonce, Dee Newberry, Sharon Belden and Max Atwood; Charge Conference on Staff Pastor-Parish Relations-Co-chairs Richard Lowe and Shannon Moss, Barb Lane, Leatha Newberry, Frank Krost, LeMar Marchman, Rosemary Owen, Bob Cox and Kent Janes; Committee on Nominations and Leadership Development-Vice Chair Joann Maxey; Linda Wolf, LeMar Marchman, Marilyn Sproat and Leatha Newberry; Other Committee Chairs-Head Usher Dee Newberry; Sound System Dee Newberry, Michael Maxey, Dylan Myers; Communion Stewards Linda Wolf, Leatha Newberry, Joann Maxey; and Auditor Max Atwood.
Gary Graham is a certified lay speaker.
 

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