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“Now unto Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.”

Ephesians 3:20 

This is Patty Sprague’s favorite scripture, which she feels has given her the strength through the years.

A visit to the Fayette County Fair-grounds Saturday afternoon found that, although the temperature was in the three-digit range, area 4-H kids were braving the heat to participate in the rabbit competitions.

David and Susan Oldham’s attention, time and interest had long been exclusively dedicated to the several donkeys that reside on their rural Vandalia homeplace.

• The year was 1908 – Theodore Roosevelt was president, Oklahoma was a new state coming into the Union, the average income was $490 a year, a loaf of bread cost five cents, the United States was in a depression, population in the U.S. was a little more than 87,000,000, and Mildred McDowell was born on Feb. 17.

The baton is passed on, from hand to hand,
As the race for the cure continues on,
And when the foe has been disarmed,
The survivors will have won.

For the dreaded disease is losing,
And the battle must continue on,
‘Till the words “cancer-free” ring around the world,
And that will be the survivors’ “Victory Song.”
 

“It is more blessed to give than receive.”
                Acts 20:35
Those are words that Don Thomas, pastor of the Brownstown United Methodist and Emmanuel United Methodist churches has always lived by.

Twelve years ago, Vicky Blackerby,  decided to give up teaching school for two very good reasons – her and husband Rob’s new twin babies.  

Winifred “Bud” Morrison will be the speaker at the final Lenten Luncheon, to be held at noon next Wednesday at First Baptist Church in Vandalia.

Morrison has been an active member for 45 years at First Christian Church in Vandalia, where he serves as an elder and vice president of the church board.
Over the years, he has served the church in various ways, including many years as a Sunday school teacher and Sunday school superintendent.
He and his wife, Carol, will celebrate 58 years of marriage on May 22.

As we continue on our tour of Downtown Vandalia’s stores and business opportunities, we visit Liberty Trading Store, which deals in coins and guns, and talk to Sam Flowers, who is multi-talented and “can do about anything he sets his mind to do.” That quote was not from Sam, who is more modest and quiet-spoken, but from others who know and work with him.
Liberty Trading & Sam
The son of Tony and Teresa Flowers, Sam grew up in Vandalia and graduated from Vandalia Community High School.