Terry Odle: “Since selling my Stockton home and my Salina home, I have stayed at the Phillipsburg motels and at six of the major hotel chains in Hays. I am now staying at the M Motel in Stockton under ownership and management. Of the 10 motels, the M Motel is by far the best.”

Nutrien Ag Solutions sponsored the Tallest Corn Plant Contest, which was open to all kids ages 2 to 18 years of age during this year’s Rooks County Free Fair. Winners were announced with Sutton Ludwig taking top honors. Reed Stamper and Isaac Stamper placed second and third. There were a total of 12 entries. Congratulations to the winners!

THE SHS CLASS OF 1976 gathered at the V.F.W. on Saturday, August 14th. The entire gang, including teachers and spouses who attended, were front row, from left: Kay and Bob Reed, Francis Mahoney, John Lowry, Tammy Atwill, Gina (Mahoney) Dix , Vicky (Emery) Peterson, and Cindy (Ballard) Merritt; and back row, from left: John Eichelberger, Patti Hollern-Eichelberger, Linda Waters, Jeri (Bennett) Atwood, Rick Waters, Vicki and Alan Green, Francia and Eric Bird, Jack and Sheryl Oliva-Kollman, Jeannie and Chris Hrabe, Marta (Odle) Johnston , Mark Dix, Donna Rae (Spencer) Guidry, David Peterson, Tricia (Robinson) Morgan and Dwight Vanderlip.

THE CLASS OF 1976 was joined at their 45th reunion by a couple former members of the SHS staff, Bob Reed and Francis Mahoney. Pictured, front row, from left are: Bob Reed, Francis Mahoney, John Lowry, Tammy Atwill, Gina (Mahoney) Dix, Vicki (Emery) Peterson, and Cindy (Ballard) Merritt; and back row, from left: Patti Hollern-Eichelberger, Rick Waters, Alan Green, Eric Bird, Jack Kollman, Chris Hrabe, Marta (Odle) Johnston, Donna Rae (Spencer) Guidry, Tricia (Robinson) Morgan, and Dwight Vanderlip.

THE ZOOM CREW! Tricia Morgan was instrumental in organizing a Zoom meeting for several classmates who were unable to attend. Those Zooming with the reunion attendees were: top row, from left: Nancy (Cunningham) Scollon, Nancy (Tillerson) Lee , Dr. Donna Griebel and lower Jeannie (Smith) Wark and Michelle (Chesney) and Leon LeSage.

In the ongoing effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the region, free vaccinations were offered to fairgoers at the recently concluded Rooks County Free Fair. Using funding from grants made by the Kansas Leadership Center, volunteers from the Rooks County Health Department (RCHD), Post Rock Family Medicine and Rooks County Health Center (RCH) were able to give out 95 vaccinations during the event at the fair.

THE STOCKTON HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 1971 gathered on Friday and Saturday, August 13 and 14, for their 50-year class reunion. The group met at Nancy Muir’s home on Friday evening for a social, and then went down to take in the Fair. On Saturday afternoon they toured the high school before meeting at the home of Randy Baughman for a potluck dinner. Classmates enjoying the occasion were, sitting from left: Shelly (Simons) Lewis, Dee (Bates) Wicks, Dana (Muir) Fisher, Janine (Sutton) Gilbert, and Charlotte (Dryden) Dillingham; second row, from left: Randy Baughman, Vickie (Hollern) Maddy, Judy (Towns) Long, Julie (Desbien) Norris, Pat Desbien, Rhonda (Miller) Harrison, and Kathy (McComb) Rees; third row, from left: Mike Rogers, Patrick Morrissey, Chris McDonald, Jack Gager, David Baxter, Yvonne (Sammons) McCue, Lynn Miller, Kay (Jones) Lawrence, Greg Mahoney, Phyllis (Walker) Gengler, and Janice (Kriley) Kelly; and back row, from left: Jerry Gaines, Luann (Chamberlain) Stephenson and Larry Riffel.

There were great numbers of cars for the two nights of stock car races held during the Rooks County Free Fair as well as for the Demo Derby, considering everyone was still coming out of Covid-19 restrictions. The following are the results of each night of racing starting with Wednesday night, August 11th: SPORT MOD: 1. Tyler Watts and 2. Luke Stallbaumer; MODIFIED: 1. Tim Watts, 2. Trevor Geist and 3. Tyler Sutton; and STOCK CAR: 1. Tathan Burkhart, 2. Troy Burkhart and 3. Jason Rogers. Hobby Stocks qualified for the big show, which was held on Thursday evening.

You may very well be familiar with Ephesians 2:10 which says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Now while we could spend an entire sermon talking about that one verse, Pastor Brian this week took us back to the beginning of Chapter 2 to look at the verses leading up to this more wellknown verse.

OH FOR A GODLY KING! It's difficult to watch all that is going on in our country and the direction our "king" is leading us. The news seems to get worse every day. Politicians make statements and decisions that defy logic, common sense, and reality. These statements and decisions oftentimes certainly don't square up with Biblical truth. In fact, what we see almost seems like a mad dash away from God and from His Word. It's easy to understand why some (many?) people face great discouragement or even depression. As a Bible-believing Christian, one of my favorite anchors to keep me rightly focused spiritually is James 1:2-3 - "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into and are surrounded by various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience/endurance." Think of it this way. Satan can send a boatload of trials into our lives that completely surround us like an angry mob, but he can't put a roof over us and thus we can always access God. In fact, God uses such occasions to grow our faith by causing us to thus look to Him that He might show Himself mighty on our behalf. Yes, we are living in a time of growing godlessness that is bringing God's judgment, but we have every reason to rejoice in Him. In 2 Chronicles 20:6, when a huge army was coming against godly King Jehoshaphat and Judah, the king publicly prayed, "O LORD God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You?" God answered: "Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the LORD to you: 'Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's.'" When was the last time you saw our "king" fall to his knees publicly and lead our country to beg God for His help? Oh that we had such a king!