Everyone who was lucky enough to attend the Stockton K-5 Spring Music concert on Tuesday, April 27th was treated to a musical extravaganza from the students. This concert was worth waiting for and was divided into two programs to make room for the families and friends to safely social distance.

The weekly reports were the first item on the agenda for the Rooks County Commission on Tuesday, April 27th with commissioners Tim Berland reporting that R Road had been graded and he had received some nice compliments about it. He has also talked with several people about the National Heritage Area designation who have asked him what the commissioners are doing about it. The commissioners plan to attend a KAC meeting on Wednesday, April 28th to discuss the project with other area commissioners. Several counties have already started working on Resolutions stating they are not in favor of being part of it. The commissioners have also contacted the State.

Rooks County currently has no active cases of COVID-19 in the county. This week the absenteeism rate is at 0.0% above the baseline from 2019-2020. The positive testing rate is at 2.8% this week. If you are interested in getting on the list to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, please call the Rooks County Health Department or your primary care physician.

The Nova Theatre will be closed this weekend so people can attend the Stockton High School Graduation and festivities and celebrate Mother’s Day. Next week’s movie (May 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th) will be “Mortal Kombat.” See you at the movies!

MAKING THEIR FIRST HOLY COMMUNION at St. Thomas Church on Sunday, April 25th were (from left): Grayson Mongeau, Tessa Look, Lily Yohon and Eli Atkisson.

Kristen (Hageman) and Joao Nunes de Almeida are excited to announce the birth of their daughter, born on March 20, 2021 at their home in London England. Alice Luisa Hageman Nunes de Almeida weighed 7.3 pounds and was 19" long. Proud grandparents are John and Cindy Hageman of The Woodlands, Texas and Justina and Luis Nunes de Almeida of Lisbon, Portugal. Greatgrandparents are Wilma Turnbull and the late Delaine Turnbull and the late Beverly and Chuck Hageman of Stockton. Alice also has one great-grandmother in Lisbon. Grandma Cindy just returned back to Texas after a two-week visit to London to see Alice Luisa.

PRIDE DAY was held on Wednesday, April 28th, with the eighth-grade class and high school students helping out with projects around the town. They painted the lines on Main Street, washed windows, picked up trash around the Fairgrounds, Methodist Church, Stockton Rec Center, and along some of the town’s streets, as well as cleaned up some individual properties, cleaned out the school flower beds, and put out the Main Street planters.

Steph Pfeifer: “The junior high boy pictured running the hurdles in last week’s paper is actually my grandson, Cameron Earl…and he placed first!” Rick Waters: “The firefighter identified as me in last week’s paper is in a lot better shape than I am. I don’t believe I could have done that job when I was 20, much less now!” Terry Odle: “I left Stockton at 10:00 on Sunday night, and three miles north of Plainville I had to pull off the highway for one hour because of the high wind and heavy rain.” Kathy Creighton: “Dennis and I have four generations of German Shorthaired Pointers as Lucy blessed us with 11 puppies on Sunday.

How do you conduct yourself when bad things happen? As long as things are going well, most of us conduct ourselves in a manner that would probably be considered Christian-like. But more is required of us. Philippians 1:27 tells us, “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” Did you catch that? Whatever happens.

BALLS AND STRIKES. The Lord Jesus was no doubt the most gracious man to ever walk this earth. Matthew said of Jesus, "A bruised reed He will not break" (12:20; a Messianic prophecy from Isaiah 42:3). The Apostle Paul spoke of "the meekness and gentleness of Christ" (2 Cor. 10:1). Jesus Himself stated, "I am gentle and lowly in heart" (Matt. 11:29). Though He created the universe, yet, in His humanity, He was meek and humble toward the humanity whom He came to serve. Despite that inner character, Jesus still "spoke truth to power." In other words, He spoke the truth to those in power, i.e. the proud, hypocritical spiritual leaders in Israel. And Jesus always called balls and strikes. Interestingly, even the best baseball umpires make bad calls about 14% of the time. And their bad calls tend to especially benefit high profile pitchers and hitters. However, the Lord Jesus never skewed the strike zone and never made a wrong call. After healing a demon-possessed man who was both blind and mute, the Pharisees said of Jesus, "This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons" (Matt. 12:24). Jesus responded, "Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things" (Matt. 12:34-35). Umpire Jesus called, "STRIKE!" They couldn't deny Jesus' power to heal because the man could now see and talk. Yet they still linked Jesus to Satan. Why? Because their hearts were evil. They claimed to serve God, but they themselves were actually the ones who were blind and serving Satan. We need to ask, "How's MY heart? Am I blind, also? Am I actually serving Satan?" Our Umpire will speak the truth. But do we have ears to hear? Will we humbly act on the truth He speaks and bow our knee to Him, if that's our need?