In difficult times, some people gain focus and are able to concentrate on the immediate task at hand. Conversely, other people, when faced with the same crisis, lose all focus. Such was the case this week as we looked at Chapter 19 of The Story taken from the books of Ezra and Haggai.

Jonah Smith of Plainville was one of 16 students from the Northwest District FFA who was awarded their State FFA Degree during the virtual 92nd Kansas FFA Convention, May 27-29, 2020.

HELPING HAND OUT THE FREE LUNCHES for the Stockton School District during the COVID quarantine, and now through the month of June, are food service official Leslie Knoll, custodian Derry Dibble, volunteer Glen Buss and custodian Diana Strutt. (Not pictured is custodian Tialisa Muir who also helps out during the noon hour.) The free lunches are part of a USDA Food Service Program and are for children up to the age of 18. Stockton averages 100 or more lunches a day and meals are handed out Monday through Thursday starting at 11:30 a.m. People are asked to drive up behind the school from the highway and exit through the alley between the high school and junior high school buildings. Custodian Kenton Heckman delivers the free lunches to the Woodston area.

At the end of the Stockton USD 271 Board of Education meeting held on Monday, June 1st, the board members approved supplemental contracts for Tricia Hemphill as the junior high assistant girls basketball coach; Addie Holmes as the sophomore class sponsor; Bobbi Basart as the KAYS sponsor; and Justin Basart as summer maintenance help.

CUSTODIAN DIANA STRUTT hands over a free lunch sack to one of the parents in the drive-through pickup located behind Stockton High School. The free lunches will be served Monday through Thursday throughout the month of June.

Deans at Fort Hays State University have named 1,802 students to the Dean’s Honor Roll for the spring 2020 semester.

Rev. Lyle and Jeanne Miller will be celebrating their 70th Wedding Anniversary on June 11. Rev. Lyle is currently serving the Cedar Christian Church at Cedar, KS. He has served churches at Kensington, Burr Oak, Scandia, Beloit Girl’s Home, Winfield, Stockton-Woodston, and Rose Valley.

Ruth Ann Bigge: “Hats off to our school lunch heroes who are serving such good lunches to our kids this summer.”

Madeleine Singleton of Palco was named to the University of Sioux Falls’ Spring 2020 Dean’s List. Singleton is majoring in Nursing.

TITANIC. We all know the sad story. The ship that, "not even God can sink," set off on its maiden voyage on April 10, 1912 with about 2,224 passengers and crew on board. The fateful moment took place four days later at 11:40 p.m. when the ship's hull was crushed inward opening and flooding 5 of the ship's 16 watertight compartments. The ship could have survived had only 4 been compromised. Some 1,500 people sadly perished. Mostly forgotten in history, though, were the actions of Scottish pastor, John Harper. After the ship was struck, he wrapped his young daughter in a blanket telling her that she would see him again one day and turned her over to a crewman to take to the lifeboats. Knowing he was secure in Jesus, he took off his life vest and gave it to a needy soul and went about shouting, "Women, children and the unsaved into the lifeboats!" and personally pleading with people to turn to Christ. Four years later a fellow Scot, Aquila Webb, gave testimony at a church, saying, "I am a survivor of the Titanic. When I was drifting alone on a spar that awful night, the tide brought Mr. John Harper of Glasgow, also on a piece of wreck, near me. ‘Man,’ he said, ‘Are you saved?’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘I am not.’ He replied, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.’ The waves bore him away; but, strange to say brought him back a little later, and he said, ‘Are you saved now?’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘I cannot honestly say that I am.’ He said again, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,’ and shortly after he went down; and there, alone in the night, and with two miles of water under me, I believed. I am John Harper’s last convert." Yes, John Harper perished in those frigid waters, however, his death was not in vain. What an example of how to live in dying! If John Harper were still alive, his message for us today would be the same, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved!