I spent part of this week hunting—not deer or birds—but three bulls. Thanks to Vernon Strutt they were finally captured. I never knew I was such a good tracker but decided you cannot stop a huge bull when he wants to go elsewhere.

The Stockton FFA recently swept the competition at the Northwest District Land and Homesite Judging Contest at Goodland. This qualifies both teams for the state competition next spring.

Deb Niermeier: “It was so much fun to get to watch my cousin’s son, Dalton Schoen, a K-State graduate, play in the Kansas City Chiefs’ pre-season games.” Linda Morgan: “Having moved here from Tennessee, I haven’t experienced a Kansas winter yet. What should I expect?” Lorrie Baxter, Cedar: “When Garry was in the service, the other guys in his barracks would grab the Rooks County Record and read it before he even got a chance to.”.

REPAIR WORK was done to the pour-in-place surface under the Stockton City Park’s playground equipment this past week. The surfacing was done approximately one year ago with it noted at that time that some work was still needed before it was completed.

STOCKTON HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 1986 held its 35th Class Reunion on September 18, 2021 at Webster Lake. Members of the class attending the event were: back row, from left: Doug Melton, Jack Kuhlmann, Chris Kriley, and Darrin Johnston; middle row: Tessie Ives, Traci Barry, Sheryl (Oliva) Kollman, Julie (Odle) Kriley, Sheri (Roy) Sammons, Melissa (Palmer) Robb, and Cherie (Thayer) Garcia; and front row: Doug Sander.

The first load brought into the Farmers Union Elevator in Stockton to start the fall harvest was by Don Lucky when he drove onto the scales on Monday, September 20th. Joey Bellerive was the first person to bring in a load at Woodston Coop on Friday, September 24th. Since then, Stockton has taken in 4,000 bushels of beans, 32,000 bushels of corn and 18,000 bushels of milo. Woodston has taken in 3,200 bushels of beans and 37,000 bushels of corn. As of Tuesday, September 28th no milo has been taken in at Woodston.

Did you know that some Stockton Grade School classrooms have class pets? Some classes have hermit crabs, others have guinea pigs; there are also hamsters in our building. Classes also have a bearded dragon, dogs and a fishless fish tank.

This is the first installment of “Our School” articles, written by Mrs. Andrea Dix’s fifthgrade study hall students. About every two weeks different students will write about what’s going on in school, from the students’ perspective. The first article focusing on “class pets,” was written by Stockton fifth-grade students Kinley Kester, Jolee Hill and Brooklyn Crouse. The Stockton Sentinel is pleased to spotlight these students and looks forward to the articles throughout the school year.

BE LIKE JESUS. The first verse of an old hymn says, "Oh! to be like Thee, blessed Redeemer, This is my constant longing and prayer; Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures, Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear." The question that we each would do well to ask ourselves is, "How much do I long to be like Jesus?" Likeness to the Lord Jesus is certainly God's goal for genuine Christians because He predestined us "to be conformed to the image of His Son" (Rom. 8:29). I remember reading about an old wood carver who gave a simple explanation of how he goes about carving ducks. He said something to the effect that you just cut away everything that doesn't look like a duck. After God brings a person to bonafide saving faith in His Son, He immediately starts carving. His Holy Spirit takes the knife of conviction and God's Word and starts cutting away profanity, blasphemy, and using God's name in vain out of our mouths. He again takes knife in hand and little by little cuts away some pride, boasting, and hypocrisy along with some greed and envy. For some, God's knife carves away alcohol and drugs and abusive behavior and neglect of family. You get the idea. This is the work of God in a life. God doesn't bring us to saving faith just to leave us like we are. Not even close. He actively transforms our thinking by renewing our minds (Rom. 12:2) so that we will more and more think like He thinks about our sin-fulness and His righteousness. But it's a process. A kid's song goes, "Growing in Christ takes work every day, Reading your Bible, learning to pray. Build Godly habits, seek help divine. Great things are done one step at a time." Do we really long to be like Jesus? Then we must pick up "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph. 6:17) and allow the Holy Spirit to cut away everything in our life that doesn't look like Jesus. Do we look like Jesus? If not, what all needs cut away so that we will?