The mission groups and Sunday school classes at Earle’s Grove Baptist Church, Westminster, recently joined efforts to prepare 71 Buckets of Hope for Haiti. Pictured with the buckets is pastor James Dyar.
Westside Baptist Church, Chester, honored four of its members on Feb. 28 for 50 years of service. Pictured are (l to r) Betty McManus, pianist; Olan Revis Sr., men’s Sunday school teacher; Clifford Craig, choir director; and Edith McLendon, women’s mission director. Each was presented with a certificate of service and proclamation stating their dedication to Westside, and a dinner was held in their honor following the service.
Harvey Hyatt (center) was recently ordained to the ministry by Round Hill Baptist Church, Lexington. Pictured with Hyatt are deacon chairman Don McManus (left), presenting a Bible on behalf of the church, and Don Turner, sharing the ordination certificate. Hyatt is active in community ministry, and is the fourth person in 10 years to surrender to the ministry at Round Hill.
Center Baptist Church, Hemingway, recently recognized Annie Miller Collins for her years of devotion to the church. Born March 20, 1910, she is the first member of the church to reach the age of 100. She lived many years next door to the church parsonage and has seen many pastors come and go. Before the parsonage was built in the late 1950s, the house she shared with her late husband, Durham Collins, was always open for Sunday dinner for visiting pastors. Now a resident of Honorage Nursing Center in Florence, she sings “Jesus Loves Me” every day and inquires about the health of those around her. Her family attributes her longevity to Exodus 20:12 (“Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee”) and to her kindness toward others.
Karen Fletcher (front, left), of the group SeraphSong, presents Polly Davis, director of volunteer services at Connie Maxwell Children’s Home, with a check following their March 6 concert on the Greenwood campus of the children’s home. SeraphSong: The Singing Women of South Carolina is composed of women in ministry who serve through their music several times a year in churches and other venues.
The children of Memorial Baptist Church, Olar, held their eighth annual Connie Maxwell Children’s Home Valentine fund raiser Feb. 7. A total of $1,325 was collected in shoeboxes decorated by the children. Those who collected the most money were crowned king and queen. Colin Carter was crowned king and Taylor Lyons was crowned queen.
The members of Olanta Baptist Church, Williamsburg Association, recently held their annual “Blast from the Past,” celebrating a different part of the church’s past each year. This year’s theme was “Hee Haw for Christ,” and was hosted by the Brotherhood, the WMU, the children’s group, and the youth group. The congregation says it is their goal to “share God’s love and show that Christians can have a merry heart and good time while doing so, thus fulfilling Proverbs 17:22: ‘A merry heart doeth good like a medicine,’?” and that it is a “great way for the entire church to work together for the glory of God.” Pictured are most of the Hee Haw “cast,” which included pastor John Myers Graham as Junior Samples and his wife Pam as “the Southern belle,” as well as several deacons, Sunday school teachers, the music director and others.
Glenn Rusher, right, retired as pastor of Bethany Baptist Church, Spartanburg, on Jan. 31. He was pastor of Bethany for the past 21 years, and prior to that served in Stone Mountain, Ga. Rusher and his wife Sandy, center, were honored with a retirement luncheon on Feb. 7. Pictured with the Rushers is deacon chairman Steve Cromer. Herbert Garrett Jr. is currently serving as interim pastor at Bethany.