Written by Zach Hedrick, SMT Writer
Dexter, Missouri - Celebrate Recovery (CR) is forming in Stoddard County once again. Living Water Worship Center in Bloomfield is launching this program on September 12th, 2012 and will hold a service for CR every Wednesday night at six o’clock.
Celebrate Recovery is a Christ-based program that helps you get over your “hurts, hang-ups, and habits”. Although it is similar to a twelve-step-program, the founder of CR believed that Alcoholics Anonymous was missing something: Jesus Christ. With services and minds centered on the Bible, CR has a success rate of nearly 85%.
Living Water Worship Center plans to reach out and touch many lives in the local area. The leader of this program is Bryan Gentry, a former member of Celebrate Recovery. He believes the program will be a great success and many lives will be changed.
“My wife, Tish, and I, are Ministry Leaders for Celebrate Recovery at Living Water Worship Center. CR is a Christ centered recovery program that helps people deal with and recover from all kinds of issues that make our lives become unmanageable,” Gentry explains. “Married for 28 years, Tish and I have always felt God's call on our lives to serve together in ministry. We had no idea that I would end up struggling with alcoholism that took our family to a very low place. Knowing God was the answer, He helped me make the decision to turn around. Celebrate Recovery and His Amazing Grace has kept me sober for three and a half years. God has given Tish and me the burden for others to find sobriety and healing for the entire family. With Celebrate Recovery, God will bring victory and healing for life's hurts, hang-ups and habits, including life controlling addictions.”
Living Water Worship Center reaches out helping hands to those lost or in need. With God’s grace and much needed support, many lives will be altered. Even those without “hurts, habits, or hang-ups” are welcomed and are offered a chance to have a closer walk with God.
Services will start on September 12th, beginning with Praise and Worship. Two different services will be held each night, one large group meeting and many smaller group meetings. Small group meetings are broken down into chemical dependency and life struggles, each lead by a different staff member of the church.
After services, members have a chance to get to know each other during fellowship at the Solid Rock Café, which will be held in the church’s fellowship hall. Small snacks and drinks will be served every Wednesday night. This allows members to talk one-on-one with other people or leaders, just in case they do not feel comfortable talking about certain topics in small group sessions.
CR also offers programs for the youth and kids. Teens and kids will both have their own groups and younger children will be taken care of in the nursery. The youth group leader, Josh Gilbert, is excited about the youth becoming part of this big change in the church.
“Celebrate Recovery isn't just a great program created to help those addicted to drugs or alcohol,” says Gilbert, “It's also a program to help and prepare teens for the world that lies ahead. Living Water Worship Center wanted to give our youth every opportunity to live their lives the way God intended. Our youth face challenges now at a younger age, and if the church can prepare or help them then that's what we're going to do. I'm excited to see what God has in store for us through this program.”
Article Written by
Jessica Snider SMT Writer
Eighty years ago a very special tradition began in Dexter, MO. The very first Miss Dexter pageant was held in 1932. As we’ve seen this weekend, this tradition is still going strong in the town of Dexter. People of all ages still anticipate this annual pageant.
Mary Ulen was part of the first Miss Dexter court. Mary was born in 1914 in Essex, MO. She then was raised in Dexter.
Mary couldn’t recall how many girls were in the pageant since it was eighty years ago, but she remembers being very excited. She was seventeen-years-old at the time of the pageant.
All the gowns worn by the first Miss Dexter court were borrowed. Mary says, “It was during the depression and no one had the money to buy one.”
Ms. Mary Ulen’s sister had a good job at the time of the pageant, and that is whom Mary borrowed her formal dress from. “The dress was Apricot Chiffon Velvet. It was very pretty,” Mary recalls of her dress worn in the pageant.
The above photo is the top five in the first Miss Dexter Pageant. Mary Ulen is pictured on the front row to the left.
Mary Ulen was not only a beauty queen, but was very athletic as well. Mary played basketball on her high school team and says she was a pretty good player and loved the sport. After Ms. Ulen started talking about her high school years she joked, “I majored in fun.”
Mary says, “We all need to have fun, but always be of service to others.”
Mary Ulen went to nursing school and then became a registered nurse. After becoming a registered nurse, Mary got a job working for Dr. Hoxie. Dr. Hoxie was an ear, nose, and throat specialist. His office was in Poplar Bluff, and Mary says she did everything in the office.
Mary Ulen is now ninety-eight years old and is still very active and witty. Mary has lived at Central Gardens Residential Care in Dexter for several years. When asked about living at Central Gardens, Mary says, “I’m right where I need to be. I love it here.”
The photo on the right is Ms. Ulen at age ninety-eight living at Central Gardens.
Ms. Ulen has had a good life with lots of ups and downs. She says we wouldn’t appreciate the ups if we didn’t have the downs.
Every evening before supper, Ms. Ulen is known to stand at her table and ask the blessing before partaking in the meal.
As seen in the photo, the style of dresses worn has changed quite a bit over the eighty-years, but the beauty remains throughout the years of each Miss Dexter pageant.
Around the middle of September, a new Medicare handbook will be mailed to everyone who is on Medicare. This book contains lots of information that can answer many of your questions about Medicare; what’s new, what Medicare covers and your Medicare rights.
You will remember that the open enrollment for prescription drug plans begins Oct. 15 and ends December 7. Sometime shortly before that you will receive information from your present plan telling you what the premium is changing to, what drugs will be covered during the coming year and what the deductible will be, if any.
After Jan. 1 we always have a few folks come into our office saying that they did not know that their premium was going to be so high, or that a particular drug that they take will not be covered. For many people, there is nothing we can do to help because the open enrollment has closed. So please watch your mail for any information from your drug plan because it could make a big difference in what you pay for medicine next year.
Once you check out what the new costs will be (as long as it’s before Dec.7) if you are not happy with what you learn be sure and contact us at the Southeast Missouri Area Agency for Aging at 1-800-392-8771. We will be happy to help you see if there is a better plan.
Please also remember open enrollment when people are looking at new drug plans is a very good time for the scam artist to kick into high gear. They may be calling you telling you they are from Medicare and need your personal information (They are not!) Medicare has all your personal information that they need. They may tell you they are from your insurance plan asking for personal information. (They are not!) Your insurance plan has all your personal information they need.
Don’t give people who call or come to your door uninvited any information, period. Let’s all band together to make it so hard for scam artists that they finally give up and have to go out and get a real job just like we have done all our life!
Students named to the list earned at least a 3.5 grade point average on a 4.0 scale and completed at least six degree credit hours during the summer session.
The following students from the ShowMe Times readership area made the list:
ADVANCE
Audrey M. Camren
Cory J. Cooper
Kendra N. Kalish
Katherine K. Touchette
Daryl G. Wade
BERNIE
Jeremy Algood
BLOOMFIELD
Lynn N. Brashear
Judi D. Hampton
Matthew T. Tompkins
DEXTER
Joseph B. Adams
Ashley J. Cogle
Whitney L. Hickman
Kody A. Hindman
Amelia M. Jibben
Ashley N. Long
Wesley D. Montgomery
Sarah D. Rinehart
Paulla K. Terrill
Logan B. Watson
ESSEX
James E. Cobb
PUXICO
Leigh M. Burch
Austin K. Doublin
Congratulations to all students! To view the full list, click here.
A ShowMe Times reader notified me this morning, via SMT's Facebook page, that the 'Bottle Caps For Chemo' activity outlined in the story was believed to be a hoax.
After reading the supplied source material and my own further research, this activity is indeed exactly that - a hoax.
According to a press release from the American Cancer Society - click here to view the full release - this hoax originated in 2008 in Virginia, and has spread across the nation in various forms.
The ShowMe Times and it's staff apologize for presenting our readers with false information in this instance, and will strive to not allow it to happen again.
- Andrew Cato
