Wise County High School Consolidation

High School students in Wise County will notice big changes when they return to school. The school system has finished consolidation an has decreased from six to three high schools. Due to consolidation, students can expect longer bus rides with the average ride spanning from one half to a full hour.

Immanuel Baptist Holds Block Party

Mike Guinn will be holding a block party at his church, Immanuel Baptist, on Saturday, August 13th from two until six in the evening. The event will include fun for the whole family including: inflatables, obstacle courses, and slides along with food, puppets, and singing. You can learn about local ministries at the event as well. Immanuel Baptist Church is located across the street from Kiwanis Park on Hunter Avenue in Elizabethton.

Local Park in National Coca-Cola Contest

The Sycamore Shoals State Historic Site in Elizabethton is currently in fourth place in a contest to win a $100,000 grant from the Coca-Cola Company. The contest will also give away a $50,000 and $25,000 grant to second and third place parks based upon a vote currently being held online at www.livepositively.com. The same person can vote up to 100 times per hour. Sycamore Shoals appreciates your votes.

Local Ministry Seeks Help

A local ministry is struggling to stay open. Good Samaritan Ministries in Johnson City is running out of money to help people in need. They also are running out of food and clothing donations to help those in need. They are having to lay off employees due to a lack of money to stay open. If you would like to donate to the ministry, you can contact them at the addresses and telephone below:

100 North Roan Street

Johnson City, TN

423-928-0288

http://www.goodsamjc.org/

Grocer Sells Local Eggs

For years, the local grocer Food City has provided local produce in its stores, but now consumers will be able to get local eggs. The company has partnered with family owned Dutt & Wagner. The move will provide fresher eggs and save money in gasoline as Food City formerly received eggs from a company in Ohio. The new local eggs will be sold under Food City’s own brand names including Food Club and Value Time.

Local Post Offices Shut Down

In an effort to save money the Postal Service is considering closing some of its smaller post offices. Some of those are in our region. A few being considered for closing are in Mendota and Whitetop, VA and in Flag Pond, TN. The Postal Service would like to replace them with what they call village post offices, which are postal services provided inside of stores or government offices.

Funfest 2011

It’s Funfest time in Kingsport. The city will have many events for residents and visitors throughout the month. Funfest 2011 ends on July 27.

Tammy Dicken's Malta Mission Trip

Last July, we told you about the mission trips of Calvary Baptist Church to Malta. This year's visit, which was completed earlier this month, changed the life of a new member of the mission team. After years of praying for Malta, this year God allowed Tammy Dicken to finally meet the people she had been praying for. She soon realized how badly they needed to hear about Christ. Tammy told us that the Maltese believe that Mary was in the tomb for three days before rising. They believe that she is equal to Jesus. She later found that her calling would be in missions through a series of events beginning months before the trip to Malta through a course on the subject and a vision she had. In the vision, Tammy was having her father's funeral while on mission. The people of the village she was at told her how thankful they were that she had left her earthly family for a while so that they could be a part of the heavenly family. While in Malta, Tammy was able to visit an African refugee camp. The people at the camp were the same people who had been in her vision months prior. One woman at the refugee camp showed a true sacrifice by giving Tammy her entire days ration of water when she believed Tammy was thirsty. That bottle of water ended up becoming very valuable as it pushed her luggage over the weight limit and cost her a total of €145, an equivalent to $210. The Malta team later visited a shrine that is dedicated to Mary. That experience led her to surrender to God and become a full time missionary, but she stresses that missions is every Christian's responsibility. She says that there are people right around the corner who need to hear about Christ.

Upcoming Sports Camp

If you have children interested in sports, there is an event coming up for you. Calvary Baptist Church will be hosting a sports camp for children entering first through seventh grades. The camp begins on Monday and will last through Friday from 8:00 to 4:30 each day.

Schools Closing Early Due to Heat

A few schools in Virginia will be closing early this week.

GRAYSON COUNTY SCHOOLS
Closing at 1 p.m. on Wednesday

SMYTH COUNTY SCHOOLS
Closing 2 hours early (Rest of Week)

WISE COUNTY SCHOOLS
Closing at 12:30 p.m. (Rest of Week)

Area Vacation Bible School

Calvary Baptist Church’s VBS is this week. This year’s theme is Big Apple Adventure. The VBS will continue through Thursday from 6:15 to 8:45pm.

Helping Local Tornado Victims

After the severe weather and tornadoes in April, many people are trying to help the storm victims. WCYB-TV will be airing a special program tonight at seven o’clock with information on how to help.

Feeding Needy Children

A program in Washington County, VA is helping out children who cannot afford to eat during the weekends away from school. In the program sponsored by the United Way, volunteers will be packing backpacks full of food for the children over the weekends. With a $1500 check from the United Way, a new school was added recently for a total of three in the program. A similar program in Carter County is sponsored by a local church and serves children at T.A. Dugger Jr. High and Happy Valley Middle Schools.

New Christian Film in Theatres

This Friday, a new film will premier based upon Bethany Hamilton the surfer whose arm was bitten off by a shark in 2003. The film, entitled Soul Surfer, with be about how Bethany got through her ordeal with her faith in God.

Global Youth Service Day

Many Tri-Cities residents’ lives will be affected on Saturday, April 16 when hundreds of local youth will be gathering together to make a difference in their community. The annual Global Youth Service Day will be hosted by Milligan College. Youth participating will help out at area charitable organizations including Coalition for Kids and the Second Harvest Food Bank. More information is available online at www.gysd.org. To sign up visit www.milligan.edu/gysd.

Carter County Changes High School Schedule

The Carter County School Board has approved a change in their high school scheduling. Currently Carter County Schools have five fifty-five minute classes with a sixth ninety minute class that changes every semester. In order to meet new credit requirements, they decided to switch to an eight period modified block schedule. They turned down a proposal to have four ninety minute semester long classes, saying that it would cause difficulty in years where they have many snow days. This year is one of those years as the system has had so many snow days that they will make up any new snow days on Saturdays.

Missionaries Murdered by Somali Pirates

Four American missionaries were murdered on Tuesday after having been captured by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. The pirates are believed to have killed the captives in retaliation of United States officials who had killed and imprisoned pirates in the past. People who will be sailing in the area are cautioned to beware of pirate activity as pirates have been reported to be as far away from Somalia as 1600 miles.

Storm Spotter Training Classes

Last February, we told you about a storm spotter class being hosted by the National Weather Service. Today at ten, WCYB and the weather service hosted another at the Kingsport Centre for Higher Education. If you missed it more classes will be held in Greeneville, Mountain City, Harriman, Athens, Cleveland, and Sweetwater. For details visit the National Weather Service's Storm Spotter Class page.

Storytelling Center Files for Bankruptcy

The International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Due to relying almost entirely on its annual storytelling festival along with the recession the Storytelling Center lost the ability to function financially. Therefore, the Center filed for bankruptcy to relieve its debts. It hopes to rise from this stronger than ever.

New Exhibit at Fossil Site

The Gray Fossil Site is introducing a new exhibit. The exhibit is similar to one they had several years ago of a Tyrannosaurus Rex that was very popular. This one, entitled, “Building Triceratops”, will be an exhibit of them building the model of the dinosaur. It gives visitors the opportunity to see the creation of a dinosaur exhibit. The Gray Fossil Site is open every day from 8:30am until 5pm.

Tennessee's New Governor

Former Knoxville mayor, Bill Haslam, was sworn in as Tennessee’s governor last Saturday. In his inaugural speech, he stressed the need for education reform and the need to improve Tennessee’s economy and healthcare. He is now Tennessee’s 49th governor and replaces Phil Bredesen.

Golden Voice

Ted Williams, dubbed “The Man with the Golden Voice”, appeared on the Today Show recently to tell the story of how he jumped from homeless to famous overnight. Williams was formerly a radio announcer until he got into drugs and alcohol. He was homeless on the street corner until a reporter ran into him one day. His voice was so good that the report spread across the internet overnight. Williams now has many job offers. In his Today Show interview, he said that after discovering God in the past year, he had been praying that his mother would live to see him get back on his feet. He says he is now giving much thanks to God.

Shooting at Congressional Meet and Greet

Six people were left dead after a shooting in Tucson, AR. The shooting was targeting Representative Gabrielle Giffords who was holding an event to meet her constituents. Several people showed acts of heroine at the event including several people who wrestled the gunman down to stop the massacre.

The victims included:
Christina-Taylor Green was a nine-year-old who was born on September 11, 2001.
Dorothy Morris attended the event with her husband George.
Federal Judge John Roll Gabe Zimmerman was one of Rep. Giffords’s aides and had recently become engaged.
Dorwin Stoddard was a well respected member of a local Church of Christ.
He died blocking his wife from gunfire.
Phyllis Schneck was a 79-year-old great grandmother.

An Extremely Snowy Winter

Snow has been blasting the Tri-Cities region for weeks now. It is not anywhere near to an end. Snow is in forecast for the foreseeable future. Towns are beginning to run out of salt for the roads, and schools are running out of snow days.

Chris Vaughn Finishes First Semester at Hillsong

On the April 29th of last year, we told you about Chris Vaughn who had strayed away from God, but was now returning. He wanted to be a worship leader, so he decided to go to Hillsong College. Chris has now completed his first semester at Hillsong, and is at home for the holidays.