Feeding Local Children

Over forty-five percent of students in northeast Tennessee are a part of the government’s free and reduced lunch program. Many of these children receive little or no food outside of school.Through a partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank, Hale Community Ministries helps to alleviate the problem by providing weekend food for children in Carter County. Each package of food is packed at Second Harvest and brought to Hale. A package provides two weekends of food for each child in the program. One of Hale’s biggest struggles with the program however is funding, especially for the small Range Elementary School. The backpack program is incredibly important to the students and faculty of Range as the school has a high number of students who live in poverty. Over 97% of their students have free or reduced lunch. Hale Community Ministries has enough money for Range for this year, but they need a sponsor for next year. The cost is $93 per child for a total of $3,069 for Range's thirty-three children in the program. If you would like to sponsor or donate, contact Hale Community Ministries at 423-547-2560.

Johnny Wood Retires

The Tri-Cities said good-bye to a legend on Friday. WCYB-TV’s long time anchor Johnny Wood with and hour long news broadcast at the Paramount Theatre. Johnny Wood had worked at WCYB for forty-four years beginning in 1968.

Early Morning Fight Leaves One Dead

One teenager is dead and another is in serious condition following a fight early Sunday morning. It happened at a house on Cash Hollow Road in Carter County. Five teenagers were at the house when they began to fight about a female who was with them. The fight was taken into the yard when fourteen-year-old Nicolas Willen took out a knife and stabbed seventeen-year-old Elijah McKinney and another teen. McKinney died. The other teen is at the Johnson City Medical Center in critical condition. Willen and his cousin fled the scene. Willen is charged with second degree murder, and his cousin was charged with tampering with evidence. Two adults were home at the time but were sleeping. Police say alcohol was involved.

Upcoming Bible Studies

There are several Bible studies coming up for area teenagers.

Several churches in Carter County have teamed together for the Crag Bible Study. It begins on September 4 at the Elizabethton Chick-fil-A at 7:00am.
Students of Happy Valley High School can attend two studies. The Revive Bible Study meets in the library Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:30am. The FCA (Fellowship of Christian Anybodies) meets on Tuesdays during third period in the cafeteria.

If you know of any other studies please contact us or add a comment by clicking comments below.

Church Goes on Mission Trip

For six years now, Calvary Baptist Church has been taking mission trips to the Mediterranean island of Malta through the Tennessee-Malta Partnership. The Maltese have a tradition of highly religious Catholicism that is unlike American Catholicism. They lift up Mary and pray to her as the “Holy Mother of God” who supposedly rose from the dead after three days. There is a shrine there dedicated to Mary with walls lined in letters thanking her for answering prayer. Each village in Malta has a patron saint. At the same time each year, they hold a festa honoring that saint with fireworks, confetti, music, vendors, and the parading of an incredibly heavy statue of the saint through the village. Shrines are hidden in every little space. The Maltese churches are elaborate with the people being very poor as people pay the church in attempt to get their deceased loved ones into heaven. Calvary Baptist helped to spread the Good News of Christ through a children's festival in a park in the village of Kalkara. The Gospel was presented through Bible stories, puppets, crafts, and music. The kids were shown love through games, balloon animals, and face painting. Later in the week, a free car wash was conducted. The Maltese couldn't believe that it was free as even a packet of ketchup costs ten cents. Through all of the events, there were opportunities to share Christ as people asked questions about why Calvary was holding these events. The people of Malta will have answers to all their questions through a series of coffee chats and other events conducted by the Evangelical church in Malta. As for Calvary, they are looking forward to two more trips this year in Joplin, MO and Belize.

Christian Music at Funfest

For the first time ever, Kingsport's Funfest will be hosting a Christian concert. The concert will feature Jeremy Camp and Building 429. The concert will be on July 19 and is one of three concerts at Funfest. Tickets are $15 for one concert, $25 for two, or $37.50 for all three. You can buy tickets at the Kingsport Chamber of Commerce or online at http://www.funfest.net/.

Vintage Train Ride

The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum is currently conducting a vintage train ride. The ride takes passengers on a journey to see nature in Tennessee and Virginia. The train left Roanoke and made stops in Bristol and Johnson City. The trip will end in Knoxville. There was such a demand for tickets for the ride that they received 3,000 requests after they had sold out.

Update on School Board Budget Crisis

The Carter County Commission denied the school board's request to fund the remainder of a budget deficit. The commission asked the school system to cut their request in half to about $400,000 without losing more teachers. Even with the discoveries that a retiring teacher would not be able to and school insurance would increase by over $22,000, they were able to cut the request with the following measures:

Removal of 2.5% pay increase for paraprofessionals
Removal of four assistants
Elimination of a central office secretary
Elimination of Reading through Interaction (RTI) coaches
Replacement of two full-time janitors with four part-time janitors
Transfer of lawn mowing to a private contract
One-year hiatus on band equipment funding
No sanding of gym floors
$18,000 cut in supervisor supplements
$5,000 cut in special education supplies
$5,000 cut in vocational instruction supplies
Switching of educational software

The school system was able to prevent having to eliminate elementary and middle school music and art.

School Budget Crisis

The Carter County School System is facing a major budget shortfall for the 2012-2013 school year of about two million dollars. This shortfall was caused mainly by a drop in student enrollment, many of those students switching to Elizabethton City Schools. This drop in the student body caused a drop in tax revenues that are spilt between county and city schools. It also caused state support to drop, which is based on enrollment counts. The school board has already reduced that shortfall through the postponement of the purchase of new school buses and text books. They have also not replaced about six retiring teachers. They have even laid off several teachers from the four county high schools including an English teacher and a Biology teacher at Happy Valley, which could possibly cause an end to advanced versions of Biology in order to provide the state required regular Biology class. After all the cuts, the shortfall stands at over $800,000. The school board has requested the Carter County Commission to fund the rest. The funding of the request would mean property taxes would rise to about 37 cents per hundred dollars. If the commission does not provide the money it could mean the end of elementary and middle school art and music programs. The school board invites parents to the upcoming commission meetings on the topic on the next two Tuesdays at 5:15pm at the Carter County courthouse.

Inmate Ministry Leads Some to Christ

A prison inmate in Pennsylvania began a program to help lead other inmates to Christ. Merle Weaver was on trial for buying a gun for someone who couldn't legally have one when his friend invited him and his wife to go on a marriage retreat. After going through the death of his father-in-law and now the trial, Weaver wasn't sure that this would much help, but while at the retreat he learned the Good News of Christ and decided to follow Him. Weaver ended up going to prison for two and a half years. Nearly six years later he decided to start a program to help inmates who may have gone through what he went through. The program called Celebrate Recovery now teaches the Bible in prisons in his area.

Gap Creek Road Project

A highway project to improve the very dangerous and curvy Gap Creek Road is now under way. The project involves the construction of a five lane highway. Crews have already cleared forest area and are working on drilling for blasting. The project completion date is set for late 2014.