Church news

May 3

May 4-9

Ongoing events

Members and guests of the Calhoun SeventhDay Adventist Church, 1411 Rome Road, are studying a lesson series entitled “Christ and His Law,” through June 28. The public is invited to attend the adult classes on Saturdays at 10 a.m. between the two worship services at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Free study guides are available to use along with the Bible. These lessons are prepared by Keith Burton, professor of religion at Oakwood University in Huntsville, Ala. Burton delves into how Christ Himself related to the moral law of 10 Commandments as they pertained to, “For this is love of God, that we keep His commandments (1 John 5:3 NKJV). These lessons are studied by Adventist Churches worldwide.

Pastor David Long and members of Evangelistic Outreach Ministries, 1509 Dews Pond Road, will host a singing at 7 p.m. Saturday May 3, with featured guests Redeeming Grace of Adairsville. Everyone is invited.

Booneford Baptist Church will have homecoming on May 4 beginning at 10:30 a.m. Special singers are The Glory Bound Travelers. Steve McDougle will be the guest speaker. Revival begins on May 5-May 9, beginning at 7 p.m. each night. Isaac Johns will be preaching Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Chris Holmon will be preaching Tuesday and Thursday. Pastor Gary Quarles invites everyone to attend.

Fellowship Baptist Church of Plainville is having a singing on May 4 at 6 p.m. featuring the Dove Quartet. Everyone is invited to attend, according to pastor David J. Ray. The church is located at 796 Plainville Road.

Philadelphia Baptist Church is having “May Impact Month.” This coming Sunday, May 4, will be “May I impact my community.” PBC desires to be a light for Christ to Calhoun, Adairsville and surrounding areas. The church strives to reach out to the community through monthly visitation, by offering Christian Education—Philadelphia Christian School, through North Georgia Baptist College and other avenues of service for others. The church is participate this week in Relay for Life Walk to help the community fight against cancer. Anyone without a church home is invited to visit. There is Sunday School for all ages beginning at 10 a.m. followed by an 11 a.m. worship service; there is also a nursery provided for ages two and under; Wee Church for ages 3-5 and a children’s church worship service is also available for those 6-12. For more information, call the church office at 706-625-3233. Pastor Tim McCulley and the congre-

gation invite everyone to attend.

May 10

South Calhoun Baptist Church will be having its regular monthly Food Pantry and Clothes Closet day on Saturday, May 10th from 10 a.m. until noon. They will also be providing free biscuits and coffee. The church is located on the corner of River and Pine Streets next to Calhoun Middle School.

May 17-18

Mark your calendars for the Annual VFC Scholarship Banquet to be held on May 17, 2014 at 6 p.m. Several area graduating seniors will be honored and awarded scholarships during this event. The speaker is Dr. Clementine Slack of Rome. Dr. Slack is a retired Educator and Graduation Coach for RCS. For ticket or advertising information, please contact the ministry at 706 625-1106 or 706 766-5630.

Newtown Baptist Church will hold Jubilee Revival on the weekend of May 17-18. Service times are on Saturday, May 17 at 6: pm and Sunday, May 18 at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Pastor Hare and the church extend and invitation to all.

June 9-13

Calhoun First Presbyterian Church will host VBS from June 9-13, from 8 a.m. until noon. Breakfast and lunch will be served as well. If you want to register your children early call or come by the church and sign them up. The theme of Vacation Bible School is Wilderness Escape. For more information please call the church office at 706-629-4304.

Notices

Eagle’s Way Life Center Pastor Vince Gulledge would like to announce the move from 235 Church St. Resaca to 1588 Hwy 41 SE Calhoun, former home of Community Church Of God.

Pastor David Long and his wife Cindy of and either confirm it or rule it out. His tube was placed in his stomach on December 19, 2011…the day after my birthday. To say that I had a little pity party is probably an understatement, but I soon pulled it together and we trudged on. On February 14, 2012, we received the diagnosis. Cooper had a very rare form of mitochondrial disease. It was so rare that the pathologist who confirmed it at Columbia University had only seen three cases… with Cooper’s being the third. The other two cases had severe cardiomyopathy, or an enlarged heart. Cooper’s heart was examined, but it is fine and continues to remain so for now

We were both devastated and elated at the diagnosis. Now, we had a name and we had something to fight…to be mad at…to work to defeat. The genetics doctor put Cooper on the only therapy that they knew to do…vitamin therapy. She told us he would either respond or he wouldn’t. We started taking it in March and for two months, Cooper gained weight! We were so excited. But as quickly as it started working, it stopped. For months, we took the vitamins, but no developmental improvements and no weight gain. We again were devastated.

At our next genetics appointment, she looked at me and said that she had done everything that she knew to do. My heart sank. Cooper was going downhill quickly. Even though he had struggled with is weight, and we supplemented with the tube, he could eat table food. He loved oatmeal, mashed potatoes, applesauce plus a host of other things. If you put something he liked in his mouth, he would say “umm” and I knew that he was enjoying it. But over the course of all the testing, he had lost his ability to eat. Doctors were concerned he might choke on it or worse, get it into his lungs causing pneumonia. So he became strictly fed by his feeding tube. I don’t know if I really heard what they said after that other than I told them we had to do something.

They searched and said that the Mitochondrial program at Boston Children’s Hospital would be our best bet. We said make the appointment, we will figure out a way to get there. My husband went into action and organized am with a ribbon cutting at 1:00 pm. You are also invited to visit the website www.voluntaryactioncenter.org for more information on the programs and opportunities to help the homeless and hungry.

Rev. Ann Mann is an Evangelistic Outreach Ministries of Calhoun would like to invite everybody out for services Sunday morning, with Sunday School at 10 a.m. Worship service starts at 11 a.m. Wednesday evening services start at 7 p.m. For more information please call David Long at 770-548-6366.

Big Springs Baptist Church, 3326 Dews Pond Road SE, Calhoun, invites families and individuals from all walks of life to attend their services (casual dress). The worship service includes contemporary music along with traditional hymns and Southern Gospel. Children’s Church is provided for ages K- 3rd grade and nursery for babies – prek. Service times: Sunday mornings: fellowship breakfast, 9:15-9:30 a.m.; Bible study (all ages) 9:45 a.m., worship 10:45 a.m. Evening worship 6:30 p.m. Wednesday evenings 6:30 p.m. For more information on the church you may contact rev. Tommy Phillips at 678-986-7404.

Are you fat? Faithful. Available. Trainable. Praise Creative a motorcycle ride fundraiser called Cruisin’ for Cooper. We had planned on driving and taking our other son Nicholas as well. We wanted him to be involved, and to make as many memories with Cooper as we could. No one could tell us how this was going to end…other than he had a severe case and it tended to “not end well”.

The week before, Nicholas, my niece Natalie, and I were supposed to leave. We were heading home waiting for a truck to turn ahead of us on a two-lane road, and someone hit our SUV in the back doing about 55 miles per hour. The truck was totaled, all four doors wouldn’t close and the frame was bent, but luckily we made it out with minor injuries and bruises. But as I stood on the side of the road, I realized that the vehicle was supposed to be our ticket to Boston. Luckily, the love and support from that fundraiser raised enough money for us to purchase four plane tickets to Boston. God does provide.

When we arrived in Boston and saw the doctor, she took one look at Cooper and said that she didn’t think it was Mitochondrial disease. Our hearts leaped…hope. She said that it didn’t present like it and didn’t look like other patients that she had. They wanted to admit Cooper and run a lot of different tests. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get it worked out while we were there. They needed to schedule too many different things…so we would need to make another trip. To say that we were disappointed was an understatement. But we had a glimmer of hope so we decided to book another trip.

In July 2013, we were back in Boston. This time we were there for a four day stay in the hospital. They did an EEG (to see if he was having seizures as we started noticing him tensing and turning red), MRI, spinal tap, blood work and a chest x-ray. Bless Cooper’s heart…I know he had to feel like a pin cushion. But he was such a trooper. He laughed and giggled and charmed all the nurses. All the blood work that they took was sent off for genetic testing. We would need to wait and then wait some more. So we flew home and kept on our same path between doctor visits and medicines. Emmy Award winning journalist who now serves as pastor Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church in Calhoun, GA, and is a freelance writer for the Calhoun Times. You may contact Ann at ann.mann@ngumc. net. Ministries is looking for you. They are in need of puppeteers, pro-e-teers, sound and video people and prop and sign creators. For more information, call Karla Newport at 706-581-3898.

Souls Harvest Ministries is a growing full gospel non-denominational church located one-half mile east of I-75 on Ga. 53. Service times are Sunday at 10:30 a.m. A nursery is provided and a great children’s church program for all services. Everyone, at any age, is invited. However, this service is geared toward and conducted by teens and youth from all over this area. For more information, call the church office at 770-5481436.

Oakman Baptist Church and Pastor Jason Pace invite everyone to attend their weekly services. Sunday School is at 10 a.m. and morning worship is at 11. Sunday evening activities, which include worship and children and youth programs, begin at 6 p.m. Wednesday services begin at 7 p.m., which include Bible study and It took four months to get the results and we finally got them at the beginning of November 2013. Nothing. Literally, they found nothing significant. Mitochondrial disease is usually genetic from the mother’s side. But no one in my family had anything like this and because Nicholas is healthy, they always thought that it was spontaneous.

I cried at nothing. Nothing meant that we didn’t have any more answers than we had before we flew to Boston. Nothing meant that there wasn’t a treatment that we knew to do. Four months of waiting, hoping and praying that we would find answers and we found nothing. We were devastated all over again.

Have you ever felt like you were on one of those traffic roundabouts and you just can’t figure out which way to exit? That’s exactly how we feel. Like we are going around and programs for youth and children.

House of Prayer Baptist Church, 3840 Dews Pond Road, has Sunday School at 10 a.m.; worship services on Sunday at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. except the third Sunday night when there is no service; Wednesday night service at 7:30; and Brotherhood on fourth Sunday morning at 7:30.

The Christian Motorcyclists Association Chapter 670, Rome meets the third Tuesday of each month at the Landmark Restaurant in front of Mount Berry Square Mall. They eat at 6:30 p.m. and meet at 7:30 p.m. All first-time visitors are guests for supper. For more information, call Joseph Bendek at 706346-0139.

Oak Grove Baptist Church of Adairsville is located at the corner of Brownlee Mountain Road and Woody Road three miles off Highway 53. Service times are Sunday school 10 a.m., with worship at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Sunday and 7 p.m. on Wednesday. Pastor: Gary Garland.

Fellowship Baptist around in circles, but we never get anywhere. Four years of feeling helpless to help your child, but knowing that no matter what, you can’t give up.

So here we are again trying to make decisions that could help Cooper. Boston still feels like this is something metabolic and not Mitochondrial Disease. So we are working to try and coordinate his care between the two hospitals that we use. Boston feels like there is more testing to be done. We agree. We just aren’t sure what that means at this moment. Will we go back to Boston? We aren’t sure. But we know that we can’t give up, won’t give up trying to help our sweet Cooper.

Cooper has been such as blessing to us. I can’t even describe in words how much love we have for him. He can’t walk, talk or sit up…but he loves. You can see it in his eyes. He knows that he is loved and cared for, and Church of Plainville will hold a Brotherhood Breakfast on the second Sunday of each month at 8 a.m. Pastor David Ray said everyone is invited.

Philadelphia Christian School is located off Highway 41 between Calhoun and Adairsville. The school offers 4-yearold kindergarten through 12th grade, using the A-Beka curriculum. To find out more about the school, call the office at 706-625-3233.

Hope in Christ Ministries, 306 Peters St., is holding services every Sunday morning. Adult Bible Study starts at 10 a.m. with praise/worship service at 11 a.m. Bishop W. S. (Billy) Weems is the pastor. Rev. Earnest Diamond Jr. is assistant pastor. For more information, call the church at 706-602-2433.

Talking Rock Creek Chapel has a new pastor, the Pastor Donald Broaehurst and family. Service times are 9 a.m. for Sunday school and Children’s Church and 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Wednesday. For more information, call 706-6690854. he doesn’t seem like he is in pain. This has been the hardest thing that I have every dealt with in my life. We couldn’t do it without our family and friends stepping up to help us. The love and understanding that they have given us is amazing.

I think Cooper is teaching all of us something. He has taught me about loving unconditionally, and with all of my heart. He has taught me that I can’t control all things under the sun. And I hope that he has taught me how to be a better, more compassionate person. Cooper is sweetness and love. I pray that he will be healed on this earth and that our path will make it easier for another child. I truly. believe that there is a purpose for our journey. That someone will benefit from it somehow. Until then, we move forward and pray. Pray that we will one day watch Cooper and Nicholas play together.