Shelby County Today

May 1, 2023 - Good Morning! It's Monday, May 1.

Seventy years ago, President Dwight Eisenhower declared a National Day of Prayer on July 4.  Forty years ago, President Ronald Reagan decided it would happen each year on the first Thursday of May. And so, this Thursday at noon, you’re invited to join us in front of our historic courthouse for the National Day of Prayer.  If you’re reading this in Shelby County, Texas, we'll be looking for you! If you’re one of our far-flung readers, look for an event in your area.

King Solomon, the wise and wealthy son of David and Bathsheba, built the first Jerusalem temple, a thousand years before Bethlehem. Shortly after the unveiling, God spoke to the young king. His words are recorded in 2 Chronicles 7:14, and they speak to us today.

"If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Powerful words.  

Meet you back here tomorrow,

Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org

April 26, 2023 - The Sardis Homecoming and Fish Fry Fundraiser will be Saturday, May 6, 2023 beginning at 11am. 

Catfish filets, fries, beans, dessert (homemade) with tea or water will be $10.00 per plate.

Annual business meeting will follow immediately after clean up.

Donations are welcome and needed! If you cannot attend, donations can be mailed to: 
LaNell Rash – Secretary
3064 FM 414
Center, Texas 75935

The church building is still under renovations so the donations are needed two fold.

Everyone is encouraged to come out to support and enjoy a day of food and fellowship with friends and neighbors. 

LaNell Rash 936 590-8909

April 24, 2023 - We grandchildren called her “Mama.” Many called her “Sister Richards.” For fifty years she preached in tent revivals, brush arbors, and did pastoral work. Most of her preaching engagements were in the towns and communities of East Texas including Rose Vine, Center, Hemphill, Stockman, Teneha, Timpson, and Evan’s Shop in the McClelland community. She played the organ, piano, harmonica, and accordion by ear. And she preached and sang… LOUD. One of her former church members told me, “When Sister Richards preached, you didn’t have to know where the meeting was. You just had to have your ears open.”

Her name was Mary Jane Oleatha (Holt) Richards. She and Paw Paw raised seven children in Center, Texas. Mama was a preacher and Paw Paw was a logger. She was a big, tall woman with hair hanging to her waist when it was not braided on her head. She was a carpenter, a gardener, and beautiful flowers covered her yard. All of the family liked eating at Mama’s. She canned vegetables, pork, beef, and some wild meat. When my brothers and I brought swamp rabbits from a hunt on Huana Creek, Mama pressure–cooked and batter-fried them. They tasted almost like chicken. Baking raccoons with sweet potatoes and frying frog legs and squirrels for us, she made the wildest game taste tame. The worst scolding we ever got from Mama occurred when we shot her purple martins with our sling shots and robbed eggs from her hen house for food while playing hookey.
This article is copied from Shelby County Today without permission.
Mama didn’t always receive money for preaching. I knew her church had paid her when I saw her driving up in her Dodge pulling a trailer with a pig, a bushel of peas, and two watermelons in it. She kept what little money she received in a large handkerchief neatly tied at the top and placed on a closet shelf. We were always asked to eat when we visited her, and we always did. After uncovering the food left on the table from the last meal, we helped ourselves to peas, corn, squash, cornbread, and big buttermilk biscuits. Sometimes we had salt pork from her smokehouse. Salt, pepper, catsup, and pepper sauce were placed together on the table. Mama always left an onion sliced for Uncle Billy Gene to make his biscuit and onion sandwich when he got home from school. We all waited our turn at taking out the slop bucket, a mixture of dish water and leftovers, to Mama’s hog pen.

She didn’t approve of deodorant, perfume, or makeup, but always kept a box of Cashmere Bouquet powder on her dresser. Never using slang or profanity, her expression for the most trying situation was always, “Mercy me!” She loved her church members and spoke of them so often that I still remember some of their names: Sister Feddie, Brother Luman, Bro. Ross, Sister Meyers, Sister Belrose…While cleaning house, hoeing in the garden, washing the dishes, or punching clothes in the wash pot, her constant whisper was, “Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus.”

Mama visited my wealthy Aunt Belle Rascoe in Mansfield, Louisiana to request a donation for a new church building. When handed a check for $5.00, she exclaimed, “Is that all?!!” Aunt Belle quickly replied, “Charity begins at home!!!” “Yes, but where does it end”?!!, barked Mama . I mused over that for years before I saw the teaching of the story: They were both right.

Mama encouraged us not to sin and often reminded us how long it had been since she had. But when our big dog Jack wandered over to her house and killed her kitten, she chased him down the hill with her garden hoe shouting, ”I’ll kill you Jack!” After she breathlessly returned to the house, I asked, “Mama, was trying to kill Jack a sin?” “No, Honey,” she replied. “That was just a mistake.” She won $500 for submitting the winning name for a new insurance company. She named it “The Ideal Insurance Company.” And every time I pass that sign in Kirbyville, Texas, I think of her.

When I was a young boy helping Mama hoe her garden, she told me, “Henry Doug, you are going to be my preacher-boy,” And her prediction came true, even though I became a Baptist instead of a Pentecostal. And looking back over the years, our theological differences don’t amount to much. Her influence on me, and all my nine brothers and sisters, was considerable. She was not just a grandmother, but a messenger of the Lord to us. Hearing she was in the hospital at Center, I arrived there in time to see her alive, but in a coma. Leaning over her, I whispered, “Mama, thank you for helping take care of us…” She could not answer me and I am not sure she heard me. But today I know in my heart that she knows what I said… and she knows I meant it. Two days later, Mama crossed the Jordan. She didn’t cross alone.

April 21, 2023 - The Truitt Cemetery Homecoming will be held next Saturday, April 29, at 11:00 AM at the Truitt Cemetery near Joaquin. In case of rain, there will be an alternate location.

There will be a short business meeting followed by our annual potluck lunch.

Please consider making a donation to the cemetery fund to assist in grounds maintenance and insurance on the building. 

Checks may be sent to: Truitt Cemetery, PO Box 558, San Augustine, TX 75972

Please RSVP if you will be able to attend and make sure family and friends know about the homecoming. Questions? Call Tina at 979-277-2656 or Maggie at 936-615-2991.