The Members of Shady Grove Baptist Church will be hosting a “Blood Drive” on Sun., Dec. 18 from 12:30 till 5:00 p.m. Everyone is encouraged to come out and give blood and help save lives. Each donation typically saves three lives. Each donor receives a t-shirt from Life South, a free Whitt’s BBQ sandwich coupon and a Papa Murphy’s cookie dough coupon. Please remember the life that you save could be your family, your friend or your own life so Please support the Blood Drive.

Special belated happy birthday wishes go out this week for Diann Alexander-Dec. 1st, Jeremy Lacy-Dec. 1st, Greg Roden-Dec. 2nd, Sandra Roden-Dec. 4th, Karen Callahan-Dec. 5th, Aiden Steelman-Dec. 6th, Heather Roden-Dec. 7th, Rachel Terry-Dec. 7th, Virgil Vest-Dec. 8th, Holli Reynolds-Dec. 8th, Pat Franklin-Dec. 10th, Sadie Long-Dec. 11th, Waymon Alexander-Dec. 11th, Dale Burch-Dec. 11th, Gary Vest-Dec. 12th, Doug Poole-Dec. 12th, Peggy Holloway-Dec. 13th and happy birthday wishes also go out this week for Joe Logan-Dec. 14th and Johnny Vest-Dec. 17th and also Don Clark-Dec. 17th.

Special belated happy birthday wishes goes out this week to my friend, Betty Boyd and Betty celebrated her birthday on Dec. 6.

Wonderful belated happy wedding anniversary wishes go out this week for Johnny and Rea Cheatham and they celebrated their 4TH wedding anniversary on Dec. 1st.

Special happy wedding anniversary wishes goes out this week for Jeremy and Angie Johnson and they will celebrate their 18TH wedding anniversary on Dec. 18.

The Shady Grove Baptist Church goal of 250 Operation Christmas Child Shoe Boxes was reached and more as well with a total of 314 shoe boxes. For the month of Dec., they are asking for empty cardboard shoe boxes wrapped in Christmas paper(please wrap the box and lid separate) and place in or near the OCC collection box in the church foyer. Church members express their thanks to everyone whether you brought toys or other items, packed shoe boxes, donated money or delivered them to First Baptist in Hartselle, “We Appreciate You!”

I want to share a story this week with our Hartselle Enquirer Readers taken from the Morgan County Genealogy Society Book titled The Heritage of Morgan County, Alabama. This story was submitted by Valerie Higginbotham, Clerk at Lebanon Baptist Church. The story reads as follows       “Lebanon Baptist Church” The oldest known record of this church reads: “Thur., the 10th of April 1845, the Brethren and Sisters, authorized to act as an arm of the Hopewell Church, met at their new meeting house near Bro. Blevins. Bro. I.M. Cummins, E. Winds and William Irvin, ministers present and after worship opened the door for the reception of members.” On Mon., the 8th day of September 1845, the members lettered out for the purpose of being constituted into a Church at Bethany. Bro. William Irwin was the first pastor. By 1850 the name was changed to Lebanon. As the area north of the church became more thickly settled, it became necessary to move the church to a more central location so the crossroads site located about one and one half miles north of the old Bethany site was chosen. The land was donated by James Alfred Monroe Barkley, and the church was built in 1896. By 1946 the church had decided to build a new brick building. The old church building was rolled back to the South line of the graveyard, so the new building could be placed between it and the west pike. The first service in the new building was held July 20th, 1947. The bricks were laid a few months later. The new building was dedicated on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 1947. The bell, which hung on some cedar posts in the church yard, now hangs in the steeple. Additions were made in 1953, 1957 and 1979.

I want to express a very special appreciation to my friend Ronnie Dukes and the Pepsi Bottling Company of Decatur, Alabama for their kind donations for the Christmas Open House held at the “Old and Bold Antique Shop” in Tanner Heights recently.

The S.A.M. Group (Senior Adults) will meet at Shady Grove Baptist Church each Tue. at 9:30 a.m. for devotion, visitation and fellowship.