The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

Hunter receives message from above

Eolia



CHRISTMAS CHEER — B.J. Kilbourne, an ECCO volunteer, unloads Christmas gifts from a church in Vandalia, Ohio.

CHRISTMAS CHEER — B.J. Kilbourne, an ECCO volunteer, unloads Christmas gifts from a church in Vandalia, Ohio.

Greetings to all from the Eolia Christian Community Outreach Center.

“Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem saying, “‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East and have come to worship Him.’” Matthew 2:1,2.

ECCO hosted a group of five from the First Baptist Church of Vandalia, Oh., as they once again visited our mountains bearing gifts for community children being given a Christmas party at the ECCO community room. These folks are so warm and gracious, it’s uplifting just being around them. A big thanks also to UNITE for sponsoring the food served, and also to Marie Coleman, director of Arlie Boggs Elementary Family Resource Center, for organizing the entire event.

Bobby Kilbourne from out Flat Gap way received some unusual airmail while deer hunting up on Sun Trucking. Noticing a shadow passing overhead and looking up, Bobby saw a balloon with what looked like a message tied to it. Slowly it drifted until it became caught in some nearby branches.

When Bobby retrieved the balloon, he saw it had a message, but was even more surprised to see where it came from. It was written and signed by each student from Mrs. Tinsley’s kindergarten class in Nashville, Tenn., and dated Nov. 20. Bobby received the message at 11:30 a.m., Nov. 21. There was also a phone number and address asking whoever found it to contact them.

Now after discussing his find with some mining buddies, they determined the balloon had crossed the Cumberland Plateau, Cumberland Gap Mountain, Pine Mountain and Black Mountain.

Bobby never said if he had any luck deer hunting, but from what I gather his find at Sun Trucking was well worth the trip.

Emily spent the weekend with us, and she and Caleb had a great time sledding in that wonderful snow that fell Saturday. Sledding, building snow forts and snowmen, and snowball fights are some of the fun things about winter.

Another thing Emily and I enjoy doing on cold snowy evenings while sitting by the fire is drinking hot chocolate, eating popcorn and brownies while watching a Christmas movie. It doesn’t take much to make some people happy, and I’m glad to be one of those people.

With that I’ll close with this thought for the day: “Wise men still seek Him.”

Community bulletin board: Good News Club Wednesday 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. at the Eolia Mission for children 3 and up. Call 633-5015 for transportation. Kid’s Time Friday 10–11:15 a.m. at ECCO. Cumberland River Volunteer Fire Department meets the second Sunday of each month 11 a.m. at the Partridge Station. Volunteers welcome. Partridge Lions Club meets the first and third Tuesday of each month at the Ovenfork Senior Citizens Center, come and bring a guest.

This week’s prayer list includes: Olivia Blair, Judy Branham, Judy McKnight, Bent Shepherd, Garland Couch, Richard McFarland, Don Brown, Bear Hissom, Raymond Kiser, Ralph Nease, Lucy Maggard, Stephanie Estep, Lillian and Nora Walker, Pat Shelton, Roger Shelton, Jack and Marie Snell, Dorothy Nease, Helen Chapman, Jeff Chapman-Crane, Tony and Brenda Gross.

Also to be lifted up in prayer are those enslaved by drugs and alcohol, may they be delivered, our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States, our president and the leaders of our country, all the children hurt by war, and the ministry of ECCO. Our email address is eccotruth@att.net.

Until next week from the folks at ECCO, “God bless.”

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