‘Make a Difference Day’ set
Monitor Staff Reports
MABANK–Make a Difference Day, Saturday, Oct. 22, is fast approaching and local Rotarians are diligently planning to make this their 10th year of helping others, the biggest and brightest so far.
Last year, more than 100 local volunteers racked up more than 200 hundred hours of service to their neighbors, Pickens said.
This year, the Parrot Heads are holding a chili cook off to fund the building of a fishing pier accessible to those with disabilities. The Lions Club will be providing free eye clinics for Kemp, Mabank and Eustace students.
Environmental Co-op will be available to local citizens on Make a Difference Day including free trash disposal, electronic recycling and paper shredding.
Old electronic equipment is accepted including printers, laptops, copiers, cellular phones, stereos, microwaves and televisions.
Recycling will take place 9 a.m. to noon, Saturday, Oct. 22 at the Mabank Pavilion.
If you would like to participate in Make a Difference Day, write out your name, organizations contact information. Describe your organization and its membership, count of volunteers participating. Describe your “Make a Difference” activity or project and mail it to the Rotary Club at Cedar Creek Lake at P.O. Box 1658, Mabank, TX 75147.
To drop it off at Coldwell Banker Real Estate in Gun Barrel City or Tri-County Ford in Mabank.
Those with a need for help may fill out the application below.
For more information, call (903) 887-2121.
 

Mennonites explain history to Root Seekers
Special to The Monitor
The Root Seekers Genealogical Society invited Daniel Stover, Deacon of Grays Prairie Mennonite Church, to their regular meeting Sept. 19, 2011 at the Tri-County Library in Mabank. Stover opened the program, titled “Mennonite History.”
He gave a brief talk on the location and workings of the church before introducing historian Earnest Eshbach. Eshbach explained his surname means ‘Ash Tree by the Brook.’
Eshbach moved his family to Texas from North Central Pennsylvania in Aug. 1996. He and his wife have eleven children.
Eshbach’s family operates a home based business named Shady Grove Furniture, located near Lively. His family is self sufficient with a vegetable garden, beef cows, milk cows and chickens.
Eshbach’s talk was ‘What is a Mennonite.’ He began with the Reformation on Oct. 31, 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany.
Eshbach stated a Mennonite is a Bible Literalist. Conservative Mennonites are the lineal and spiritual descendants of a group of Anabaptists.
Anabaptists are Protestant Christians of the radical reformation of 16th-century Europe, and their direct descendants, particularly the Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites.
Anabaptists rejected conventional Christian practices such as wearing wedding rings, taking oaths, and participating in civil government.
They adhered to a literal interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount and believer’s baptism.
Following the reformation, as churches began to form and religious beliefs evolved away from the state church, Ulrich Zwingli, head pastor of the city of Zurich, Switzerland, openly attacked the Catholic church and led a similar reformation backed by the city council of Zurich. Zwingli’s church was known as the reformed church.
Several young priests backed Zwingli’s reform and became his students studying the Greek Bible.
As time passed, the city council became involved causing dissention because children were not being baptized as infants.
Therefore, further bible study was forbidden. This did not daunt the Brethren, as they were then called. They stayed true to their convictions and met on the same evening of the day the mandate was issued.
The group organized by choosing Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz as ministers to lead them. In two years both men were dead; Conrad from natural causes and Felix Manz as the first Martyr of the Swiss Brethren.
Simultaneous to the movement in Switzerland was a similar movement in Holland led by Obbe and Dirk Phillips originally called Obbenites. Menno Simmons was a man of the cloth with the state church when he began to take stock of his life of drunkenness and reveling. He had heard of the misguided people who were willing to die for their faith and he felt guilty.
Menno however, was reluctant to give up his life of ease. Finally, he surrendered to God’s will in April 1535, and pledged his life to the gospel.
He was baptized into the persecuted church led by Dirk and Obbe Phillips in January 1536. Following his ordination, first as a minister and then as a bishop, Menno traveled extensively through the churches.
The Dutch government placed a large sum of money as a reward for anyone who would turn in Menno to the authorities. He was never captured, continued to write extensively expounding the doctrines of the scripture that formed a base for Mennonite doctrine. Menno died of natural causes in 1554.
Let it be noted that Anabaptists were severely persecuted during this time. They were imprisoned, tortured and often executed by being burned at the stake, downing or beheading.
Worship services continued in secret by night and often in the woods. The enemies of Anabaptists first called them Mennists and then Mennonites because of writings and teachings of their leader Menno Simmons.
The name stuck and came to refer to both the Swiss Brethren and the Dutch Mennonites. Persecution tapered off when the officials realized how futile their efforts were in trying to suppress the group. Under Prince William of Orange (1555-1584) they enjoyed tolerance and began to prosper as tradesman and farmers.
The Swiss Brethren and the Dutch Mennonites began to hear reports of each other and eventually arranged a meeting to compare their understanding of the scriptures.
Although the two groups had similar beliefs and shared mutual respect for each other, they did not merge as one.
The differences of doctrine relating to ‘shunning’ eventually resulted in a division among the Swiss Brethren when Dutch Mennonite, Jacob Ammon from Holland travelled to Switzerland and gathered support for his teaching of ‘strict shunning’ which resulted in the Amish Division (1693) in Switzerland.
The Amish today are still a distinct group in America holding to this interpretation of excommunication.
They have maintained a strict separatist view in relation to modern inventions. They do not have electricity, cars or tractors.
On the other hand, the Mennonites would use many modern inventions if the invention can be properly controlled. TV and radio are rejected because of the inability to control the content.
There is so much more to learn of the Mennonite history but space does not permit. Suffice to say they are a peace loving group of folks and we are so fortunate to have their community in our midst.
The items that come from the bakery in Kemp are absolutely delicious and the workmanship on their furniture is beautiful.
They welcome anyone to come visit their church. Root Seekers Genealogical Society thanks them so much for taking the time to come and give us this lesson in their history.

 

Federation of Student Anglers organizing clubs across Texas
Special to The Monitor
ATHENS—The Federation of Student Anglers (FSA) is looking for Texas school administrators and middle and high school students wishing to form a school fishing team.
FSA wishes to expand two flagship programs, the Texas Middle School Fishing Challenge and the Texas High School Fishing Series. New chapters and club teams are now forming in north Texas, Houston, Austin and Tyler.
Members will fish year round in on-the-water tournaments, online tournaments, club and chapter outings and the Summer Fishing Series one weeknight each week during the summer break.
Teams compete against other schools in their chapter for trophies, plaques, fishing and paddling equipment, boats, letter jackets and scholarships.
Clubs also build boats, rods and baits, learn to fly fish and tie their own flies.
At the high school level, students compete for qualifying points qualifying advancing them to the state championship tournament held June, 2012 at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens.
The FSA’s programs give students the opportunity to get on the water and fish as well as learn about aquatic biology, fisheries management, ecology and environmental sciences.
FSA organizes school-based chapters that work with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department angler education instructors teaching water safety and fishing skills while offering each student a chance to fish in a safe, supervised environment.
FSA executive director Brad Newman of Bulverde, touts the nonprofit organization as the only school-based, team-oriented fishing program in the U.S. where students can captain their own watercraft.
For more information on the Federation of Student Anglers, visit the website www.fishingstudents.com.
 

 

Come Adopt Us At The Humane Society of Cedar Creek Lake

We have many animals at the Humane Society of Cedar Creek Lake in Seven Points in dire need of a good home. Please call or stop by the Humane Society today and rescue one of these forgotten animals. The Humane Society of Cedar Creek Lake is located on 10220 County Road 2403 in Seven Points. For more information, please call (903) 432-3422 after 11 a.m. We are closed on Wednesday and Sunday.

For further information visit our website at petfinder.com