A town that prays together...

Lawrence Co. honors National Day of Prayer ;

Citizens gathered last week to honor National Day pf Prayer. See video as soon as we can get it loaded.

LOUISA, Ky. -- A crowd gathered on the courthouse lawn Thursday, May 2, as Louisa participated in the National Day of Prayer event, which took place at noon.

Representatives from several different churches were present, as were the Lawrence County Sheriff's Office, Circuit and County Clerk's Office, PVA, and other courthouse staff.  Several residents from the JJ Jordan Geriatric Center were there including a very special lady, Blanche Marcum, who at 97, joined in the service.

People all over the country came together at the same time, praising God, and lifting up our people, our leaders, and our nation in prayer.

Father Jesuraj, from St. Jude's Catholic Church opened the service by welcoming everyone, and introducing those who led the prayers.

Rev. Guy Moyer, from the United Methodist Church led the prayer for the world, stating that "we've seen so much change in such a little time."
 

A prayer for the nation was led by Rev. Donna Aros, from the First United Methodist Church, who also prayed for our elected officials.  

Other prayers asking for help with such things as social concerns, unity and peace, were spoken.   Speaking on  unity, Rev Rick May said "There are so many enemies that come against the body of Christ.  Only if we unite, will things get done on Louisa and everywhere else." Rev. Richard Maynard spoke of repentance, and quoted scripture from the Bible.

Deacon Jim Dalton along with his wife, Trisha Dalton, read common prayers from various religions including Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, and Native American.

The raising of the flag was done by Don Wolfe, from VFW and American Legion Honor Guard.  Songs including the "National Anthem", and "America,"  was sang by Rev. Kate Dilley for the Ministerial Chaplain Association at JJ Jordan's.  

The service ended with the crowd joining Dilley singing "Amazing Grace."

Lawrence County officials at The National Day of Prayer

See video as soon as we get it done on Lazer Front page videos

GEORGE BEVERLY SHEA DIES; SANG AT GRAHAM CRUSADES...

MONTREAT, N.C. (AP) — George Beverly Shea, whose booming baritone voice echoed through stadiums, squares and souls during a decades-long career with evangelist Billy Graham, died Tuesday. He was 104.
 

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association spokesman Brent Rinehart said Shea died in Asheville after a brief illness.

Shea's rendition of "How Great Thou Art" came to define the faith of a Protestant generation that Graham helped bring to Jesus Christ. He performed live before an estimated 200 million people at crusades over the years — taking him from North Dakota to North Korea and beyond.

He joined Graham's crusade team in 1947 and stayed until Graham's declining health ended most of the evangelist's public appearances nearly 60 years later.

"As a young man starting my ministry, I asked Bev if he would join me," Graham said then. "He said yes and for over 60 years we had the privilege of ministering together across the country and around the world. Bev was one of the most humble, gracious men I have ever known and one of my closest friends. I loved him as a brother."

A Canadian emigrant who became one of America's most-recognized gospel soloists, Shea himself summed up his career with one of his inspirational trademarks: "The Wonder of It All."

"I just thought it was such a privilege," Shea said in a January 2009 interview.

Despite several chances to perform on the secular stage, Shea largely stuck with gospel music. He recorded dozens of albums of sacred music and was nominated for 10 Grammys. He won in 1965 for his album "Southland Favorites." At age 88, he recorded his first country-and-western album.

Shea believed the simplicity of old hymns drew people to his music.

"It's the message of the lyrics, the test that hits the heart in a hurry and the melody that goes along with it and seems to all go together," Shea said.

Born Feb. 1, 1909, in Winchester, Ontario, George Beverly Shea grew up singing around the family dinner table and then later in his father's church choir.

Though his father was a Wesleyan minister, Shea recalled that he was a wandering teenager who needed direction. He had wavered several times from the gospel until the week his father put on a special effort to draw people to the faith.

When the invitation came, the gospel song "Just As I Am" — a tune that he himself later sang and recorded — filled the sanctuary. His father left the pulpit and walked to the back pew where Shea said, putting his hand on his shoulder and saying, "son, tonight might be the night."

"I love my Dad. I walked with him right down that middle aisle," Shea recalled. "My father always knelt on one knee, so I knelt on one knee. That's when it happened."

With more drive and focus, Shea moved to New York City and trained with voice coaches, singing on radio stations WMCA and WHN. Though he had a chance to work in the secular business, Shea instead chose to move to Chicago, where he built his popularity at radio station WMBI and later on ABC radio's "Club Time." So he was already well-known in Christian music circles even before he met Graham when the lanky young man, then a student at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill., came to the WMBI studio in Chicago in the early 1940s.

"I knew he was from the South. I could hear it in my ears," Shea recalled. "He was what I call a Southern gentleman. He was just too complimentary of what he was hearing on the air."

Their friendship began with that first handshake.

"I said: 'The only gospel singers I've ever heard of, they have to sing a little bit and then talk for a while, would I have to do that?'" Shea recalled.

"I hope not," was Graham's response. A few years later, in 1947, the two began their crusade ministry.

Shea always performed a peaceful hymn just before the famed evangelist preached his message and asked people to make Jesus their personal savior. Graham "really loves the quiet song before he speaks. Perhaps something that will point to what he's going to speak on," Shea said.

Kurt Kaiser, Shea's accompanist of 30 years, recalled his personal touch.

"When he begins to sing a song, he can sing it directly to you. He tried to find a single face in the audience, maybe a sympathetic gaze," Kaiser once said. "This personal quality is same thing that can be found in the gospel message."

The soloist had two children from his marriage to his first wife, Erma, who died in 1976. Shea and his second wife, Karlene, lived in Montreat.

ACLU targets Gideon Bible distribution in schools;

By Larry Rowell
The Casey County News

The Kentucky branch of the American Civil Liberties Union has sent an open records request to superintendents in all of the state’s 174 school districts, seeking information on how religious groups and other outside organizations distribute literature. The letter also names the distribution of Bibles by members of Gideons International.

“Specifically, it has become apparent that public elementary schools throughout the Commonwealth routinely permit members of the Gideons International — a religious organization whose proselytizing methods include the distribution of Bibles and New Testaments — to distribute religious literature directly to students during school hours. In just the past few years, for example, several public school districts have been confronted with parents’ objections to this practice, and in some instances it has become evident that public school officials have allowed this practice to occur for many years,” in the letter from William E. Sharp, staff attorney for ACLU of Kentucky.

Casey County Superintendent Linda Hatter said that she received the letter on Monday and is working with Board Attorney Winter Huff to answer it.

“We’re going to review all the policies pertinent to this and we follow the Kentucky School Board Association guidelines on this,” Huff said, adding that the response — required by law to be mailed within three days — may be that the board is gathering the information.

“We’ll send them the policies that we believe respond to this,” she said.

Brad Hughes, spokesman for the Kentucky School Board Association, cited Kentucky law as their policy.

“No book or other publication of a sectarian, infidel, or immoral character, or one that reflects on any religious denomination shall be used or distributed in any school,” states KRS. 158.190.

Liberty Elementary School Principal Boyd Harris said that members of the Gideons International were in LES last year to offer New Testaments to students who wanted one.

“I’ve been in the room when they were here. They introduce themselves as Gideons and tell students they can have a New Testament if they want one. There wasn’t ever any kind of pressure as far as them taking the material. I also never had anyone question it here as far as a parent, or anyone from outside, to raise a question about this,” Harris said.

Additionally, Hatter said that she has had no complaints about the Gideons in her 10 years as superintendent.

Gary Richardson, Chief Operating Officer for Gideons International in Nashville, said that their only response to the ACLU inquiry is to follow school board policy.

“From our standpoint, what work we do is through the school board and we follow whatever direction they give us,” he said. “That’s our standard practice.”

Richardson said that the organization doesn’t want any school district to get embroiled in a costly court battle.

“We’re going to do what’s best for the school board. Our desire is not to see them get into a lawsuit,” Richardson said.

With the letter sent to superintendents, the ACLU of Kentucky asked district superintendents to ensure that the issue is addressed prior to next school year, but it also said that the ACLU might seek to resolve the issue in the courts through litigation.

The ACLU alleges that school districts overstep their bounds in allowing groups such as Gideons International to distribute religious materials in public elementary schools.

“Directing the religious upbringing of one’s own children is one of the most fundamental rights a parent can have. When government officials, including school officials, take it upon themselves to usurp that parental prerogative, they exceed their governmental authority and undermine religious liberty. The ACLU of Kentucky fully supports the rights of all religious groups to promote their message of faith. Government officials, however, cannot allow our public elementary schools to be used by others to promote one religion over another,” said ACLU of Kentucky Executive Director Michael Aldridge.