Mt. Olivet bringing back singing convention

Published 8:40 am Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Mt. Olivet News

The knock out roses in our community garden are in full bloom. Elvage Fondren has worked hard planting and putting out mulch. It’s not too late to help put out a few plants for summer and we are still in need of some volunteers.

I recently noticed the huge Bible on display in the foyer of the church. It was given by the 1959-60 building committee. Rev. E.B. Wilson was the pastor.

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The committee members were Sam Franks (chairman), J.B. Anderson, Walter Faggert, Woodrow Franklin, Alfred Hill, Everett Howell, Edward Johnson, W.P. Sissell, Grady Still and James R. Taylor. Many members on that committee still have family that are active in the church today.

At our last meeting we voted to start the Panola County Singing Convention again. It was a vibrant part of this community and surrounding areas over 40 years ago. Singers from near and far would stand and sing or lead their favorite songs.

Different musicians would perform and it was a Sunday afternoon filled with great gospel music for nearly two hours.

Some of the great singers that I can recall were Edward Johnson, Milton Wardlaw, the Fisher family, and Ms. Bea Land. They met on the last Sunday in May and the last Sunday in September.

We will honor that tradition beginning on Sept. 25 at 3 p.m.

The term “She Shed” was first introduced to the public by a hilarious State Farm TV commercial, when the lady said, “It finally happened, somebody burned down my she shed.”

Is there really such a thing as a She Shed? Yes it is. Women can build them via step by step guidelines and materials at Lowes. It is the female equivalent of a man cave and what a woman decides to do with her she shed is entirely up to her.

Think of a dusty, cobweb-filled, musty-smelling space that houses all of your junk and may require a tetanus shot to enter that can be transformed into a Mecca of joy and warmth. My only question is where am I going to keep all my junk?

Sandra Foster is credited with building the first She Shed in America. In an interview with the Today Show in 2015 she told how she created the unique little building in the Catskill Mountains in New York. For centuries, she said, ladies had tea houses, and it was time for an update.

Louis the 14th of France built an entire village for Queen Antoinette to plant her gardens and write her notes.

I hope everyone enjoyed Mother’s Day. We had a meaningful program at Mt. Olivet Church. We had the oldest mother present, 97 year old Elizabeth Browning, and the youngest mother, her great- granddaughter Taylor Browning Horne, select the songs.

Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia organized Mother’s Day on May 12, 1907, as a tribute to her mother Ann Reeves Jarvis, a human rights activist during the Civil War. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson made it a national holiday.

“Everyone of you shall revere his mother and father.” Leviticus 19:3.

Call or text anytime with questions or ideas to 901-828-8824.