OFFICE MANAGER WEARS MANY HATS           

Tammy Blair is a very talented individual whom all of you know as the Office Manager and Story Express Coordinator for The Craddock Center. She wears many hats as she communicates with visitors, receives and gives furniture, offers assistance to clients, all the while performing daily accounting and clerical tasks. She is one of those rare individuals who is full of compassion and always has time to help others. She has proven over the six years she has been office manager at the Craddock Center there is no end to the number of hats she can successfully wear. Outside the office Tammy wears a number of other hats equally well as wife, mother of a grown son and daughter, attentive daughter to her own parents, active leader in the church, friend to many and faithful family member to her many kinfolk. For the last few months she has added one more very exciting hat — the mother of the groom! In one more week their son will be married. Congratulations to Cliff and Kim. We are all very blessed to have Tammy Blair in our lives! — TLS

NOTED PREACHING PROFESSOR COMING TO CHERRY LOG                 

Every day now we are receiving registrations for the October 4, 2010 Preaching Workshop. Dr. Tom Long, Bandy Professor of Preaching at Candler School of Theology, Emory University in Atlanta will be the presenter. As always, the day will begin with a continental breakfast at 9 a.m. and end with a deli lunch at noon. In between this nourishment for your body will be food for mind and spirit as Dr. Long presents the topic Re-thinking the Funeral Sermon. Come and enjoy a crisp Fall morning in beautiful Cherry Log at Cherry Log Christian Church with one of the nation’s noted preaching professors and preachers. You may reserve a seat by emailing craddockcenter@tds.net or phoning 706-632-1772. — TLS

UPCOMING BOOK DRIVE WITH BORDERS  

We are very excited that Borders-Brookwood Place and Borders-Parkway Pointe in Atlanta have chosen to be partnered with The Craddock Center. Borders holds book and plush animal drives throughout the year. This summer’s book and plush drive runs from July 20 thru August 30. During these six weeks Borders’ cashiers will encourage each customer to purchase a book or plush animal to donate to The Craddock Center. The addresses of these stores are 1745 Peachtree Street and 3101 Cobb Parkway. They are hoping to fill the Story Express as the children go back to school — TLS
  

NEW SERIES AVAILABLE BY DR. FRED CRADDOCK              

“Jesus the Healer” - (5) forty-five minute CDs for $53.00 plus shipping. This is the recording of five Sunday School classes taught by Dr. Craddock at Cherry Log Christian Church after Easter 2010. According to Dr. Craddock, “one of the most vivid images of Jesus in the memory of the church is Jesus the Healer. All four portraits (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) present him as such, but each with his own brush strokes. A wide range of conditions were addressed by his healing ministry and a variety of methods were used: a word, a touch, a prayer,  a screaming. The accounts are further enriched by the presence in Jesus’ world of other healers, religious and secular.

The practice of healing continues as a strong tradition in the church. Interest currently is very high.  It seems wise, in evaluating these practices and the abundance of publications, to spend these few hours remembering with the New Testament Jesus the Healer.” — TLS  

MY WORLD JUST DOESN’T                 

Sound the same anymore. This sad fact hit me recently in a conversation with Sally, my neighbor’s coon dog. She has for years blessed me with that deep, throaty howl of hers, late at night or in the darkness just before dawn. Look out, coons, here comes Sally! But not anymore. I mentioned this to her when I went over to visit my neighbor. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings but only to let her know how pleasant her voice had been. Contralto, I think. Not like the yapping of these little nine ounce dogs carried in women’s purses. “But you don’t bark anymore,” I said. “I’m a coon dog; bring me a coon and I will bark.” She sounded a bit miffed. I got a little miffed myself. “Do you remember what a coon looks like?” “Of course I do” she snarled, showing both of her remaining teeth. I wanted to prove my point, so I rushed home, brought back an encyclopedia with pictures of animals, shoved it under her nose and said, “Show me which one is a coon.” Sally rolled her sad eyes over the page and then confidently pointed to a giraffe. I didn’t have the heart to tell her.

I miss the sound of Sally, but not only Sally. How long has it been since I heard the croaking of frogs in a small bog beside Maxwell Road near the railroad? How many seasons ago did I last hear the drumming of the grouse, the melancholy notes of the whippoorwill, the romantic call and response of the bob white? These are rural sounds; I am a rural person; why don’t I hear them anymore? But other sounds, too, are painfully gone: the church bell, the factory whistle at B.C. Jarrell and Co., the creaking rocker of mama’s mamma, the tick-tock of the clock of daddy’s daddy. And the train whistle. Oh, we have a train and for it I am grateful. Daily it takes riders north to the Tennessee line, and about once a week it takes freight south to Marietta. It whistles at the Maxwell Road crossing and I whistle back. But it’s not a choo-choo.

My world just doesn’t sound the same anymore. But one sound is still here and will still be here until all sound is hushed. In fact, here at the Center we are dedicated to making sure this sound will always be heard.

The sound of children laughing. — FBC  

STORYTELLING BRIDGES LANGUAGE AND LITERACY                    

We have known for sometime that a child’s exposure to language early in life has a direct correlation to success in school. But the 30 million word gap was just made clear to me recently in an article by Donna Washington in Literacy Development in the Storytelling Classroom. She reports that “children who come from homes where the parents did not use complex language and expected simple answers to their questions heard, on average, 30 million fewer uses of language than their peers by the age of three...called the 30 million word gap. By the time these children entered kindergarten, their deficit was even more extreme. The gap profoundly affected their abilities in every subject in school.” (p. 33)

The Children’s Enrichment Program addresses this gap through storytelling, which helps the children process a string of words and get meaning from them. All children, including those in the gap, get caught up in a story well-told with props, sounds, repetition, and student participation. They then remember the words and begin to use them in language. Story teaches the brain to come up with images. Repetition in stories teaches the brain sequencing. What fun it is to watch a class of three-year-olds listening carefully to a story so they can tell when a change is coming and what will happen next. What has been discovered in Head Start and in the Children’s Enrichment Program is that storytelling increases a child’s language, helps prepare them for kindergarten, and provides a foundation for success in school and the rest of life. Thanks for your support in helping fill that 30 million word gap. — TLS

DO YOU KNOW?                       

About the Green Valley Book Fair just south of Harrisonburg, VA, two miles off I-81 in the middle of the Shenandoah Valley? This huge book warehouse outlet store is open 6 times a year for only two weeks each time from 9-7 daily (including Sundays). The next scheduled openings are July 3-18, Aug. 21-Sept. 6, Oct. 9-24 and Nov. 26-Dec.19. It is open 4th of July, Labor Day and Columbus Day from 9-7. One of the friends of The Craddock Center alerted us to this great book fair and we wanted to let all you book lovers, who may be traveling Interstate 81 soon, know about this opportunity. Among the 500,000 books they offer at 60%-90% off retail are at least 1,000 children’s books. They do not sell online or by mail-order catalog. Their address is 2191 Green Valley Lane, Mt. Crawford, VA 22841, 800-385-0099 — TLS