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2 months ago | 
grit.com | Carolyn Tomlin
Follow the Hockaday homemade broom makers family business to learn how they tie folk art and practicality together. When someone asks Jack Martin, the owner of Hockaday Handmade Brooms in Selmer, Tennessee, how long it takes to make a broom, he strokes his beard, grins, and replies, “Five months and 45 minutes.”Making brooms is in Martin’s blood. In the 1800s, his great-great-grandfather, Wick Hockaday, moved from the Carolinas to west Tennessee in search of a better place to raise his family.
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2 months ago | 
thealabamabaptist.org | Carolyn Tomlin
C. S. Lewis once wrote in a letter to a friend, “There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” And Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.”These two writers give us insight into what God intended our lives to be — new beginnings, new goals, new challenges. Those things we planned to do last year are in the past. Maybe we accomplished some and some we did not. But God is a God of second chances.
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Oct 30, 2024 | 
thealabamabaptist.org | Carolyn Tomlin
Grant money exists to help improve people’s individual situations as well as provide the assistance needed to build positive, healthy communities. Churches — along with living out their primary role of sharing the gospel and making disciples — also typically nurture community members with hearts of compassion.
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Oct 25, 2024 | 
thealabamabaptist.org | Carolyn Tomlin
When Thanksgiving arrives on the fourth Thursday in November, how will the families in this country observe Thanksgiving? Will your celebration resemble a Norman Rockwell painting where families sit down together for a meal and offer a blessing? Or will you tell everyone to grab a sandwich and watch football all day? According to Lifeway Research, 56% of those surveyed said that being thankful to God for their blessings was most important on Thanksgiving Day.
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Sep 24, 2024 | 
grit.com | Carolyn Tomlin |Shirley Splittstoesser |Margaret A. Haapoja |Brandy Ernzen
This recipe, passed down from my grandmother to my mother and then to me, is at least 150 years old.
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Sep 24, 2024 | 
grit.com | Carolyn Tomlin
Explore these hacks on how to organize kitchen pantry food preserves and different long-term food storage ideas. Growing up in the country, I helped my family in our large garden and kitchen, harvesting our food, preserving it, and putting it up in my mother’s large food pantry.
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Sep 19, 2024 | 
thealabamabaptist.org | Carolyn Tomlin
A young family moved to our community and was looking for a church home. In their former town, they were members of a church that averaged 2,000 in the worship service. After visiting a large church in the new town for several Sundays, they realized no one remembered their names, and the church insisted they fill out a visitor’s card each time they were there. Then a neighbor invited them to her small church that averaged about 80. Immediately, the family felt like they were important.
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Aug 29, 2024 | 
thealabamabaptist.org | Carolyn Tomlin
As a child, I often heard my mother sing those beautiful old hymns as she worked. Anyone would agree that Mother certainly didn’t have a trained voice for singing. She never was asked to sing in the church choir. But she made a joyful noise unto the Lord (Ps. 98:4), and she sang because she was happy. When preparing a family meal, she often sang “Amazing Grace” and was thankful for the food she prepared.
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Jul 31, 2024 | 
thealabamabaptist.org | Carolyn Tomlin
While a student at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, my pastor husband served a small Baptist church. I must admit, I can’t remember most of the names of those sweet members — except for Johnny. Yes … I remember Johnny. You see, 14-year-old Johnny had special needs, being autistic and nonverbal. But there was never any doubt that he loved Jesus and he loved people — and his dog. After every service, my husband stood at the back door and interacted with the congregation.
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Jan 11, 2024 | 
thealabamabaptist.org | Carolyn Tomlin
Madison Baptist Church in Jackson, Tennessee, saw a need in its rural community and decided to make a difference. Pastor Greg Gilbreath said the church opened a free health clinic in 2015 that serves a mixed community of Hispanic, African American and Caucasian clients on the third Saturday each month. Gilbreath had received a letter from a church in Oklahoma encouraging congregations to start health clinics in their churches.
