Midland Marketing Coop Inc. held its 109th Annual Meeting on March 7th, 2024, in Hays, Kansas, at the Ellis County Fairgrounds. It was an evening, so the membership and employees could review the prior year’s business. Members voted for board members to serve a three-year term during the meeting. Those winning the election were Les Rogers from McCracken, Nathan Staab from Hays, and Ryan Griffin from Stockton. Board Member Brian Staab of Hays retired after 33 years on the Midland Marketing board. Members picked up their patronage checks as Midland Marketing returned two million dollars back to the members- owners.

It is very likely that if you are a regular church attendee or have spent any time in the Bible, you have come across verses that speak of 'The Kingdom of God.' But have you given much thought or study to what this kingdom is?

THE HEART. It truly is a mini but mighty marvel! It starts beating about four weeks after conception and never stops...until God says so. Although it's only about the size of a clenched fist, it tirelessly beats on average about 100,000 times each day. Over an 80-year lifespan, that amounts to roughly 3 billion beats! In just one day, our heart pumps a whopping 2,000 gallons of blood throughout a network of blood vessels that, if stretched out, would be an incredible 60,000 miles long and reach around the Earth about two and a half times! However, it's interesting that when the Bible talks about the heart, it's talking about the spiritual part of our being— both positively and negatively. On the negative side, many verses speak about the heart of the natural man in his sinfulness, i.e., of unbelievers or those who reject God's rule in their lives. God says of man that 'every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually' (Gen. 6:5), so much so that the 'heart is evil from his youth' (Gen. 8:21). The heart is described as 'stubborn' (Psa. 81:12), 'perverse' (Psa. 101:4), 'proud' (Psa. 101:5), 'deceitful' (Prov. 17:20), and 'incurably sick' (Jer. 17:9). It was Jesus who, in Mark 7:21-23, said, 'For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.' In God's infinite wisdom and design, even as our physical heart keeps beating until the end of life, so our spiritual 'heart' or sinful nature also continues 'beating.' That's true for Christians, too. Even the Apostle Paul grasped his sin nature, saying 'that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief' (1 Tim. 1:15). Of course, the most eternally critical need of the heart is trusting Christ...before God stops it from beating.

I see my newspaper is about to expire—sure don’t want that. I keep looking to see if we have a New Year’s Baby yet.

The picture that appeared in last week’s paper of the young ladies who performed at the 4-1A State Wrestling Championships in Salina was of the Stockton High School Cheer Squad, not the SHS Striders. The Striders also performed at State, but at the Class 1A DII Basketball Championships held in Great Bend last Thursday night. The cheerleaders who performed were: Claire Plumer, Ava Dix, Ella Snyder, Bodye Stithem, Saj Snyder, Temprance Northup, Karleigh Horn and Shae Yohon.

The Dane G. Hansen Foundation of Logan, Kansas, has named 219 high school seniors from 49 Northwest Kansas schools as winners in its 49th annual scholarship competition. Six of those winners are from Rooks County.

The cute, little girl being wished a happy 12th/48th birthday on February 29th was Nikki (Haines) Cleaves of St. Louis, Mo..

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(This article is taken from the unapproved February 12th Woodston City Council minutes.) The Council of the City of Woodston met in the Council Chamber at the City Hall on February 12th, 2024, at 7:00 p.m. Mayor April Yakish called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.