Mount olive tribune 5Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Lunch MenusDec. 21-24, 2015

duplin co lunch menus

December 21-January 1: Happy Holidays!

Your School LunchMenus Printed EachWeek Courtesy of...

December 21-January 1: Happy Holidays!

Wayne CountyDecember 21-January 1: Merry Christmas!

Duplin County

PeoPle

Happy holidays and greet-ings from the Wesley-Smith Chapel community.

Shalanda Bell of Detroit, sis-ter of Schenita Davis Randolph and daughter of Charles E. Da-vis, visited Dante and Schenita Randolph in Mebane for sev-eral days last week, along with Glenda (yours truly). What a joyful, happy, peaceful reunion it was. On Mon., Dec. 7, yours truly, Schenita, Shalanda, and Charles visited the home of their grandmother, Louise Davis of Winston-Salem, along with aunt Lois Abrams and uncle Carl Davis. I say thank you God for a great reunion and visit with my girls, Schen-ita and Shalanda. Shalanda returned home Wed. We wor-shipped at Grace Park Church on Sun. morning in Durham.

Happy birthday to Lucius Smith of Goldsboro on Dec. 10, Lady Davis Smith Dec. 11 from your husband Bishop Alton Smith and the St. Mark Church family of Goldsboro, Tracey Hill

Dec. 12, Myra Brown Dec. 12 from your mama Pastor Dor-etha Brown and Parkers Chapel Church family, Michael Hous-ton Dec. 12, Jimmie Hicks Dec. 12, Glenda Armstrong of Florida Dec. 12, Myra Cox Dec. 13 from your Prayer Tabernacle Church family of Goldsboro, Damain Wilson Dec. 14, Teisha Bonner of Goldsboro Dec. 14 from your mama Joyce Martin and the girls, Linda Dill of Alabama Dec. 14, Elder Jimmy Frederick Jr. Dec. 15, Gethney Hill of Faison Dec. 15, Billy Rich of Winston Salem Dec. 15, Theresa Tann Dec. 18, Minister Tiffany Gibbs Grandy Dec. 18, Minister Tawa-nna Armwood Dec. 19, Donald Thompson of Faison Dec. 19, Doris Grant Maddox of Wilson Dec. 19, Pamila Randolph of Greenville Dec. 20 from your son Dante Randolph and wife Schenita, grandchildren Joshua and Kaelyn, Cyndi Armwood of Florida Dec. 21 from your Mount Olive family and friends, Miranda Cox Haskins Dec. 23,

Danielle Daniels Dec. 24, Renee Brunson Dec. 24, Debra Figgins of Fayetteville Dec. 25, Jimmy Peterson Dec. 25, Elder Lakevia Underwood of Clinton Dec. 26, Gwen Thompson of Goldsboro Dec. 29, Elder Shelia Glaspie of Rose Hill Dec. 29, Tracy Ko-rnegay Dec. 30, Keith Browser Dec. 31 from yours truly, Wom-en On the Move +4 and your St. James Church family. May God bless each of you to have many more.

Happy anniversary to Elder Jimmy Jr. and Nicole Freder-ick Dec. 10. Happy 48th anni-versary to Apostle Preston and Co-Pastor Jesse Grimes Dec. 27 from your Holy Ghost Ca-thedral Church family.

Happy Special 82 Birthday to Mrs. Lillie Stevens of Fai-son Dec. 13 from yours truly Glenda, your children and grandchildren, and your Holly Grove church family We love you Mrs. Lillie.

Worship service is held ev-ery 1st and 3rd Sun. at 11 a.m.

at Pleasant Union Church of Christ, Hwy. 13, Grantham. Interim Pastor Elder Shirley Howard invites you to join them.

Mark your calendar for Sun. morning, Feb. 14, at 11 at New Life Worship Center, 218 Maple St. Church anniversary will be celebrated with special guest Dr. Everlena Oliver at 11 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Apos-tle Preston Grimes and Holy Ghost Cathedral Choir, usher, and congregation to climax the celebration. Revival service will be held Dec. 31 and Jan. 1. On Friday night, worship ser-vice will be held at 7:30 with special guest Dr. Donald Wells.

Ladies! You are invited to Dianne’s Boutique for your dresses, suits, hats, and etc. A super sale! Contact Dianne at 919-736-8438.

I would like to say thank you for allowing me to serve you in 2015. Looking forward to serving you in 2016. Happy holidays and do be safe.

Wesley neWsBY MRS. GLENDA WARD

Carver Elementary has been awarded the Title of Green Ribbon and Model School for PBIS.

Robin Casey, one of our fourth grade teachers, has been chosen as this month’s Teacher Feature in our Walk-ing Classroom newsletter! We are so thankful for all that she does for her students and how she goes above and beyond to make sure they have opportu-nities to be active during the school week! We want to share with others just what an amaz-ing teacher she is!

Kindergarten NewsKindergarteners have been

busy learning about Reindeer, Santa, Elves, Gingerbread men, and various Christmas Traditions around the World. They will watch “The Polar Ex-press” next week while drink-ing hot chocolate in their paja-mas. We will also be receiving a visit from Santa, so we are working hard to follow our classroom rules, school rules, as well as being very good at home to stay on Santa’s “Good” list.

Academically, Kindergar-teners are working very hard on writing, spelling, math, and reading. They are trying hard to increase their MCLASS scores and preparing for addi-tional testing.

First Grade NewsFirst graders have been

busy rehearsing for the Wayne County Choral Showcase, which took place on December 1 at Goldsboro High School.

Students performed two Christmas songs, “Jingle Bells” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” They did a fabu-lous job! Students are looking forward to performing again on December 15 at Carver’s PTSO Meeting.

First graders have been hard at work in their academ-ics. Students have been busy reading informational stories and learning words with the digraphs “sh” and “ch.” In Math, students are improving on their addition and subtrac-tion skills and are also learn-ing how to solve story prob-lems. In Social Studies this month students will be learn-

ing about Christmas traditions around the world.

Third Grade NewsWe are discussing and do-

ing activities to help students understand why we have Vet-eran’s Day. They will be mak-ing thanksgiving cards for us to send to hospitalized veter-ans in Fayetteville. In math we are working on reading and analyzing data from different types of graphs. We are work-ing on multiplication fluency on a daily basis. We are cur-rently working on the fours. Fluency is also a major goal we are working on daily in read-ing. Students should be able to read 80 words per minute at this point in the school year. You can make a fun game out of it at home to help support us. We are in the process of taking the nine week assessments in reading, math, and science.

Fourth Grade NewsReading: A River Ran Wild

(cause and effect)Math: Prime and compositeHoliday: Most 4th grade

classes are going to read A Christmas Carol for the month

of December. We will be dig-ging deep into how characters change over time and theme.

Later, some classes will be filling out Elf applications for jobs to work in Santa’s work-shop.

In math we are working on prime and composite numbers, multiplying 2 digit by 2 digit and factors. Some classes are learning and singing a song to learn their multiplication fact factors (fact families).

Most of us are integrating reading and social studies are we teach the early people of NC.

This Friday the Native American projects are due. Students were able to select from nine project choices that ranged from a diorama of a vil-lage, create a board game or pottery based on Native Amer-icans from one of the 3 regions of NC.

Several classes are also tak-ing time to review the items from the most recent bench-mark test with their students.

Carver Elementary School News

Ackiss retires after 50 years of service at UMOJean Fillingame was only

23 years old when Mount Ol-ive College President Dr. W. Burkette Raper asked her to join the College as secretary to the president. Jean remem-bers it well. The year was 1965 and, according to Jean, unmarried women typically did not leave home for their careers. To make her deci-sion about whether or not to take the position, Jean sought the council of her earthly and heavenly fathers.

“My dad encouraged me to take the job and told me I could always come back home if I wanted to,” she said. “I al-ways felt that God had a call-ing on my life, but I did not know what it was until Dr. Raper offered me this job. Af-ter praying about it, I never questioned it or looked back. I knew in my heart that this was God’s design.”

In the 1960s, Mount Olive College was a young fledgling institution, and Jean soon dis-covered there was more work than she could get done in a day.

“Dr. Raper was relentless in seeking help for the College,” Jean recalled. “He applied for every grant, government and otherwise that he could find, and we never applied for one that we failed to get.”

Jean had to keep track of all the grant records and paper-work. It was a real learning experience for her. She came to work early and worked

many long evenings to keep up with the constantly grow-ing workload.

“I had many people ask me how I could work for Dr. Rap-er because he was so demand-ing,” Jean recalled. “Somehow God showed me that in the early days of the College Dr. Raper had no choice. To sim-ply survive was to do what was necessary. I was raised on a farm and that taught me that when the tobacco is ripe, you have to harvest the crop. You can’t wait. The work of the College couldn’t wait. Dr. Raper saw no choice, and I un-derstood.”

After years of watching and learning from Dr. Raper, in 1978 Jean was promoted to di-rector of Church Support and was given the responsibility of working with the Original Free Will Baptist (OFWB) Church in seeking financial support for the College and building a strong relationship between the College and the Church.

“This began a whole new world for me. I traveled all over eastern North Carolina and visited in the homes and the churches of our OFWB people,” Jean said.

By this time, Jean had mar-ried the love of her life, Bob Ackiss. Jean was 33 years old when she married Bob. He had three children ranging in age from 12 to 20. Jean loved those children and later her and Bob’s grandchildren, with

all of her heart. “Naturally, getting mar-

ried changed my lifestyle and affected my work,” Jean said. “But there was no con-flict. I adapted very well with the changes. I was most blessed to have found a hus-band who also felt that my work with the College was my calling in life. Bob supported me completely and participat-ed fully with me.”

Over the years Bob would often travel with Jean dur-ing the College dinner season. The couple relished the time together and the time spent getting to know people of the OFWB denomination. In fact, building meaningful and last-ing relationships with people is perhaps Jean’s most impor-

tant legacy. “It has also been the most

rewarding part of my work,” she shared. “In the OFWB Church, building relation-ships with people is more im-portant that raising money. If people don’t believe in you and the work you are doing, you won’t be able to get their financial support.”

From the beginning Jean believed in the work of the College, and people respected the sincerity and integrity with which she worked.

“The longer I worked, the more I realized that the Col-lege and the Church were co-laborers together,” she shared. “The OFWB Conven-tion brought this institution into being for a specific pur-

pose and we must remain true to our mission to help people develop physically, mentally, and spiritually so that they can fulfill their purpose in life.”

In her 50 years at Mount Olive College, now the Uni-versity of Mount Olive, Jean has accumulated many mem-ories. She has witnessed the technological revolution, which greatly changed both work flow and communica-tion. She has seen the campus grow from one building to a 135+ acre campus with many buildings and athletics fields. She has worked for numerous supervisors, has worked with several assistants, and has mentored countless students. Jean has driven at least 10,000 miles every fall dur-ing the church dinner season, often using back roads and crossing county lines to reach various OFWB churches. She has eaten more barbecue than she cares to remember, and not nearly as much chocolate cake as she would like. Those that know Jean well know that she loves chocolate! But the memories she treasures most are the ones she has of the people she has met along the journey.

“I love people and love working with people,” Jean said. “Some of my closest friends have come because of my work at UMO. You can’t put a price on these relation-ships. The love and trust we build with others is something that no one can take away from us and I believe my life has been blessed with a dou-ble portion of love and trust with others.”

Jean has received many awards and accolades for her work, but true to her per-sonality, she was too mod-est to talk about them. One thing that she did mention, which deeply touched her was

when the Board of Trustees surprised her with an all-ex-penses paid trip to the Holy Land. The year was 1987, and among her other duties Jean had served as assistant secre-tary to the Board for 19 years at that time. The cost of the trip was underwritten by per-sonal gifts from the Board and friends.

“I had always dreamed of going to the Holy Land, but had never expressed this de-sire to anyone. This was prob-ably the most humbling expe-rience I have ever had,” Jean expressed.

On November 30, 2015 Jean Fillingame Ackiss re-tired from the University of Mount Olive after a 50-year career at the institution. It was a bittersweet day, one filled with mixed emotions.

“I never thought about how long I would stay,” Jean said. “However, the years flew by and it just happened with the passing of time. I have learned and grown so much in this work and it just became a part of me.”

When asked how she would like to be remembered, Jean said, “I would like to be re-membered as one who loved deeply and encouraged others, wherever and whenever that encouragement was needed.”

As for the future, Jean hopes to spend more time with her family, attend all the UMO events that she can, do things for people who need a helping hand, and do a little traveling.

“I do not want to fill my cal-endar with ‘things,’” she said. “I still want to make a differ-ence!”

As Matthew 25:23 states, “…Well done, good and faith-ful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”

Smith Chapel VFD Fire Princess Cathryn Jones was named the Fire Truck winner from Mount Olive’s Christmas parade last weekend. (contributed photo)