The Times and Democrat from Orangeburg, South Carolina • 2

THE TIMES AND DEMOCRAT WWW.TIIE'IANDD.COM LOCAL TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2013 A2 I $0" i I I 5 mi i I I.X. I If I I If Hi mm )' if I ''-mifJto i 1i Twm in JjjJa 1 i'mirnm mm DALE Southern Methodist College students attended fall convocation on Sept. 16 in the college chapel on the Orangeburg campus. During the past few years, the college has added a network of 13 satellite Wesley Institutes at churches of various denominations across the Southeast. The college is currently in the process of opening an institute in the Philippines, and Interim President Vic Reasoner recently signed a memorandum of understanding with a college in South Korea that will allow its students to transfer into the program at SMC.

Speaker: Christians must have spiritual power as well as knowledge By DALE UNDER-ALTMAN Staff Writer COMMUNITY DATEBOOK Today's events Regional Medical Center Board of Trustees' monthly meeting 2:30 p.m., ground-floor board room, RMC. Orangeburg Soil and Water Conservation District meeting 5 p.m., County Agricultural Building, Room 203, 1550 Henley St, Orangeburg. Edisto Beekeepers Association meets 7 p.m., J. Carl Keaise Agriculture Building, 847 Calhoun St, Bamberg. "Get Art, Get Smart" 2:30 p.m., Orangeburg County Library.

Jennifer Chatto-McCoskey (jchattomccoskeyorangeburgcounty.org or 803-533-5868). Orangeburg County Development Commission meets 5:30 p.m., OCDC, 125 Regional Parkway, Suite 100, Orangeburg. 1 Bamberg Police Commission meets 3 p.m., Bamberg City Hall. Edisto Patch Gourd Club gathers 6-8 p.m., Orangeburg County Fine Arts Center, 649 Riverside Drive, Orangeburg. Orangeburg Consolidated School District Five Board retreat 6-10 p.m.,The Clybum Center media room.

OCSD 5 Supplemental Educational Services Provider Fair (for parents of students at William J. Clark and Robert E. Howard middle schools, and Sheridan, Marshall, Bethune-Bowman, Brookdale and Mellichamp elementary schools) p.m., Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School commons area. Bill Clark, 803-533-7926. Brookdale Civic Association meets 6:30 p.m Brookdale Elementary School library.

Exercise and aerobics 8:30 a.m., Youth Canteen, Middleton Street Brittany Hartzog (803-533-6020 or bharlzogorangeburg.sc.us). SCSU Board sets meeting The South Carolina State University Board of Trustees has scheduled an executive committee teleconference meeting for 1 1 a.m. Tuesday, Sept 24, in the board conference room 304, Lowman Hall. Calhoun GOP gathering Sept 26 The Calhoun County Republican Party will hold its monthly meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept 26, in council chambers at the Calhoun County Annex.

Guest speakers will be Charlie Stoudemire, candidate for the vacant House District 93 seat and Ben Kinlaw, newly elected Second District chairman. Watercolor class at Fine Arts Center Artist Elsie Fbgle will teach an independent one-evening class on watercolor painting from 6:30 to 9 p.m.Thursday, Sept 26, at the Orangeburg County Fine Arts Center. Students will complete a painting in class. The fee is $35 for members and $40 for non-members, and includes supplies and refreshments. For more information or to register, call 803-5364074.

SCSU alumni meet Sept 26 The Orangeburg County Alumni Chapter of South Carolina State University will hold its monthly meeting at 7 p.m.Thursday, Sept 26, in the Staley Building. For more information, call 803-536-3962. Edisto Primary plans program Edisto Primary School has scheduled a program, "Opening the World of Learning to Your Chil-. 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept 26, in the school cafeteria.

Every child must have an adult with them. If you cant take part, please ask a family member to attend. Math, PTO night to be Thursday Hunter-Kinard-Tyler Elementary School will hold Family Math and PTO Night from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept 26, at the school. Explore the wonders of math with your children and let them show you what they are learning.

Teachers will play host to several activities and math centers, offering a variety of math games. Special home-learning activities and ideas will be available, too. Light refreshments will be served. For more information, call Francina Gerald, Romantria Spigner or Angela Collins at 803-2634441. How to submit events Please submit Community Datebook column Kerns in writing.

Items must be received no later than noon of the day before the event Datebook items for the Saturday, Sunday and Monday editions must be received by noon Friday. The does not guarantee when items will run. Items may be submitted by: Email: Fax: 803-533-5595 Mail: RO. Drawer 1766, Orangeburg, SC 29116 In person: 1010 Broughton St Official: SMC in better financial shape after cutting indebtedness by 18 percent "The mind of man is very precious to God," Dr. Eddie Beaver said at Southern Methodist College's fall convocation on Sept.

16. The goal of Christian education is twofold, he said. There must be redemption of the mind as well as the soul for people to be powerful Christians, Beaver said. An adjunct professor at Southern Methodist College, he told students faculty andfriendsofthecollegethathewanted to talk to them about "the Word, the Scriptures and the power of life, the dynamic of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer." The Bible says, "we're being changed from glory unto glory. We're told it's an ongoing practice," he added.

"We are reflec -tions of Jesus in this world." For this change to take place, the Christian must have both knowledge and the power of the Holy Spirit, Beaver said. "We have this obligation to develop this good, solid Christian mind," he said. "If you don't know the Scriptures, you don't know the power of God and the power of the Spirit." Beaver noted that the Apostle Paul says to "study to show thyself approved." The Bible also speaks of the value of knowledge in a number of verses, he said. Beaver noted that John Wesley, founder of Methodism, believed strongly in studying and developing the mind. A woman once told Wesley that "God does not need your education," Beaver said, adding that Wesley responded, "Neither does he need your ignorance." But the Word also teaches the dynamic of spiritual change through the power of the Spirit, Beaver said.

"We can't separate what God's doing in the mind and what God's doing in the soul," he said. Dr. Vic Reasoner, interim SMC president, said, "We want our minds to be filled, but we want our hearts to be filled." "It's possible to make straight A's and flunk life," he said. "We want them (students) to leam as much as possible, but we want to be filled as much as we can with the Spirit of God." Beaver urged students not to "get this academically right and be spiritually wrong. We have to have a power, a piety holiness in our lives," he said.

The two pictures of knowledge and of spiritual power must be kept in the mindifpeople are tobe powerful Christians, and that's" done through speaking with the Lord, according to Beaver. Prayer will bring our hearts and minds together," he said. "It will change your life." Contact the writer: dUnder-dtmantimesmddemocrat. comor803-S33-5S29. showing what we're teaching." He noted that collectively, the SMC faculty has 205 years of pastoral experience.

Reasoner also told directors that the college has beenable to offer work scholarships to students through a grant obtained by Dr. Richard Blank, head of institutional advancement. These scholarships pay students to maintain the 50-acre grounds at the college. Additionally, the library has been able to purchase new computers and a new online cataloging system, Reasoner said. Students are also being paid through the grant to enter data into the system, he said.

"So many of our students are off site, and they need to be able to access the library," he said. These work grants benefit the students, help meet the needs at the college and help keep the cost of tuition down, Reasoner said. "My goal is to graduate students with no indebtedness," he said. "We don't want pastors and potential missionaries to be unable to fulfill their ministry work because of indebtedness." According to Reasoner, the average indebtedness of a student after four years of college is more than $26,000. Contact Ok writer: Hinder or 803-533-5529.

By DALE UNDER-ALTMAN Staff Writer Finances at Southern Methodist College are looking good in spite of the poor economy, Interim President Dr. Vic Reasoner reported to directors at the fall board meeting. "We're on more financially solid footing than we have been in the past," Reasoner said. "The significant number is that we have reduced our total indebtedness by 18 percent over the last 12 months." The college has brought its indebt -edness down by $41,000 since last year and is current on all obligations, he said. That brings total ness on a property valued at $8 million down to $200,000, That may be peanuts to larger universities with budgets that run into millions of dollars, but Reasoner says it's very positive for SMC.

He said he doesn't take credit for the decrease in debt. That was based onaplan put inplace by former president the Rev. Gary Briden, Reasoner noted. The plan called for a cutback in salaries that left all faculty working on a part -time basis, he said. Most of them are now bi-vocational.

"You can look at that as a negative thing, but it can also be positiver he said. "We're out doing what we're training other people to do. Instead of just teaching out of a book, we're Man being sought for early morning shoplifting of beer The truck, with the S.C. license tag FKN910, has a white and blue coach sign on the plate and a Farm Bureau Insurance sticker on the bumper. The vehicle, worth $8,000, was not found but was entered into the National Crime Information Center database.

A woman called police at 9:41 p.m. Sept 18 to report someone had tried to break into her apartment while she was upstairs. She said her neighbor called to tell her that her back door was open. When the complainant went downstairs, she discovered that her back door was broken nearly off its hinges. Police noted that the door frame was almost completely off the door and the dead bolt locking mechanism and door handle lock had been rendered Inoperable.

Police asked the woman what time she was last downstairs. She estimated was about 6 p.m. because she had been watching Thea Simpsons" before going upstairs. She said she did not find anything missing. Neighbors, who would have been outside hanging laundry on the line to dry, denied seeing anything suspicious, the report said.

An officer Jammed a chair under the doorknob to help secure the broken door. The complainant said she fvft more secure and promised to report anything she found to be missing. Police were dispatched at 9:18 a.m. Sept 18 to the First Baptist Church on Pine Street after someone reported seeing a man sitting in the bushes. The officer discovered a 43 year-old black man sitting on the ground between the bushes and asked him what was going on.

The man said he was waiting for his brother to meet him. He Identified himself after police asked for his name. The officer observed an item lying on the ground that resembled a rodem needle near where the man had been standing.The offkhandaedtherMibutexplaiiedne was not arresting him, just detaining him. The object was found to be an ink pen. The officer continued to look In the bushes and found an open beer can that was sti cold in a brown bag.

He ticketed the man for public drinking and public drunkenness. After confirming the man had no waap-ons or sharp objects, the officer patted him down and learned he lived in EutawvUe with one tocomcgrthim.Ata finishing some paperwork, an officer drove the man home and gave him an Oct 1 court date. narcotic pain pills were missing from her locked cabinet An officer responded to the complaint Sept 16 and aoVised the complainant to call the police if a suspect is discovered. A Holly Hill chiropractor called police at 9:10 a.m. Sept 16 to report someone had broken into and ransacked his office the night before.

Nothing was missing but there was broken glass inside the office, Some drawers, a kitchen cabinet and a rear door were open. A shovel believed to have been taken from the clinic's garage and used by the bur-0ar to pry open a back window was retrieved by police and checked for fingerprints. They lifted a smudged fingerprint from the dusty shovel, which was not dear nor conclusive enough for evidence. An officer checked the area and surrounding buildings but could find nothing out of the ordinary An Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office deputy responded at 7 a.m. Sept 18 to a report from a resident on Old State Road that his red 1994 Chevy C1500 pickup truck had been stolen sometime after he went to bed the night before.

The deputy took the information and provided It to the Holly Hiil Mice Department which is investigating the vehicle theft Staff Report Holly Hill Police Dept A man with a taste for breakfast brew of an alcoholic nature may have to tap another place besides the IGA to quench his thirst. An IGA employee called police at 8:05 a.m. Sept. 13 to report a black man wearing a red shirt with images of people on it had shoplifted beer. Store surveillance video shows a man walk into the store, head to the beer cooler and stash two 24-ounce beer cans in his back pants' pocket.

The man had been seen walking around town, and a customer told police the suspect's first name and the name of the street on which he lives with his mother, the report said. The customer did not know the last name of either the suspect or his mother. The officer, who plans to Issue a warrant for the man, searched but did not find him. In other reports: A representative of the Orangeburg County Disabilities and Special Needs Board called police Aug. 24 to report three COiYrACTLNG THE Circulation Department call 803-536-1812 or email circOtimesand-democratcom Classified advertising call 803-536-4607, toll-free 1-877-5364607 or email classOTmesanddemocratcom Display advertising call 803-534-3352, toll-free 1-877-5364607, fax 803-533-5526 or adsGtimesand-democratcom News: 803-534-1060, toll-free at 1-877-534-1060.

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