by Amanda E. West | Jan 11, 2025 | Feature, Shelbyville
Kimberly Williams ripped open the envelope and frantically scanned the letter from the College of Nursing. Her excitement shifted to bitter tears as she dialed her mother’s number. When the phone call ended, Williams had a backup plan. She’d received a rejection...
by Amanda E. West | Jan 11, 2025 | Feature, Shelbyville
At Creekside Farm on the outskirts of the Flat Creek community, the aroma of freshly mowed hay mixes with the salty sweat of the horses. They stamp their hooves on the dirt floor, begging Angela Wojtkowski to lead them out of their stalls and into the sunlight. As the...
by Amanda E. West | Dec 13, 2024 | Feature, Shelbyville
The measure of a man’s life is not in the riches he accumulates, but in the friends he gathers along the way. Manuel Rodriguez scratched out a living alongside his parents in Dolores Hidalgo in Guanajuato, Mexico. The second eldest son of nine children, Manuel carried...
by Amanda E. West | Dec 13, 2024 | Feature, Shelbyville
During his first mission trip with Appalachian Outreach in 2000, Steven Flippo surveyed the condition of the property assigned to his team, and his heart ached. “We were tasked with doing repairs for an elderly gentleman. He did not have a functioning bathroom. The...
by Amanda E. West | Nov 8, 2024 | Feature, Shelbyville
This past June, as temperatures hovered above the 90s and rainfall was scarce, a group of teens from Bell Buckle United Methodist Church (BBUMC), Shelbyville First United Methodist Church (SFUMC), Trinity United Methodist Church of Murfreesboro (Trinity UMC), and...
by Jeriah Brumfield | Nov 8, 2024 | Feature, Shelbyville
The arena’s din does little to break his concentration. Keon Johnson drives toward the basket, his eyes locked on its rim. With a swift pivot, he creates space as his body twists, the ball arcs through the air, and the net swishes in one fluid, confident...
