Come Celebrate with the Patriot Quartet and friends at the 4^th annual Patriot Homecoming sing. This event will be held Friday and Saturday October 26 and 27 at 7:00 pm each night. The site will again be the Lawrenceburg United Methodist Church located on the corner of US 127 Bypass and Carlton Drive, Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. We’re sure to have a great time with such guests as Lawrenceburg’s own Hilltop Singers to kick things off on Friday night, followed by the very popular Jay Stone Singers. Saturday night will feature talented singer, songwriter and actress Cheryl Jackson, followed by the Called Out Quartet, an excellent group of young men whose popularity continues to rise across the country. Of course, the Patriots will also be singing each night. The church doors will be open for all to come. However, there will be someone at the sanctuary doors to accept donations to help defray the costs of bringing these good groups to Lawrenceburg. We would suggest $10 per person as a reasonable goal for those able to help, but all donations, large or small will be much appreciated. Most of all we desire your prayers and presence for these nights of praise and celebration of the blessings we all enjoy as saved sinners and as Americans!

Since my last posting (and I’ve been dutifully chastised for taking so long) the Patriots have been very busy doing what the Lord has called us to do. We’ve sung to and worshiped with a lot of folks in such places as Akron, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; St. Louis, Missouri; Renfro Valley, Kentucky and lots of points in between. God just continues to bless us everywhere we go with the presence of His Spirit and with the blessed fellowship of brothers and sisters in Christ. We truly love seeing old friends and making new ones.
The National Quartet Convention was great time of seeing old friends and making the acquaintance of many new ones. We hope all of you who came by will remember to mention us to the Father and will stay in contact with us. The Patriots were pleased to sing at an NQC showcase on Monday afternoon. I hope you were there. We certainly enjoyed ourselves for the brief time we were on stage and want to give a great big thank you to our friends in the crowd who supported us so well!
On a personnel note, we do have some sadder news. Jerry Shepherd, our long time tenor and brother has found it necessary to once again leave us for medical and family responsibilities. You may recall that he returned to us a little over a year ago after being gone for a few months due to medical problems. Since his return, the Lord has used him in a mighty way, both in his singing, in giving his personal testimony of the Lord’s grace in his life, and through the book Angels At The Crossroads by Ann H.Gabhart. It’s a biographic story of his tormented young life as a professing Christian who was also a drug addict, alcoholic and eventually convicted felon on whom God never gave up or forsook. The twists and turns in his life through his rededication and work for the Lord in prison and his eventual release is so compelling many have told us they stayed up all night reading the book. We, the Patriots, will surely miss Jerry and his antics on and off the stage. Please join us in prayer for him and his family as they start this new chapter in their life. Jerry plans to continue singing as a soloist and giving his testimony when the opportunity arises. May God richly bless you, Jerry and Connie. We love you both.
God is good! He always provides abundantly. When Jerry took his “leave” last year, the Lord almost immediately provided the perfect man for the time in Paul Stearman. This time it’s taken us a little longer but we believe God has lead us to just the right person to fill our tenor position again. His name is Ensco “Sonny” Rue. Sonny and his wife, Judy live in Danville, Kentucky where Sonny owns and operates his own insurance business. He (like the rest of us) is a “mature” man with many years experience in a variety of music genres, including a couple of stints in a southern gospel quartet. Although Sonny has already filled in a couple of times, we will be “officially” introducing him to our friends at the upcoming Patriot Homecoming Celebration. He will be taking over the tenor position full time at the end of October. We, including Jerry, believe the Lord has again brought us together with the right person and we are grateful to Him. God is indeed good!
This weekend begins with a Friday night visit to the Kentucky Gospel singing convention being held at the Convention Center in Cave City, Kentucky. We look forward to seeing a lot of our good friends there. From there we go on to Fairmount, Illinois and our friends at the Greer building for another great time at their Saturday night gospel concerts. On Sunday we travel just back up the road to the Central Park Church of Christ in Tilton, IL. We look forward to visiting and singing with these folks. They have become our very dear friends and staunch supporters. It’s gonna be a great weekend!
Until next time, may God richly bless you.
DG.

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