Member of the Month 

July 2007

Dale Powell

by: Tom Whitener

What do Dale Powell and a sealed Mason jar have in common? (If you guessed that his wife Bonnie can see right through both of them, you’d be wrong!) Actually, both are used to preserve things as we’ll find out later in this article. Now that the AWANA year is over for the summer, Dale can hang up his T&T Leader shirt for a little while and enjoy being selected as the July 2007 Member of the Month.  

Married since 1968, the Powells raised two grown sons (Troy and Jason) at their Spring Hill residence, a place that they’ve been in for over 30 years. Their home now welcomes several grandchildren and other “adopted kids” from the neighborhood since, as Dale puts it, “they come looking for a Bonnie fix.” He also states an obvious benefit about being a grandparent: “The best part is you can spoil them and then send them home.”  

Following a lengthy career at Dow Chemical, Dale now provides his talents as an industrial electrician to a contractor working on demolition projects for Dow. “For years, I spent building things and now I’m tearing them down,” adds Dale.      

Dale has seen the growth in our AWANA program and admits that working with the T&T boys group (ages 9 – 12) is challenging at times. He explains, “Some kids today don’t have any respect for others, so it’s very important we reach out to them.”      

Dale was saved during a service at Cross Lanes Bible Church, where an evangelistic team from New York delivered the Good News to him. He comments, “After hearing the message, it felt like God just yanked me up and I went forward that night.” Dale picks a well-known verse and hymn as his favorites – John 3:16 and “Amazing Grace.”  

Much like the Mason jar is used in the canning process, Dale will take the canned (or completed) recordings of a desired service and preserve them for future use. Both Sunday services (and some Wednesday services) are regularly recorded and Dale makes duplicate cassette tapes for any member in our congregation who asks for a copy. He says, “I typically get the most requests after we have anything musical, like a cantata or the Fall Music Festival”.    

Dale sums up his impression of Spring Hill Baptist Church and laughs, “I think we are one of the friendliest churches around. I’ve never heard a complaint that we aren’t.” 

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