The Christian Authors Guild helps aspiring writers hone their skills through writing education and encouragement. “There’s a lot of people out there with an aspiration to write. Educate and encourage is what we do. We try to encourage people to write something every day,” said CAG Teasurer Mike Anderson, who started the guild in 2000 with Cheryl Norwood. The guild meets the first and third Mondays of each month at Prayer & Praise Christian Fellowship from 7 to 9:15 p.m. Once a month, a guest writer or author speaks to the group. CAG offers many benefits for their members such as critique groups, writing and self-publishing group anthologies, annual writer’s conferences, The Wave newsletter and classes on different aspects of the writing business including social media and marketing. Their 70 active members come from Cobb County, the metro Atlanta area and North Georgia. Over its 13 years, CAG (formerly called Cherokee Christian Writers Group) has had 300 members. CAG welcomes all writers to their guild. “It doesn’t matter what genre a writer is in. We have cats in every alley,” said Anderson, a resident of Ball Ground who writes for two trade magazines. “We have people writing because they’re senior citizens who want to compile stories to leave as a legacy for their families. We have other people who always wanted to write the great American novel, other people who write children’s books, and others who write magazine articles, stage plays, song lyrics and murder mysteries,” he said. CAG has been home to many well-known writers such as R. T. Byron, an author of youth fiction books, and Tara Dillard, an author of gardening books. “Most of the members are of one accord and Christian backgrounds. It’s not necessarily that we’re promoting writing Christian books,” Anderson said. Prayer & Praise Christian Fellowship is at 6409 Bells Ferry Road in Woodstock. Dues are $30 per year and the guild meets about 20 times per year. To learn more, visit www.christianauthorsguild.org.

Youths at two Marietta churches have made a difference this summer. Students from First Baptist Church of Marietta and Roswell Street Baptist Church joined together for fellowship, worship and mission work throughout the week of June 2. Forty-eight students participated, representing Marietta High School and Middle School, along with Walton, Harrison, Kennesaw Mountain and Hillgrove high Schools and Mount Paran Christian School in Cobb County, as well as Archer High School in Gwinnett County and Etowah High School in Cherokee. Several college students also participated. The youths went into the local community and made improvements to parks, schools or homes. They slept at the church each night where they worshipped to a praise band led by Marietta High grad Michael Stiles. His brother, Brandon, played with him along with some great musicians. The group designed and built a bridge needed for a homeowner to safely access his front door, replaced a roof for an older couple, repaired a playground for a lower income neighborhood, repaired a screen porch, did landscaping for three to four older community members, organized and led a backyard Bible club for children in the community (assisted by Lauren Waggoner, children's minister at First Baptist Church of Marietta), and scraped windows for a handicapped homeowner. They also upgraded her handicapped entrances. Fifty adults helped in key leadership roles and support roles throughout the week including Randy Everette, student minister at First Baptist Church of Marietta; Andrew Fillingim, ministry leader to middle school students at Roswell Street Baptist Church; Nancy Dorsey, who oversaw breakfast, dinner and snacks; Jack Godbee, who organized jobsites completing much of legwork to find sites suitable for students; Chris West, a youth minister based out of Euharlee and Marietta High grad; Michael Stiles, worship leader; and Susan Pack, who coordinated lunches to be delivered to sites. Parents and other adults from both churches worked together to handle all meals for the week. ---- The Acworth United Methodist Church is collecting old ties (any style) for men in Malawi and Zimbabwe. If you would like to donate, mail to: Shirley Rose, 4419 Collins Circle, Acworth 30101, or call (770) 974-5024. Sally Litchfield is a longtime Marietta resident. She formerly practiced law in Marietta and now stays home to raise her two children. Send Sally news at sallylit@bellsouth.net. Call Sally at (770) 425-8106.