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Owen Gordon, President, Jamaica Bible College (Mandeville, Jamaica)

We completed another successful camp for boys at Jamaica Bible College. We had a total of 27 boys from Tuesday to Saturday. The boys were mainly from neighboring New Green and Greenvale communities, with one from Clarendon and another from St. Elizabeth.

The boys were exposed to presentations on health, security, and conflict management. We had lots to sporting activities, food, and a good dose of challenges from the Word of God.

Each boy was presented with a special shirt highlighting the importance of doing all things thru Christ.

We received much help from young men from Salem UB Church and Jamaica Bible College. As usual, Ms. Joan Scott and the Police gave us solid support.

This is the fourth year for this important outreach program. Several of the boys  committed their lives to follow Christ.

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We received this letter from a girl who attends Mount Zion UB in Wayne, Ohio. It was addressed to Darlene Burkett, the Global Ministries administrative assistant. I was touched by the letter. We deposited the money the kids raised into Billy Simbo’s support account.
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Beulah “Dot” Hasler has been named senior pastor of McGuire Bend UB (Dayton, Iowa) effective July 1, 2009. She is an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church. McGuire Bend continues sharing pastoral leadership with three United Methodist churches in that area. The previous pastor at McGuire Bend, Remigio Panlaqui, was assigned to UMC churches in Fremont and Cedar, Iowa.

My wife Sandy and I moved to Huntington on July 27. Our belongings followed us a few days later. Since then:

  • I have officiated at 3 weddings back at Colwood, the church I pastored in Caro, Mich..
  • I have visited 4 different churches on Sunday mornings in 3 different states.
  • I have been involved in stationing committee work.
  • I met with a group of pastors.
  • I have been appointing people to serve on various teams.
  • I have begun meeting individually with each member of the fine staff here at Healthy Ministry Resources.

As I write this, I am at the end of my first official day as bishop. I am glad that I have had a few days over which to stretch all of that activity. But it raises a flag to me of the importance of making sure I do what is needful and productive. Staying busy is easy, but working God’s plan is where we all need to focus.

I came across this article, “Quoting Satan,” on SermonCentral.com. It is by Chad McCallum, pastor of Compass Point church in Byron Center, Mich. While we often kick ourselves for not being effective Christians, this article imagines how we must look to Satan–a strong, flexible, resilient force that he’s been unable to stop.

I know a church where people have strong opinions about what their church should be, but their opinion has no relation to what God says the church should be. They are people of power. And in the UB church–probably all churches–people with power tend to be people with money.

Nobody will say to them, “We’re going to build a church here, and we don’t need you or your money. We could use you and your money, but if you’re just going to be an obstinate person used by Satan to create problems–no, we don’t need you.”

I’ve had those conversations. It’s not easy, not something I relish. But it’s necessary.

David Datema, UB endorsed missionary who is director of the US Center for World Mission, wrote a blog post called, “My Unsolicited Advice for Mission-Minded Singles.” He offers three pieces of advice, with explanation. The second one include:

Instead of stopping to look, look while going. I wouldn’t expect anyone to stop looking for someone. But don’t make it the main thing. Go after the vision of the kingdom before you. If someone gets in your way and you like them, by all means marry them. But the Kingdom waits for no one. Get on the Kingdom train and you’ll be surprised who else might be on board.

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Bishop Ron Ramsey scored one of the morning’s 3 holes-in-one.

As mentioned yesterday, the Healthy Ministry Resources staff took Ron Ramsey and
Pat Jones out for breakfast that morning, as a way to spend time with them before they left office. But that was only Part 1 of the morning.

Part 2 was mini-golf.

After breakfast, we headed over to the domed building on Engle Road to play 18 holes on their indoor miniature golf course. Ron and Pat are avid golfers. Actually, Ron is avid, and Pat is fanatical. The staff thought it would be fun to play golf with them, but in a setting where the playing field is more level–in other words, not on a real golf course.

The staff divided into three groups and gave it a whirl. When scores were tallied, Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries, emerged as the winner. Darlene Burkett, fresh from vacation (her first day back) and full of energy, placed second. Actually, she was tied with newly-elected bishop Phil Whipple for second. Then came Pat Jones. Here’s most of the list (we’ll skip the last-place finishers) and their scores:

1. Jeff Bleijerveld (43).
2. Tie: Darlene Burkett and Phil Whipple (46).
3. Pat Jones (48).
4. Donna Hollopeter (55).
5. Tie: Ron Ramsey, Steve Dennie, and Jane Seely (56).

There were only three holes-in-one: Ron Ramsey, Pat Jones, and Marci Hammel.

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The Healthy Ministry Resources staff book Bishop Ron Ramsey and Pat Jones out for breakfast this morning (Wednesday, August 12). They’ll be leaving office in a couple days, and we wanted to treat them. We went to Spyros, a family restaurant in Fort Wayne that feeds you obscene amounts of food, and wise souls always leave with a doggy bag.

We gave both Ron and Pat a bag of goodies, mostly golf-related gift cards, since they are  avid (to put it mildly) golfers. Then Phil Whipple, who will officially take office as bishop on August 15, presented a retirement pin to Ron Ramsey: 32 years of service to the United Brethren in Christ.

One thing Bishop Ron Ramsey has emphasized is, “Lead!” Get out from underneath your wussiness and lead. Guys, it’s time to stand up and take a leadership role. Everything rises and falls on leadership.

I believe most of our churches have people who want to be exposed to some empowering leadership, and want to be part of an effective church. But they need some good leadership.

When I go into churches and start talking about principles of leadership and church health, I almost always see a couple people who are like wilted flowers that got rain water on them. You can see it in their faces: “Yes, that’s what I’m looking for!

Where leadership is exercised, we find people waiting in the shadows to step up and get involved. People who previously stayed on the sidelines decide they now see a situation in which they’re willing to invest themselves. When people see things change, resources that have been sitting there the whole time get unleashed.