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29 Dec

December 29, 2010 |

The main building at Camp Malvern will be replaced by a new building.

A side view of the building.

Here’s an update on the Malvern Camp project. As you can see, the Jamaican people are hard at work tearing down the old building. Beginning on January 22, construction teams from North America will travel to Jamaica to work alongside Jamaica Conference to rebuild the main building.

Owen Gordon, a Jamaican pastor and president of Jamaica Bible College, writes, “Over 100 years of history is slowly coming down.
Mixed emotions were evident as persons reflect on the blessings received coming to camp. The expectation is high for the upcoming project.”

28 Dec

December 28, 2010 |

Bishop Emeritus Wilber L. Sites, Jr., passed away at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, December 28, 2010. He was 84 years old.

Dr. Sites was elected bishop in 1977 and served for 12 years, retiring in 1989. Prior to that, he served in pastoral ministry at these United Brethren churches:

  • 1953-1954: Pen Mar (Cascade, Md.)
  • 1954-1956: Hopewell (Auburn, Ind.)
  • 1957-1961: Willshire and Zion (Willshire, Ohio)
  • 1961-1963: associate pastor of King Street (Chambersburg, Pa.)
  • 1963-1969: Mount Pleasant (Chambersburg, Pa.)
  • 1969-1977: Otterbein (Waynesboro, Pa.)

Dr. Sites graduated from Huntington University in 1958, and from the HU seminary in 1961 with a Master of Divinity. He was ordained in 1961. Huntington University awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1978. He earned a Doctor of Ministry from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Deerfield, Ill.) in 1986.

During their retirement years, Dr. Sites and his wife, Mossie, did short-term mission work in Macau and at Jamaica Bible College. He and Mossie were married in 1946 and had three children.

Visitation: 6-8 pm Thursday, December 30, 2010
Funeral: 10 am Friday, December 31, 2010 (with visitation 1 hour before). Officiating: Dennis Sites (son, senior pastor of Jerusalem Chapel UB in Churchville, Va.), and Jason Bakker, associate pastor at Salem UB.

Visitation Location
Grove-Bowersox Funeral Home
50 S. Broad St.
Waynesboro, PA 17268

Phone: 717-762-2811

 Funeral Location
Salem United Brethren Church
4349 Letterkenny Road
Chambersburg, PA 17201

In lieu of flowers, the family prefers memorials to Jamaica Bible College, c/o Salem United Brethren Church.

Cards can be sent to Mossie Sites at:

2719 Fillmore Drive
Chambersburg, PA 17201

28 Dec

December 28, 2010 |

Steve Dennie (right), Communications Director

Everyone’s publishing “decade in review” lists–best movies, best sports plays, most significant news stories, ground-breaking new products, top scandals, etc.

How would we recap the decade for the United Brethren church? Here are ten UB highlights of the decade, in roughly chronological order.

2001 General Conference. This was a historic conference. We adopted a true international structure, with 7 autonomous national conferences joined together by the Confession of Faith and an international constitution. Huntington, Ind., stopped being the United Brethren “world” headquarters, and became just the US headquarters. No longer does United Brethrenism revolve around the United States. Colonialism: RIP.

Open Theism. A whole lot of turbulence arose around Dr. John Sanders, a professor at Huntington University who was a leading proponent of what is called Open Theism. United Brethren theology clashed, hard, with academic freedom. Both church and college came under criticism from the broader evangelical community. In the end, an exit strategy was worked out for Dr. Sanders, and both church and college began mending the wounds.

Joining the Missionary Church. In early 2003, the UB Executive Leadership Team voted to pursue merging our denomination into the Missionary Church, a like-minded, larger denomination based in Fort Wayne, Ind. As leadership pushed this initiative, a group called UB Hope arose to rally people against it. Ultimately, UB members voted it down in a referendum, 56%-44%. This set the stage for lots of soul-searching about why we exist and the adoption of a whole new structure.

(more…)

28 Dec

December 28, 2010 |

Back, L-r: Roger, Marilyn, Christy, Rigo. Front, L-r: Teresa, Amanda, Elisa. Plus the three Andino children. (Click to enlarge)

Roger and Marilyn Reeck, Global Ministries Endorsed Staff, Honduras

Our Christmas was very quiet. Roger and I are now in Honduras, and our girls did not come this year. They were all together in San Antonio, Texas. Even so we did get to be part of their Christmas. It was fun to watch the grandkids open their presents– watching on the webcam and through Skype.

We remained in the US long enough to spend Thanksgiving with our 4 daughters, son-in-law, and grandkids in Texas. The picture above was taken then.

28 Dec

December 28, 2010 |

Phil Whipple, Bishop

Here are some photos from my recent travels to various UB churches.

On November 21, I presented a local church ministerial license to Dan VanArsdalen (with his wife, Deborah) at the Alvordton UB church (Alvordton, Ohio). Dan is senior pastor of Alvordton.

With Joe Cilone, pastor of Pleasant Heights UB church in East Liverpool, Ohio. I visited him the weekend of December 4-5.

The ordination of Warwick Fuller on December 12 at Devonshire UB, Harrisburg, Pa. Warwick has been hired as associate pastor of Crestview UB in Lafayette, Ind. Standing to the right or Warrick are Todd Fetters, senior pastor of Devonshire, and Dan Young, senior pastor of Crestview..

On December 19, I attended Corunna UB (Corunna, Ind.) to present a retirement pin to Jason Hollopeter (with his wife, Donna) for his 37 years of service in the UB church.

21 Dec

December 21, 2010 |

The Healthy Ministry Resources (or Church Services) bookstore at the national office will adopt new hours in 2011.

Beginning January 4, 2011, the new bookstore hours are 8:30 am – 4:00 pm, Monday through Thursday. The bookstore will be closed Fridays.

21 Dec

December 21, 2010 |

We continually increase the number of people who receive UB information electronically. Here are the latest numbers.

Facebook: 411 people now “Like” the United Brethren page. We add new persons every week. A little over a year ago, we started at zero. Last March, the number was 230.

Feedburner: 200 subscribers. Feedburner is the best way to keep current with UB news, since the news comes to your email every day. Subscribe here.

Connect Email: 1242 subscribers. This is an occasional e-letter containing UB news and information. Subscribe here.

WAVES: 277 subscribers. This is a fairly new quarterly email from the Women’s Ministry Leadership Team. It’s designed as a resource for women. The second edition went out a few days ago. Subscribe here.

21 Dec

December 21, 2010 |

Donna Delik
Global Ministries Endorsed Staff, Kutno, Poland

This year we are experiencing very severe winter, which caused chaos everywhere all over Europe. This winter came suddenly and caught many off guard. Many are dreaming of a wonderful Christmas holiday, yet they may be stuck on the road or in the airport.

This winter reminds me C. S. Lewis’s book “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” The snow-blanketed land of Narnia is ruled by a wicked witch whose magic spell keeps the entire land so that “It is always winter, but never Christmas.”

What would our lives be like if it was always winter but never Christmas? There would be nothing to look forward to because days get shorter and thermometers fall. There would be no winter family gathering, no holiday traditions, no Christmas gifts….

On a more serious note: Christmas represents the birth of Jesus Christ. His coming changed history. Bethlehem only happened so Calvary could happen. He was only a baby so He could be a man and die. He only lived in order to die and save. If there had never been a Christmas, the world would be far different than it is today – in ways we cannot imagine.

17 Dec

December 17, 2010 |

Marshall Woods, senior pastor of Mill Chapel UB church (Reedsville, W. Va.), sent this note:

Our church has sensed a need in our community and have opened a weekly Clothing Bank. Erica Hines is the coordinator for the outreach ministry. The clothes are given away freely.

Also, our church is now offering a ”Free Food and Fellowship” to the community. There are many folks in our community who have fallen on hard times and we just want to help out. We are blessed with many volunteers. Gloria Woods is the coordinator.

17 Dec

December 17, 2010 |

Emily Bruce and Samantha Little

Emily Bruce and Samantha Little are preparing for a medical mission trip to Sierra Leone December 27 through January 10. They will accompany a group of students and faculty from the Nursing School at Indiana Wesleyan University to serve the people Kamakwie Wesleyan Hospital.

The medical mission team will fly into Freetown and travel by water taxi and van to Kamakwie Hospital. They will do rounds with a doctor and work alongside national nurses to provide education updates for the nurses and staff. They will also travel to three outlying clinics to assist in surgeries, deliver babies, provide inpatient care, and treat patients.

Please pray for Emily and Samantha as they represent Christ, the United Brethren in Christ, as well as their university.

Emily is the daughter of Pastor Bob and Kathy Bruce. Bob serves on staff at Emmanuel UB in Fort Wayne, Ind. Samantha is the daughter of Pastor Chris and Keri Little. Chris is senior pastor of Mt. Pleasant UB church in Chambersburg, Pa.