The Nicaragua medical team is still without their medical supplies. Customs hasn’t released anything. The Nicaraguan government has laid out some hoops we must jump through, and Global Ministries is scrambling to comply. Meanwhile, the medical team is trying to keep busy with some other non-medical chores (like some painting). Pray that this situation can get resolved VERY quickly.

When Huntington College became Huntington University, a few changes were needed to the school’s theme song to keep the rhyming scheme intact. For instance, the song ends with, “Hail all hail HC.”

In this video, alums Bill Couch, Taylor Sharp, Russ Birdsall, and Don Betterly lend their harmonies to the new song. Enjoy.

The Bethel UB church (Elmore, Ohio) has a new and very attractive website. Check it out at ExperienceBethel.org. Tim Sherman is the pastor of Bethel.

Sixty people from three UB churches are currently in the Holy Land, June 13-23. The participants come from churches of the West Michigan cluster, which is led by Randy Carpenter, pastor of the UB church in Sunfield, Mich.

Half of the persons are from Homefront UB church in Grandville, Mich.; Josh Good, the senior pastor, is part of that group.

The remaining 30 are from:

  • Banner of Christ UB church (Byron Center, Mich.). Pastor Mike Caley and his wife, Lynne, are among the group.
  • Sunfield UB church (Sunfield, Mich.). Randy Carpenter and his wife, Crystal, are part of the group.
  • Kilpatrick UB church (Woodland, Mich.). Pastor Darrel Bosworth and his wife, Barbara, are part of the group.

Tim Flickinger, pastor of a church plant in Lansing, Mich., is also participating.

The trip is led by Mike Caley (right). This is his third trip to Israel, and the second one he has led since 2010.

“Josh Good and I have headed this up, and it has grown out of the enthusiasm generated by dozens of folks at Banner and now HomeFront church who have attended our Grow in the Word courses,” says Caley. Grow in the Word is a discipleship curriculum written by Dennis Miller, pastor of Emmanuel UB church in Fort Wayne, Ind.

The medical team consisting of 26 people from the United States arrived in Nicaragua on Friday, June 13. However, customs did not release the medical supplies they brought into the country. Everything has been confiscated.

Today, Monday, an appeal is going to a top official to get the supplies released. Pray that no governmental or spiritual obstacle will stand in the way of this mercy ministry. The team was scheduled to conduct five clinics in rural areas near Masaya.

stan-petersDr. C. Stanley Peters, 91, passed away Monday morning, June 9, 2014, at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, Ind. The funeral was held on Thursday morning, June 10, at College Park UB church in Huntington, Ind.

Stan, as everyone knew him, was a longtime member of College Park UB church in Huntington, Ind. Beginning in September 1959, Dr. Peters served 22 years in the United Brethren national office overseeing our various publications. He concluded his service there in December 1981.

Stan is survived by his wife, Lola Lee. Just three days before his death, they celebrated 69 years of marriage. Also surviving are two daughters and a son, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Stan Peters grew up as a UB preacher’s kid. His father, J. Clair Peters, was managing a furniture plant in Hagerstown, Md., but resigned that position in 1926 to prepare for the ministry. He bundled up the family—wife and three children, Stan being the oldest—and moved to Indiana that year to attend Huntington College. Eighteen years later, Stan himself headed off to Huntington College, graduating in 1944 with majors in math and science. He then taught junior high and high school for two years.

In June 1945, Stan married Lola Lee Stites, whom he had met at college. Later that summer, Stan received his quarterly conference license to preach from the North Avenue UB church in Baltimore, Md. He received a Master of Divinity degree from Huntington College’s seminary in 1949, and was ordained in 1950 by Bishop A.M. Johnson. In 1974, Huntington College awarded him an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree.

In 1948, while still a seminary student, Stan began three years as pastor of Third Street UB church in Fort Wayne, Ind. (now it’s called Anchor Community Church). The congregation, which had been meeting in a basement, erected its present sanctuary during that time. Next, he served the St. Paul-Winchester circuit of Monroe, Ind., 1951-53, and then spent a year on the Berne circuit of Monroe and Geneva.

In 1954, Stan and Lola Lee began an exciting five years starting a new church in Kettering, Ohio. A developer sold the conference a corner lot–just a corn field back then. Construction began on the parsonage and chapel. Stan, Lola Lee, and young daughter Renee lived with members of the Prescott Avenue UB church in Dayton for four months, using the upstairs and the basement, with their hosts in between. When the new pastor’s quarters were ready, the Peters’s furniture, which was in storage at the conference camp, was hauled to Kettering in a farm wagon.

Stan visited hundreds of homes in the area, forming a prospect list of over 200 names on whom he concentrated. The congregation grew steadily. In 1959, a Christian education unit was completed under Stan’s leadership.

After 10 years in the pastorate, Stan Peters accepted the editorship of the United Brethren publishing house in 1959. He followed Dr. George Weaver, who had decided to return to the pastorate (and would become bishop 10 years later).

Over the years, Stan had accumulated a variety of experience in many aspects of the printing business. While in high school, he worked for a local newspaper, gaining experience in nearly every aspect of the operation. He ran his own small printshop during his senior year of high school, using a small letterpress in the upper story of a bank back of their property to crank out letterhead, envelopes, calling cards, and other printing jobs. As a college student, he worked in the college printshop and later in the denominational printshop. He even worked as a pressman in Berne, Ind., while in the pastorate. So he had been around the business.

As editor, Peters wrote, edited, and designed the various publications, including the United Brethren magazine and the Sunday school materials for adults and youth. He also worked on special publications, such as the UB Discipline and the UB hymnal. He traveled throughout the US and Ontario promoting the magazine and Sunday school literature, and helped oversee construction of the new UB headquarters building in 1976.

Stan served the church with dedication and humility. He oversaw publication of 491 issues of the United Brethren magazine. He wrote the following as part of his final editorial in the December 1981 edition of the magazine.

“When God directed our path from the pastorate (the ministry of the spoken word) to editor (the ministry of the written word), I could not have surmised that God would have us serve in this capacity for nearly a quarter of a century…..Through the years I have been happy to serve the church in this capacity and sought to make the magazine an inspiring, informative, helpful, and unifying force in the denomination….”

A group of 26 people will leave for Nicaragua on Friday, June 13. They come from all over the denomination–from Kansas to the east coast. They’ll meet up in Houston and continue on to Managua together.

For many years, we have held annual medical clinics in Honduras, led by Robert and Fonda Cassidy (right) from Mt. Olivet UB church (Mt. Solon, Va.). Requests have come to expand the medical ministry to other Central American countries. This is the first attempt at that. The Cassidys are leading this Nicaragua team. Donna Hollopeter, associate director of Global Ministries, is also participating.

The team will be based at Rancho Ebenezer, a large facility located in the mountains outside of Masaya, Nicaragua. They will hold five clinics in different locations, starting on Saturday, June 14.  They will return to the United States on June 21.

On June 27, another team will head to Poland to conduct an English camp with missionaries Arek and Donna Delik. Donna Hollopeter, along with her husband Jason, will also take part in that trip.

Dave Stephens (right), an ordained UB minister who recently retired as director of Camp Cotubic (Bellefontaine, Ohio), posted an update on Facebook on June 11 about his ongoing struggle with cancer.

“Last week I had another CT scan to see how things were developing. Today the doctor told us that the area in the pancreas was smaller than before. He was encouraged with the entire scan. We are too. I’ve shared that I am pain and symptom free. I’m able to work at the camp every day. With the exception of chemotherapy days, I feel almost normal. I am so thankful for all your prayers and support.”

Retired minister Frank Strine was hospitalized yesterday, June 11. They will determine if he needs a pacemaker. Frank is the father of Devon Strine, pastor of Mount Pleasant UB church in Angola, Ind.

Dr. C. Stanley Peters, 91, passed away Monday morning, June 9, 2014, at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, Ind. Stan, as everyone knew him, was a longtime member of College Park UB church in Huntington.

Beginning in September 1959, Dr. Peters served 22 years in the United Brethren national office overseeing our various publications–the United Brethren magazine, the UB Sunday school curriculum, and other materials. He concluded his service there in December 1981.

Funeral arrangements:

Visitation: 3-8 pm Wednesday, June 11.
Visitation location: Myers Funeral Home, 2901 Guilford Street, Huntington, IN 46750.
Funeral: 10 am Thursday, June 12.
Funeral location: College Park UB church, 1945 College Ave., Huntington, IN 46750.