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04 Jan

January 4, 2011 |

Bishop Wilber L. Sites, Jr.

The funeral for Bishop Wilber L. Sites, Jr., was held Friday, December 31, at Salem UB church in Chambersburg, Pa. Bishop Phil Whipple attended the funeral. Wilber Sites served as bishop for 12 years, 1977-1989.

The website of the Chambersburg Public Opinion newspaper published an article “Friends Recall Bishop Sites’ Grace, Kindness,” which consisted mostly of interviews with Paul B. Baker, former pastor of King Street UB church, and Garry Culler, associate pastor of Mount Pleasant UB church.

Here is the official obituary published on the website of the Waynesboro Record Herald.

Bishop Wilber L. Sites Jr., 84, of 2719 Fillmore Drive, Chambersburg, Pa., died at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2010, in his home. He had been in failing health for the past month and critically ill for the past week.

Born Oct. 1, 1926, in Chambersburg, he was the son of the late Wilber L. Sites Sr. and Della L. (Stewart) Sites. He lived most of his life in the Chambersburg area.

He graduated from Chambersburg High School with the Class of 1944. He later received his bachelor of arts degree from Huntington College; his master of divinity at Huntington College Seminary; his doctor of ministry degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; and his doctor of divinity from Huntington College.

The Rev. Sites served with the United States Army during World War II, serving in the Pacific Theater at both the Philippine Islands and Korea.

He and his wife of more than 64 years, Mossie M. (Baker) Sites, were married on Nov. 29, 1946, in Hagerstown, Md. They moved to their present residence in 1989.

In his early life, the Rev. Sites was employed at Letterkenny Army Depot, Chambersburg, as a clerk in the parts department and later as a supervisor. He served various churches as pastor in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. He served locally as pastor of Penn Mar United Brethren Church; associate pastor at King Street United Brethren Church; pastor at Mount Pleasant United Brethren Church; senior and associate pastor of Otterbein United Brethren Church, Waynesboro; and prior to retiring on Dec. 31, 1998, he served as bishop of the United Brethren in Christ Church for 12 years. He also served as a volunteer teacher at Jamaica Bible College in Mandeville for more than six years.

He enjoyed spending time with his family.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by two daughters, Judy A. Baker of Hagerstown, Md., and Linda S. Etter of Chambersburg; one son, the Rev. Dennis A. Sites of Churchville, Va.; six grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; three sisters, Florence M. Burkholder of Fayetteville, Pa., Delores I. Hargleroad of Culbertson, Pa., and J. Marie Hawk of Chambersburg; and a number of nieces and nephews.

In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by one sister, Velva B. Cormany.

Services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 31, 2010, in Salem United Brethren Church, 4349 Letterkenny Road, Chambersburg, with his son, the Rev. Dennis A. Sites, and Pastor Jason Bakker officiating. Burial will follow in Fetterhoff Chapel Cemetery, Guilford Township, Pa., where military graveside honors will be conducted by the honor guard of Charles Nitterhouse VFW Post 1599, Chambersburg.

The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday evening in Grove-Bowersox Funeral Home, 50 S. Broad St., Waynesboro, and one hour prior to the services Friday morning in the church.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to: Jamaica Bible College, in care of Salem United Brethren Church, 4349 Letterkenny Road, Chambersburg, Pa. 17201.

Online condolences may be expressed at www.bowersoxfuneralhomes.com.

04 Jan

January 4, 2011 |

Ten-year-old Dylan Culler, standing with his dad at the bus stop one morning, remarked about how lucky they were to have coats, since many people didn’t.

“Coats for folks,” said his father, Bobby Culler, who is associate pastor of Mount Pleasant Church in Chambersburg, Pa.

An thus began a campaign to collect “gently-used” coats for the Salvation Army and local homeless shelters.

Dylan got permission from his schoolteacher to solicit coats at Falling Spring Elementary School. Soon, “Coats for Folks” fliers were being distributed throughout the school, and an email was sent to parents.

Bobby Culler also solicited coats at Mount Pleasant UB. One area shelter told him they could use as many coats as they could get.

Ultimately, 111 coats were donated. Bobby picked them up and delivered them to shelters.

03 Jan

January 3, 2011 |

Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries

In early October, I traveled to Turkey with Kurt Uhen, a member of Emmanuel and a member of the Global Ministries Leadership Team. We were investigating opportunities for United Brethren involvement. I previously explained why we were looking at Turkey, and about I.N. Network, an organization which provided entrée to the country.

We spent the majority of our time in Eastern Turkey, which isn’t an area most ministries focus on, though IN Network does. We found some unique opportunities.

If you’re a Christian in the east, it seems that people notice. We found that among many of the Muslims we met. They would tell us stories like this: “When I was a little boy, my dad sent me to town to get farm implements. He told me to go to the Christian down the street, because he wouldn’t cheat us.”

One pastor in the east, whose congregation has its own building—it’s very important to have a physical presence—told us Muslims regularly come to the door. First, they want Bibles. Second, they want to know if any Christians at the church need a job, because Christians are trustworthy and don’t tell lies.

Moving a Turkish couple into a new community to start a church and set up a business might be a great opportunity. They could support themselves. Being able to do business with integrity in the community might be one of the most meaningful ways to have a witness and impact the community.

We received an invitation from a community leader who had been in prison numerous times over the years, a Muslim of Kurdish background. He threw the doors wide open to us. In a public gathering with press coverage, he said, “These people with us today are Christians, and they are good people. We need to make room in our community for them to work here.” We were surprised by the openness.

Interestingly, we heard reports that many Kurds are fed up with Islam. They complain, “What has Islam ever done for us? We’ve been repressed and persecuted, and Islam has held us backward in so many ways—socially, economically, globally.” They’re ready to throw it off, and many are interested in knowing about Christianity. It’s not like huge numbers of Kurds are coming to Christ, but there is increased receptivity.

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.