Want to receive UBCentral posts by email? Just enter your email address below and hit the “Subscribe” button. Feedburner is a free service from Google.
You’ll receive an email asking you to confirm the subscription. All you need to do is click on a link.
Every day, not long after 11 a.m., you’ll receive an email containing the news items posted during the previous 24 hours on UBCentral.org. The emails look like this.
This morning (Friday, Dec. 4), Bishop Phil Whipple spoke briefly to a group of youth from United Brethren churches who were visiting Huntington University. They met in the Longaker Recital Hall in the Merillat Centre for the Arts. The students had come for the Toby Mac Winter Wonder Slam concert, held the night before at Huntington University. They represented these churches:
Mrs. Walter Recinos at the site of the mudslide.
Torrential rains hit large areas of Central America this fall. In El Salvador, Pastor Walter Recinos and his wife lost their home in a mudslide. Nearly everything was lost as a result. We’re gathering funds to take with us to General Conference in January to present to Pastor and Mrs. Recinos, who will be attending as guests. El Salvador is a mission district, with oversight by Honduras Conference.
Sometimes visions die with the visionary. But then there are visions worth hanging onto and passing on to future generations. Such is the vision of Dr. Ralph Winter, founder of the US Center for World Mission in Pasadena, Calif.
While visiting with Dave Datema, the newly named General Director of Frontier Mission Fellowship, of with the US Center for World Mission is a part, he showed me a “stone of remembrance” that the staff erected soon after Dr. Winter’s passing last May. The stone reads:
This stone is a witness that on July 14, 2009, after the death of our founder, Dr. Ralph D. Winter on May 20 that same year, the members of the Frontier Mission Fellowship reconsecrated themselves to the vision of the gospel of the Kingdom being proclaimed by word and deed among all peoples to bring about the obedience of faith among all peoples. Joshua 24:26-27
I count it a privilege to have United Brethren people like Dave and Cathie Datema and family serving with an organization that continues to do so much to serve Christ’s Church in the work of sharing the gospel among all nations. The US Center for World Mission continues to have a vital role in mobilizing, educating, and training churches and missionaries from around the world to accomplish the mission of God. Continue to remember them in prayer.
United Brethren people in Haiti have been working hard on a new church in Delmas. This facility will also serve as a national conference center. The property, located on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, was purchased by the Haitian church. The building is being constructed through the efforts of church members and local contractors using gifts from Canada and the United States. A team from the UB churches in Canada will travel to Haiti to help with the construction.
On December 13, the Delmas church will celebrate its third anniversary. While the project continues, the local church is increasing in attendance and has been baptizing people.
Last spring, we contributed $8000 through our Self-Denial Offerings. However, an additional push is needed to complete the building before the rainy season comes. Pastor Oliam Richard has been under pressure by the municipality to complete the project. Any assistance toward the total amount needed would be appreciated.
On Thursday, December 3, Bishop Phil Whipple will take part in a panel discussion on the Mid-Morning program on WBCL, a Christian radio station in Fort Wayne, Ind. He will be joined by Jerry Davis and Mike Cook, from the Huntington University graduate school, and Monte Sheets, a pastor in Fort Wayne.
The panel will talk about healthy pastors and healthy churches. They will particularly tackle the questions, “How can pastors care for their inner life, and how can their congregations help?”
The program airs 9-10 am. You can listen over the internet.
L-r: Bishop Phil Whipple, Joe Leighton (current pastor of Salen Chapel), Chuck Wheatley (former pastor), Billy Snider (special speaker)
Mt. Zion UB (Junction City, Ohio) had a homecoming on October 4 with special speaker, Rev. Billy Snider. He grew up at Mt. Zion and entered the ministry in the 1950s. The day included special music in the morning and afternoon services, a dinner, several guest singers, and guests from other churches and the community. Ninety people attended in the afternoon.
The church also contributed to Franklin Graham’s Operation Christmas Child. We did 36 shoeboxes this year–an average of over one per person in Sunday attendance.
We are also once again adopting a family for Christmas and contributing to the local food pantry with 70 boxes of crackers. Each of the churches contributes something like that, and the community ministry compiles food baskets for needy people for Christmas. Salem Chapel UB usually participates in this too.
During a chapel message to Huntington University students in early September, I presented five practical tips for modeling unity as believers within a diverse community. I discussed points one and two earlier. Here is the third one.
3. Celebrate diversity.
Diversity truly is a gift from God. He created each of us in his image, and we all come with wonderful, unique skills and abilities.
We celebrate diversity because God is a God of creative beauty and diversity.
Let’s not just tolerate diversity, whether in your neighborhood, church, workplace, or at Huntington University. Rather, celebrate it and enjoy it and appreciate it for its rich vastness and beauty. Because it reflects the diversity and creativity of God.
Bishop Phil Whipple reports that his wife, Sandy, had her heart catheterization, and there is no blockage. Praise the Lord! There is an irregularity with her heartbeat which can be regulated with a change in medication.
Thank you for your prayers for her.
Global Ministries owns a small house in Huntington, Ind., where missionaries on furlough stay. It is used almost continuously.
In the spring, we’d like some exterior work done on the home, particularly repairs to the back porch and some painting. Would you or your church be able to provide the labor? Contact Jeff Bleijerveld to make plans for a team to assist with this need.
