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In case you’re wondering:
An email was sent out yesterday afternoon to the UB constituent list, which consists of 1070 addresses. It gives information about current work trips, our newest missionary, and other things.
How about forwarding it to your church’s email list, with a note inviting parishioners to subscribe on their own? The email includes a link they can use to subscribe. There might be other people in your church interested in receiving these emails.
During my May trip to Asia, I spent a couple hours with Ajiax Wo (right), superintendent of Hong Kong Conference. David Kline, one of our Macau missionaries, was with me. We went out to eat with Ajiax and Mark Choi, their mission director. Then Ajiax took me on a quick tour around downtown Hong Kong.
We went through the stock exchange, and then down to the harbor. They keep filling in Victoria Harbor to reclaim more land from the sea. Skyscrapers now stand where the shoreline used to be.
Hong Kong built a huge new airport. The previous airport was located in the downtown area at the end of Victoria Harbor. People would go to the top of buildings, where it seemed like you could reach out and touch airplanes as they came in to land.
Ajiax is a really cool guy. He’s in his mid-30s, a really sharp guy. David Kline and I both scratched our heads, thinking, “It’s hard to believe some woman hasn’t grabbed this guy.”
This Sunday, June 22, Bishop Ramsey will speak at Jerusalem Chapel (Churchville, Va.), and help them dedicate their new facility. It’s been just over two years ago that a fire destroyed a large part of their facility.
On May 12, Global Ministries Director Jeff Bleijerveld (right) participated in the 25th anniversary of the Looking Unto Jesus churches in the Philippines. These churches, in 2005, affiliated with the United Brethren denomination to become a national conference. 
While we refer to them as the Philippine National Conference, they are known locally as Looking Unto Jesus.
Joining Jeff was Mike Brown, pastor of Franklin UB church in New Albany, Ohio. Mike’s connections with Superintendent Prudencio Lim and the Looking Unto Jesus churches led to them becoming part of our fellowship.
Jeff Bleijerveld put together a short video from the trip. You can watch the YouTube version above.
A team of 15 persons from College Park UB (Huntington, Ind.) left today to do a week of work in La Ceiba, Honduras. 
They’ll tackle a variety of projects, the main one being building bunks at the new conference camp outside of La Ceiba.
To fund the project, College Park promoted “Build a Bunk” for about six week. A sample of the bunk they would build was placed in the church. For $150, people could sponsor a bunk. That amount covered materials for the bunk itself, but also for other projects.
This is just a reminder, for people in the Indiana-Ohio area, of next Thursday’s “Hang with the Bishop” meeting. Pat Jones and Jeff Bleijerveld will join Bishop Ron Ramsey. It’s for UB pastors and laypersons from churches within driving distance of Huntington, Ind.
The consultation process is the primary method we use to transition churches to health. It starts with an intensive weekend at the church, but continues with a year-long process of coaching on my part, with monthly visits. When the year ends, I usually speak on a Sunday morning and encourage them to keep moving ahead.
Among the initial churches were four congregations in Michigan. That enabled me to be more efficient in my traveling, hitting several churches on the same trip.
At this point, we have completed our year-long work with two churches in Michigan:
In the next few weeks, we’ll conclude the consultations with three more churches:
That leaves only the Mongul UB church in Shippensburg, Pa. Bishop Ramsey and I conducted the assessment March 7-9.
However, a new round of consultations is in the works. I’ll conduct an assessment August 22-24 at Crestview UB in Lafayette, Ind., with Pastor Dan Young. We’re also working toward consultations with four other churches–one in Indiana, one in Ohio, and two in Pennsylvania. I’ll let you know more about those soon.
At Mainstreet, when I prepared my sermons, I would frequently hit a road block, unable to get my ideas to gel. That was always frustrating. So I would go visit people in the hospital, and in between hospitals, I would preach at the steering wheel. Lo and behold, it sounded pretty good! I’d stop and jot down some ideas, and things came together.
I prepared a lot of sermons that way. I would get excited about something, pound the steering wheel, and feel like I wanted to kick the tires. People in other cars probably thought I was nuts.
I still find myself doing that. An idea will pop into my head while I’m driving, and I’ll start talking about it out loud. I can think better when I’m talking than when I’m writing.
Some preachers manuscript their sermons. I don’t. Many times I’d write my sermon outline on a note-card, with several words on it.
As a pastor, I was always well-prepared. I studied hard, going back to the Greek and Hebrew to research the original meaning of words, and reading as many commentaries as I could find about a Scripture passage. But I had a hard time putting everything I learned into a 30-minute package, and would go into the pulpit and basically speak without notes.
I’ve been criticized for that. But I tell people, “I’m not giving a speech. I’m preaching.”
Three work groups are headed overseas this week:
