The Datema Family

Dave and Cathie Datema and children.

Dave and Cathie Datema are endorsed missionaries serving with the US Center for World Mission in Pasadena, Calif. Dave is General Director of Frontier Mission Fellowship, an umbrella organization for a variety of related ministries.

Here are some pieces of their February 16 newsletter.

  • Dave is still working on the challenge of leading Frontier Mission Fellowship into a post-founder era (following the death of Ralph Winter). Much of his time is spent reading, meeting with others, and praying. Please pray for Dave and other leaders here as they seek God’s guidance.
  • Dave continues to work alongside other leaders within the FMF family of organizations to re-tool them for greater effectiveness. He has spent most of his time with leaders at the US Center for World Mission (Dave is presently serving as USCWM Executive Director). Significant progress is being made in implementing a performance management system.
  • Dave spent a weekend in Detroit from January 23-25. He visited some FMF members there, preached at a local church, and met with the leaders of Send International. He also enjoyed spending some down time with friends from his previous life as a pastor. He did NOT enjoy the brutally cold temperatures.
  • On January 20, son Cuyler suffered another seizure, his 5th in a year’s time. It lasted quite a while, so an ambulance was called. We’re thankful that he was released from the ER without having to be admitted. Please pray for God’s mercy, grace, and healing, and for God to be glorified in Cuyler’s life.
  • Callie (12) and Jill (8) are enjoying being homeschooled part-time, and taking some classes at the Judson International School on campus. Jill is playing on a Parks and Recreation soccer league for the spring and summer.
  • Over the Christmas holiday break and into January, we enjoyed a number of activities with the girls including sledding in the local mountains, ice skating, visiting Chinatown in Los Angeles, and going to the zoo. We enjoyed attending the Tournament of Roses parade.

Huntington University’s annual tuition is nearly $5,000 below the national average, and the modest increase approved for next year will help keep Huntington among the region’s best values.

The Board of Trustees approved a moderate increase of 3.9 percent for tuition and fees for the 2011-12 school year. That comes to $22,710, with $500 in fees and $7680 for room and board costs. According to College Board, the average tuition rate for a private college education in 2010 was $27,293.

Approximately 90 percent of Huntington University students receive financial aid in the form of scholarships, grants, loans, or work-study assistance.

Huntington University was ranked fifth in the “Great Schools, Great Prices” category for best-value colleges in the Midwest in the 2011 version of the guide to America’s Best Colleges published by U.S. News & World Report. Among independent colleges in Indiana, Huntington ranked 10th out of 31 schools for the lowest tuition rates in 2010.

For the 2010-11 school year, tuition was $21,850 while fees were $480 and room and board was $7,430.

Change Percent
Tuition $22,710 $860 3.9%
Fees $500 $20 4.2%
Room & Board $7680 $250 %3.36%
Total $30,890 $1,130 $3.8%

Renew CommunitiesRenew Communities, a church plant in the greater Cleveland, Ohio, area, is less than a month away from holding weekly gatherings. They are advertising that they will begin meeting March 13, at 10:30 am, at the Polaris Career Center in Middleburg Heights, Ohio.

Andy Sikora is the church planter for Renew Communities. And according to their really sharp looking website, he’s got a great team working with him.

Delegates and guests to the 2011 Nicaragua National Conference (click to enlarge)

Nicaragua National Conference held its annual meeting in January, with guests coming from Honduras and Costa Rica. Rev. Erik Rojas (far right), church planter and head of our mission field in Costa Rica, served as guest speaker, and Rev. Juanita Chavez (left of Rev. Rojas), superintendent for Honduras, attended as a guest.

We currently have UB churches in five Central American countries: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.

Rev. Juan Pavon (far left) is superintendent of the 33 churches in Nicaragua. We have a number of opportunities for mission teams in Nicaragua this summer under the leadership of Jeff and April Dice, Global Ministries’ Central American Liaisons. Visit our website for more information.

We’ve been having email problems at the national office, the result of some mischief from a Nigerian spammer. To counter that, we are migrating all of our email offsite to Google Apps. If you have sent email to someone with an @ub.org extension, your email may have bounced back to you. Hopefully, this will all be resolved over the weekend.

We are receiving most email. A bigger problem has been sending email from the national office, and having it get rejected (thanks, Mr. Nigerian, for getting us blacklisted as a spammer). If you have questions about whether or not an email got through, feel free to contact the appropriate person at Healthy Ministry Resources. Call toll-free 888-622-3019.

Phil and Darlene Burkett

Phil and Darlene Burkett

Philip and Darlene Burkett, known across the denomination for their missionary service in Macau and for their musical talents, are leaving us. At the beginning of March, Phil will become senior pastor of Cass City Missionary Church in Cass City, Mich.

Phil and Darlene, along with Luke and Audrey Fetters, left for the Orient in 1987 to help found the UB mission work in Macau. After serving there for four years, the Burketts pastored the UB church in Toronto for 6 years. Since 1996, Phil has been Minister of Music & Worship at College Park UB church in Huntington, Ind.

Darlene’s departure will be felt strongly in the Global Ministries department, where she has worked since November 2003. In her role as administrative assistant, she handles a wide range of responsibilities.

Global Ministries has hired a replacement for Darlene and will introduce her in the near future.

Fire Arcade

The members of Arcade Fire with their Grammy awards. Tim Kingsbury is second from the right.

Brian Magnus, writing as pastor of Parkwood Gardens UB church in Guelph, Ontario (he’s also Bishop of the UB Church in Canada), sent this note:

“Tim Kingsbury, bassist of the Album of the Year Grammy Award winning band, Arcade Fire, grew up in and learned to play the bass guitar right here at Parkwood Gardens UB Church in Guelph, Ontario. We’re pretty proud or Tim, who first played guitar and bass in the worship teams of the church! His Mom played the piano here as well.”

Anthony L. Blair, an ordained UB minister, has been named President of Evangelical Theological Seminary in Myerstown, Pa. He was selected by a unanimous vote of the seminary’s board of trustees, and will take office July 1.

Blair, 46, is co-senior pastor of a non-denominational church called Hosanna! A Fellowship of Christians, and teaches in the master’s and Ph.D. programs at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pa., where he’s been on the faculty since 1997. In addition, Blair has taught church history at Evangelical Theological Seminary since 2009.

Blair has been a pastor, church planter, and superintendent in the former Mid-Atlantic Conference. He pastored these UB churches in Pennsylvania:

  • 1986-1989: Lurgan UB (Lurgan, Pa.)
  • 1989-1991: Macedonia UB (Greencastle, Pa.)
  • 1991-1994: Devonshire UB (Harrisburg, Pa.)
  • 1994-2000: Strinestown UB (Strinestown, Pa.).
  • 2000-2005: Grace Now! Ministries (Middletown, Pa.)

Blair holds a bachelor’s in religion from Messiah College; a master’s in religion from Evangelical Theological Seminary; a doctorate in history from Temple University; and a Doctor of Ministry from George Fox Theological Seminary.

He and his wife of 22 years, Carol, have two daughters.

Evangelical School of Theology has 185-190 students pursuing graduate degrees. Two other UB ministers, Ray Seilhamer and Kirby Keller, previously served as EST’s president.

Mrs. Marie Simbo, mother of Rev. Billy Simbo, passed away February 11, 2011, in Sierra Leone. She was 84 years old. Rev. Simbo, who concluded his transition role as bishop of Sierra Leone Conference in January, delayed his return to the States in case she passed away, knowing he would need to abruptly return. However, he decided to return to the States on February 4. He will head back to Sierra Leone for memorial services on February 25 and 27.

You can contact Billy Simbo at:

Billy K. Simbo
1822 Erlen Road
Elkins Park, PA 19027
Email

Here is information which Billy sent to Global Ministries on February 11.

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Do you have some of the old maroon 1973 United Brethren hymnals sitting around somewhere? We occasionally receive requests for that hymnal.

Most recently, The Village of Laurel Run (formerly Piney Mountain Home, once operated by Mid-Atlantic Conference) expressed interest in some. Lois Culler writes, “I go there and play the piano and I have found that some of these hymnals are in real bad shape. A group of us are going up to try to put masking tape on them to hold them together.” If they could get some donated hymnals in good condition, that would be great.

The Mount Zion United African Church in Philadelphia, Pa., pastored by Rev. Joe Abu, was also interested in obtaining hymnals.

If you have some hymals to donate, contact Steve Dennie.