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08 Mar

March 8, 2012 |

Arek and Donna Delik are UB endorsed missionaries serving with Operatin Mobilization in Kutno, Poland.

Donna Delik

Extreme cold and heavy snow buried parts of Europe at the beginning of February, claiming hundreds of lives. Eastern Europe was particularly hard hit. In Poland alone, over 100 people died during a cold snap that lasted more than a week, with temperatures dropping well below freezing. Many of the victims were homeless people, and alcohol abuse was a main factor contributing to such a high death toll.

Last week, our engineer submitted to the local government the required documents and blueprints for our church and rehabilitation center. Arek asked when we would obtain the construction permit, and the answer was, “We don’t know, just wait.”

It doesn’t sound very promising, and we pray for God’s intervention on our behalf. We are aiming to resume the work in March when the weather gets warmer. We hope that we can use part of the building by the beginning of summer. Much work remains to be done, but it is not a mission impossible.

08 Mar

March 8, 2012 |

Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries

A few people have asked us about relief for the victims of tornados in the midwest. No United Brethren churches were affected. However, if you’d like to help, Global Ministries will be happy to receive funds for Samaritan’s Purse, which is working in the region.

We partner with Samaritan’s Purse in disaster relief both in the United States and abroad. They have the mechanisms in place to act as first responders.

Unless we notify churches otherwise, our policy is to forward 100% of relief funds we receive to Samaritan’s Purse in times of disaster. Donors simply need to make their check out to “Global Ministries” and write “Tornado Relief” on the memo line.

08 Mar

March 8, 2012 |

The new addition at the Yoro church in Honduras

The Hebron church

The kitchen/dining hall at the retreat center.

Nancy and Wilbur Fritz, from the King Street church in Chambersburg, Pa., recently led a team to work at several places in Honduras. Here’s is Nancy’s report.

Nancy Fritz (right)

From February 18-28, 2012, a ministry team from King Street Church (Chambersburg, Pa.) made a whirlwind trip through parts of north-central Honduras. What a joy to see God at work in so many areas!

The UB church in Yoro is building an addition adjacent to their present church. This will provide classrooms for children and youth, restroom facilities, and the pastor’s study and personal area. Yoro UB church is doing outreach! Each week a group of adults and youth bring the Word of God to children in the village of Santa Ana where there is no church.

Hebron UB church in the village of El Pino is still home to some of the original families who settled there when the land was cleared and the first houses were built in 2002. Pastor Juan Carlos travels from La Ceiba to preach and minister to the people at Hebron. Faithful ladies still teach the Bible to the children. However, the church building structure is showing signs of the need for attention.

Bethel UB in La Ceiba remains solid, friendly, and active. They have a new pastor, Luis Granwell. With much support and encouragement from the Bethel congregation, former pastor Jose Rivera is now planting the Faith and Hope UB church, located about 10 blocks from Bethel.

Bethel Christian School, on the same campus with the Honduras Conference headquarters and the Bethel UB church, continues to teach students from kindergarten through college. Enrollment has reached 2000! They’re making good use of their newest facility–a technical training center where students learn elementary and advanced English, home-making, vocational subjects, and a wide range of computer skills.

The UB Retreat Center is located 6 miles east of La Ceiba on a beautiful landscaped hillside. Large shade trees, 2 covered pavilions, a canteen, picnic tables, swimming pool, basketball court, staff housing, and a hike up the hill to overlook the Caribbean all add to the ambiance that makes this an ideal setting for ministering to children, youth, and adults. (Superintendent Mrs. Juanita Chavez asks everyone to pray that God will send a director for the Center and provide funds to complete the refurbishing of the kitchen and dining area.)

The Balfate UB church is located about 90 minutes east of La Ceiba. It is growing steadily under the leadership of Pastor Daniel Melgar, with attendance now averaging 60-80 each Sunday. It was a long time coming, but after 3 years of godly perseverance and hard physical labor, Pastor Melgar and his family are extremely grateful to be settled in their own home.

Balfate UB is the home church of missionaries Rigo and Christy Andino. Christy, the daughter of Wycliffe missionaries Roger and Marilyn Reeck, is a teaching and practicing registered nurse as well as part-time administrator of the new hospital, Loma de Luz (Light on a Hill). Rigo drills wells to provide safe water and serves as ambulance driver for the hospital. The Andinos are parents of 3 young children.

07 Mar

March 7, 2012 |

Work in progress on the new Guatemala Central Office.

Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries

The annual Easter Offering is used to bless various United Brethren missions efforts. Funds from the 2011 offering were sent to Guatemala, our newest international conference, where new churches are being planted regularly.

Some of the funds we sent at the end of 2011 enabled the Guatemalans to buy property in Aguas Calientes, where a group had already been formed. They were also able to begin construction of a conference office. Superintendent Francisco Najera’s coordinates the efforts to lead more than 20 churches in the areas surrounding Guatemala City and Escuintla.

07 Mar

March 7, 2012 |

Francisco and Maira Raudales, along with son Jimmy, have moved to Miami and are now residents of the United States. Francisco was superintendent of Honduras Conference 1997-2009.

05 Mar

March 5, 2012 |

Several students from Huntington University plan to spend their spring break traveling. Some will see the lights of the big city, while others will venture to exotic locations–all with the goal to serve.

HU’s Joe Mertz Center for Volunteer Service will send three teams of students to Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Philadelphia; and Zacapa, Guatemala, from March 12-16. These groups will volunteer in area orphanages, clinics, schools, and with local missionaries. The HU softball team will travel to Tucson, Ariz., where head coach Doug Gower hopes to find small ways for the softball team to minister on top of training for the upcoming season.

“We try to do little things while traveling such as anonymously pay for an unsuspecting person’s meal when we go out to eat,” Gower said. “It could be an older couple or anyone, really. We try to make it a team choice. We try to represent Huntington in all we do while out for an extended period.”

Jessica Stearns, an HU graduate counseling student and assistant for the Joe Mertz Center, organized all the mission trips this year.

Rebecca McIlwain, a sophomore psychology major from Albany, Ind., will lead six students in a trip to Guatemala, where they will volunteer with His Hands International Inc.

The Guatemala team will serve lunch to the community and volunteer at the local children’s home and malnutrition center.

Mallory Jones, resident director for Baker and Roush halls, also feels exhilarated about advising a missions team to Haiti. Jones and her team will work with Mission of Hope, one of the largest missions organizations in Haiti.

“I have a big passion for travel, ministry and other cultures, so it was an easy answer to give when I was asked if I wanted to lead the trip,” she said. “I want to help students experience something that could impact their lives and change their worldviews.”

The group traveling to Philadelphia will serve with the Center for Student Missions, which is an organization that connects students wanting to volunteer with various projects around the community. The team also will assist with afterschool programs.

“I hope our team will be able to get out of our comfort zone and get a feel for inner-city life in the U.S.,” said Doris Walker, student leader for the trip and a junior entrepreneurial small business management and business management double major from Kandern, Germany. “I want our team to see how the Philadelphia inner-city population experiences poverty and for them to experience Christ in that environment.”

05 Mar

March 5, 2012 |

The former St. Felix Friary and Good Shepherd UB church

Members of the Sisters of Mary order.

In 1980, the Grayston Avenue UB church in Huntington, Ind., bought the former St. Felix Friary. They changed their name to Good Shepherd UB church, and moved into the former monastery for the next 20 years.

Good Shepherd left the property in 2009 and began meeting in temporary locations. Now using the name The Well, the congregation holds services at the Huntington YMCA while looking for a permanent location.

In 2010, they sold the friary to the Mary Cross Tippman Foundation, run by a Catholic businessman in Fort Wayne, Ind. The foundation poured over $1 million into renovations. The foundation modernized the kitchens and restrooms, upgraded the wiring, painted, brought the facility up to code, and added new pews, statuary, an altar, and other items.

And now, it will become a nunnery. The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, an order founded 15 years ago and based in Ann Arbor, Mich. They will place about 40 novices in the west wing, which Good Shepherd used a a retreat center. The order states, “Our community exists for the salvation of souls and the building of the Church throughout the world.”

The order, which has about 100 sisters, focuses on teaching. Women joining the order go through an eight-year process before taking their final vows; they all earn a teaching degree during the formation process. The Huntington center, by providing housing for novices in the second and third years of the process, will relieve overcrowding at the main center in Ann Arbor.

The sisters serve in Catholic schools around the country, and currently work in six states: Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, California, and Arizona. According to a local Catholic spokesman, they are very much in demand.

The friary was home to Father Solanus Casey 1946-1956, a Capuchin monk who has gone through the first of three stages toward sainthood in the Catholic church. His second-floor dorm room in the east wing has been kept the way it was when he lived there.

01 Mar

March 1, 2012 |

Hillsdale UB's Upward Awards Program (click to enlarge)

On Saturday, February 25, the Hillsdale UB church (Hillsdale, Mich.) held an awards program to conclude the Upwards Basketball/Cheerleading season. This was the third year for Upwards at Hillsdale UB, with about 250 elementary age children participating this year. Over 700 came out for the closing program in the Worship Center.

Over 60 children responded to the invitation given at the conclusion of the awards program. Among them were a dozen players who made first-time commitments to Christ.

Each year, the Hillsdale congregation has gained new families from the Upwards ministry. This season, Pastor Les Smith (right) coached a kindergarten team, and the family of one of his players are now regular attenders. The father is superintendent of the local school district.

01 Mar

March 1, 2012 |

Scenes from Camp Living Waters Day at Sunfield. (Click photos to enlarge)

Leigh Pearson (right), Administrative Assistant at Sunfield Church (Sunfield, Mich.)

On Sunday, February 26, Sunfield UB church (Sunfield, Mich.) hosted a “Camp Living Waters Day” to promote summer camp and raise money to help send to summer camp area youth who may not otherwise be able to go and “experience God in His creation.”

Chad Saxton, Executive Director of Camp Living Waters, was our guest speaker. A “Silent Auction” was held, and the inside of the church was transformed into a makeshift Camp Living Waters. Picture were hung from the ceiling throughout the entire church showed smiling faces and activities available at camp. Areas throughout the church were renamed lodges or cabins that are actually at Camp Living Waters. The Kitchen became the Camp Store where camp-like refreshments–freshly made smores, rice krispie treats, trail mix, fruit snacks, popcorn, chips, juice boxes and hot chocolate–were served in lieu of the normal Sunday morning coffee and cookies.

The Silent Auction was open from 9 am to 12 pm. We asked the congregation to provide auction items (services or goods). We had over 65 items to bid on–dinner and a movie with Pastor Randy Carpenter and his wife (right), lots and lots of home-baked goods (pies were going for over $40), lawn mowing services, goodie baskets, food baskets, and more. One small group made homemade lasagna and had it available for taste-testing, and then took orders to provide homemade lasagna, haircuts, bowling, tie blankets, kids’ toys, etc.

There was something for everyone! We sold every item and at the end of the day, we raised over $1,800 in scholarship money for summer camp. It was a great day and everyone had a lot of fun. We are excited that the success of the day will benefit many youth to possibly meet Jesus for the first time or grow closer in a relationship with him while at camp this summer.