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16 Oct

October 16, 2013 |

Huntington University is one step closer to opening its first doctorate program with the appointment of Dr. Ruth Ford (right) as the director of occupational therapy. The program will open in Fort Wayne, Ind., in fall 2014.

Ford previously served as the associate dean of occupational therapy at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn. She comes to HU with 13 years of experience in academia, and is a practicing occupational therapist with 37 clinical years of experience in management, acute care, rehabilitation, outpatient, long-term care, and home health. She has managed more than 500 occupational and physical therapists and speech language pathologists, and has opened multiple occupational therapy programs.

You can read much more about her on the Huntington University site.

This doctorate program will be located within the Life Science Education and Research Consortium of Northeast Indiana at the Parkview Randallia campus in Fort Wayne. The program will build on Huntington’s undergraduate degrees in psychology, nursing, and exercise science. A bachelor’s degree and certain prerequisite courses are required for this program.

Ford will relocate to Huntington in January 2014 to begin her work. She is currently serving in a consulting role in preparation for the 2014 program launch. The HU website has more information about the occupational therapy program.

14 Oct

October 14, 2013 |
The elected and appointed members of the 2013-2015 Executive Leadership Team. Top (l-r): East region: Dennis Sites, Robert Eberly, Sherwood Cook. Central region: Greg Voight, Tim Krugh, Darwin Dunten. Bottom (l-r): North region: Dan Paternoster, Lester Smith, Bob Tobey. West region: Gary Dilley, Molly Kesler, Kent Koteskey.

The elected and appointed members of the 2013-2015 Executive Leadership Team. Top (l-r): East region: Dennis Sites, Robert Eberly, Sherwood Cook. Central region: Greg Voight, Tim Krugh, Darwin Dunten. Bottom (l-r): North region: Dan Paternoster, Lester Smith, Bob Tobey. West region: Gary Dilley, Molly Kesler, Kent Koteskey.

The Executive Leadership Team meets October 14-15 in Huntington, Ind. Members are elected or appointed to two-year terms, so this team will serve until the 2015 US National Conference.

The National Conference elects eight members–one minister and one layperson from each of the four regions. The bishop is an automatic member. Those nine persons then appoint four more members–two ministers and two layperson, spread out among the four districts.

The result is an Executive Leadership Team that looks like this:

  • Six ministers and six laypersons, plus the bishop.
  • Three members from each of the four regions.
  • Two regions have two ministers and one layperson, and two regions have two laypersons and one minister.

Six of the 13 voting members are new.

The four persons appointed by the ELT for 2013-2015 are:

  • East region: Sherwood Cook, a layperson from Mount Pleasant UB church (Chambersburg, Pa.). Sherwood previously served on the 2005-2007 ELT.
  • Central region: Darwin Dunten, senior pastor of Findlay First UB church (Findlay, Ohio).
  • North region: Bob Tobey, a retired schoolteacher from Colwood UB church (Caro, Mich.). Bob previously served on the 2011-2013 ELT.
  • West region: Kent Koteskey, executive pastor of Emmanuel Community Church (Fort Wayne, Ind.). Kent previously served on the 2011-2013 ELT.

The ELT begins meeting Monday night, October 14, and will continue through early afternoon on Tuesday, October 15. (See the entire team)

14 Oct

October 14, 2013 |
Member of the Shiloh congregation.

Member of the Shiloh congregation.

Pastor Bob Cotie (middle) with Chris and Dianna Lueck at the Black and White dinner, which raised funds to ship 800 shoeboxes for Samaritan's Purse ministry.

Pastor Bob Cotie (middle) with Chris and Dianna Lueck at the Black and White dinner, which raised funds to ship 800 shoeboxes for Samaritan’s Purse ministry.

The little Shiloh Church in Tiverton, Ontario, has outdone itself again This congregation, with an average attendance of 26, provided nearly 800 shoeboxes for the Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child.

Board Chair Donna Doern writes:

At Shiloh UB church, we start working on our shoeboxes during the summer. We filled 33 cartons, which is 792 boxes. We had enough money to pay for 518 boxes, but still needed more funds to make that happen.

Some people wondered, of course, why we wouldn’t do 800 boxes. Again, that would be more funds.

We decided to have a “Black and White” roast beef dinner on a Saturday evening. The decor was all black and white, and we asked people to wear black and white. We also showed old black and white show clips–Red Skelton, Lucy, Abbot and Costello, etc. Sixty people attended

We needed $1,904 to send our 792 boxes and 1,960 to send 800. We had a profit of $3,700. We were totally blown away, and certainly know that God’s hand was in this project.

Pastor Bob Cotie brought the house down with his newly acquired wardrobe, coming dressed as a Holstein cow.

14 Oct

October 14, 2013 |

Marshall Woods (right), senior pastor of Mill Chapel UB church (Reedsville, W. Va.), sent this encouraging report:

“In the last two months, we have baptized 30 people. There are some more to be baptized in the near future. Some were baptized in a pool, some in a river, and some in a hot tub. The church is also considering an expansion program, to build an additional building.”

Pastor Woods also traveled to Haiti September 9-16 with a group of six UB ministers.

05 Oct

October 5, 2013 |

Dr. Sherilyn Emberton was inaugurated on Friday afternoon, October 4, as the 13th president of Huntington University. The video above shows the entire service.

There were a lot of different speeches and–surprisingly–all of them were very good.

  • Brooks Fetters, a UB minister who is currently mayor of Huntington.
  • James Banks, an Indiana state senator.
  • Connie Lawson, the Indiana secretary of state.
  • Edward Blews, president of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities.
  • The presidents of LeTourneau University and East Texas Baptist University, the two college where Dr. Emberton served prior to Huntington.

Short speeches were also given by Dr. G. Blair Dowden and Dr. Eugene B. Habecker, the two previous presidents of Huntington University.

The service included a “Blessing of the Bishops.” Bishop Phil Whipple and the four bishops emeriti who are still with us–Paul Hirschy, C. Ray Miller, Ron Ramsey, and Ray Seilhamer–gathered around Dr. Emberton and prayed for her.

The actual installation ceremony was conducted by Ms. Kelly Savage, president of the HU Board of Trustees, and Mrs. Nancy Hull, secretary of the Board of Trustees.

After the installation came a message from Dr. Emberton.

You can watch it all in that video.

03 Oct

October 3, 2013 |
Victor Mojica family

Victor Mojica family

Victor Mojica in his store.

Victor Mojica in his store.

Victor Mojica and his wife Margarita pastor the Hispanic congregation of Clearview United Brethren in Goshen, Indiana. In order to support himself through years of church planting Victor has been in business for himself selling everything from gold jewelry to swimming pools. Currently, he sells furniture and high-end audio systems along with two of his sons, Jeremiah and Joshua.

Victor will also be traveling to Nicaragua October 12-19 to participate in a small business training event led by Jeff Bleijerveld and Jeff Dice. During the week they will be working with a limited-sized group of pastors and church planters seeking the means to develop ministries that allow them to do both ministry and business at the same time.

Victor and Margarita have found multiple opportunities over the years to share there faith, counsel and even lead people to Christ at their place of business. Many of these are now members at their church. Being bi-vocational is not viewed as an obstacle for ministry, but another opportunity as they live their lives from Christ.

The video below gives you a peak at an event they host called Mid-Summer Mayhem.

03 Oct

October 3, 2013 |
Paul and Carie Burrus

Paul and Carie Burrus

Paul Burrus has been appointed senior pastor of Corunna UB church (Corunna, Ind.) effective September 22, 2013. He holds degrees in Biology and Psychology from Manchester University (1980), a masters in Clinical Psychology from the University of St. Francis (1983), a Master of Divinity from Winebrenner Theological Seminary (1995), and a Doctor of Ministry from Grace Theological Seminary (2008).

Paul and his wife, Carie, have served in pastoral ministry since 1990. He was ordained in 1995 by the Church of God (Anderson, Ind.). He and Carie have two grown daughters.

02 Oct

October 2, 2013 |

The Global Ministries Leadership Team begins its fall meeting tonight, Oct 2, and will continue until Friday, Oct. 4. They’re meeting at Gull Lake Ministries, a Christian conference center in Hickory Corners, Mich.

Two recent additions to the team are:

  • Ruth Ralph, whose husband, Mark, is senior pastor of Mt. Zion UB church in Wayne, Ohio.
  • Mark Wallace, executive director of Christian Horizons Global. He is a licensed UB minister in Canada, and is a member of the Mill Crossing UB church in Cambridge, Ontario.

02 Oct

October 2, 2013 |


Bryan and Emily Gerlach arrived in Thailand in mid-September. The Gerlach represent an expansion of our work in Thailand. Although our Thai churches are located in the northern mountains, we are shifting our focus to the city of Chiang Rai.

Many young people who migrate from the mountains in search of jobs and education find themselves being lured into the drug and prostitution industries. Bryan and Emily will be part of a multi-national team providing housing, discipleship training, education, and job skills training to vulnerable young people.

But first, the Gerlachs need to learn the Thai language. For that, they will spend a year in the city of Chiang Mai, in central Thailand. They start classes today, October 2.

A week after arriving in Chiang Mai, the Gerlachs wrote:

We are finally getting adjusted to the time difference and feeling rested in the morning when we wake up. Our flights were incredibly smooth thanks to prayers from all over, and we have been blessed to stay in an amazing guest house about 15 minutes south of the city center. It has been a productive week taking care of a lot of ‘living life’ type details and getting to know some awesome missionaries and Thais too.

Right now our biggest goal is to find an apartment near our language school in the city. Global Ministries has asked us to live downtown, close to school, in order to really get into the Thai culture and life. (Where we are staying right now is pretty much missionary central.) We are both really excited about being close to the action and relying on Thais for friendship and support, but it comes with challenges too.

We don’t have many good connections downtown—yet–and the cost of living is just always higher in the city, so we will have a small place (studio or one bedroom) that isn’t as cheap as we were hoping. We know that the Lord will provide for us, though, and he has already. There is a missionary here starting a “Business As Missions” business which helps foreigners find a place to live, so we’ve already been blessed by his services tremendously.

Language school starts for us on October 2. We’ll be joining a class of three other students who have already begun their studies. We were tested for our own level and assured that we will fit in well with where the other students currently are. Undoubtedly there will be gaps in our knowledge, and other things that we already know that they don’t, so it will be interesting to see how that all works out.

Our first week was not an easy one adjusting to life here, but we’re confident that it is where God wants us.

Chiang Mai is a modern city with a population of about one million, including a lot of Westerners and numerous tourists . Chiang Rai, with about 200,000 people, is somewhat less modern.

Global Ministries is looking for additional people to go to Thailand—youth workers, people with business skills, persons with skills in the trades, and church planters.

The Gerlachs need additional financial support. They raised enough of their needed support to get the green light to go to the field, but could still use more supporters. If you’re interested in supporting the Gerlachs, please contact Global Ministries at gm@ub.org.

(Read more about the Gerlachs here.)

01 Oct

October 1, 2013 |

haitigroup1000 haititeaching1000

Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries

During the recent Pastors’ Tour of Haiti September 9-16, the team was able to visit with 80 United Brethren members receiving training in small business development. Training of this nature is one of the best solutions to poverty as people are provided an opportunity, not a hand out.

The training was provided through a generous grant to our partners CH Global. The instructor, Eric Musee a Kenyan national, is the director of Go Ye Africa. Eric trains and coaches church planters throughout Africa, many of whom support themselves through small business. However, he had never been invited to Haiti before. The students were surprised at the similarities in their circumstances and responded well to receiving this training from an African brother in Christ.