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Liberty UB Church (Stockport, Ohio) will celebrate its 150th anniversary on Sunday, October 14. Bishop Todd Fetters is the guest speaker for the 10:30 a.m. worship service.
The next Sunday, October 21, Bishop Fetters will speak at another anniversary–the 20th anniversary of Anchor UB church in Fort Wayne, Ind.
Mark and Ruth Ralph, retiring after 43 years in ministry.
Pastor Mark Ralph speaking to children.
Mark Ralph with his father.
On Saturday, September 29, a retirement party was held for Pastor Mark and Ruth Ralph, who have served in pastoral ministry since 1975. Of those 43 years, all but about ten years were spent at United Brethren churches.
The celebration was held at Mt. Zion UB church in Wayne, Ohio, the congregation the Ralphs have served since 2012. Here are the other UB churches:
Some folks from Mark’s previous pastorates attended the retirement celebration. Also present was his father, now age 96, a longtime minister in the Evangelical Congregational Church. Mark was present for his father’s last Sunday in fulltime ministry. His father returned the favor on September 30, hearing his son preach his final sermon as pastor of Mt. Zion.
Mark graduated in 1974 from Huntington University with a degree in Bible & Religion. Now age 67, he and Ruth are retiring to a home in Ohio City, Ohio, near where their daughter lives.
Missionary Roger Reeck is undergoing a bone fusion operation on his right foot today (October 1). Marilyn says an orthopedic surgeon from Oregon is flying to Honduras with a team to spend a week doing surgeries. She says, “Besides for straightening the foot, potentially it could lead to less pain.”
Roger and Marilyn Reeck (right) are endorsed UB missionaries serving with Wycliffe Bible Translators. They are based in La Ceiba, Honduras, but consult with Wycliffe projects in Africa and Latin America.
Roger returned to Honduras from Brazil on Thursday night, where he worked with the Yaminawa translation team. One of the four persons was from Bolivia and the other three from Brazil. They checked half of Luke, Mark, and Acts during the three week session.
Marilyn returned from Colombia on Friday night. She had travelled to the Colombia/Venezuela border where a training session was held for Venezuelan pastors and their wives and other church workers. There were two groups of 36 people and seven trainers.
Marilyn writes, “There are so many stories of the suffering of the Venezuelan people. Great groups of people are trying to migrate to other South American countries, and a great number of them do not have money to travel by bus. They walk for several weeks. But, in order to get to the adjoining country and beyond, they have to walk over a high mountain pass. They do not have adequate clothing to keep them warm and many have died. They walk for several weeks. Pray that God’s people find ways to set up assistance along the way.”
UPDATE ON TUESDAY FROM MARILYN: “The operation lasted 4 hours but everything turned out great.”
