07 Jun El Salvador Medical Team: Nov 1-9

We just received confirmation that the United Brethren churches in El Salvador will host a medical mission team this fall. Rev. Gonzalo Alas (right), superintendent in El Salvador, has recommended the trip for November 1-9, 2013.

The team will hold five clinics–one in each of the UB churches in El Salvador.

Cost: $700 per person, plus airfare.

The trip is open to nurses, doctors, pharmacists, and support staff. The team size is being limited to 12 persons.

If you’re interested in participating on this team, please contact Donna Hollopeter in Global Ministries:

Email: donna@ub.org
Phone: 888-622-3019.

25 May 25 Years Later: Remembering Patti Stone

Steve Dennie, Communications Director

On September 2, 1981, Bishop Clarence Kopp, Jr., had a unique encounter at a restaurant in Huntington, Ind. He met a man he had nudged toward the Lord 20 years before, when he was pastoring Prescott Avenue UB church in Dayton, Ohio.

It was a home visit during a conference evangelism workshop. As Kopp explained the Four Spiritual Laws to this man, fellow minister Rev. Howard Anderson held the man’s baby daughter in his lap. The man didn’t want to accept Christ then, so Kopp left him a piece of paper on which he had written out the Four Spiritual Laws. The man kept the paper and reread it almost daily. Finally, he did become a Christian.

What was he doing in Huntington, 20 years later? He was bringing his daughter to Huntington University.

The girl’s name was Patti Stone.

Patti started her college education at Huntington University and then transferred to Marion College (now Indiana Wesleyan) in Marion, Ind., to study nursing.

Wendy Feusse, who worked at Huntington University, joined a small work crew from the college which traveled to Sierra Leone in January 1985. They were joined by Michelle Becker and Patti Stone, two former Huntington students who were now intern nurses from Marion College.

In Freetown, the group went to the beach with some Peace Corps workers. A huge wave hit the raft Wendy was using, and she found herself floating facedown, paralyzed, unable to move. Patti saved her life that day. But that was only the beginning of what Patti did for Wendy.

“From the time I painfully entered the van until the following day,” Wendy recalled, “she served as my personal nurse. She held my hand, talked to me about my fears, helped me laugh, reassured me, prayed with me, loved me. We hardly knew each other. But somehow, she understood what I was going through, as I lay on my bed feeling lonelier than ever and enduring the most pain I have ever experienced. I will never forget that special time of healing.”

At Mattru, Wendy says, “I was amazed by Patti as I watched her in action. She walked around the hospital like she had grown up there. Many Sierra Leoneans already knew Patti; they were drawn to her. She related almost naturally to the people and the environment. You could tell she loved being there. It radiated from her.” (more…)

23 May The Story of Two Teachers in Haiti

Rosemond

Rosemond with students

Pauline

Pauline and some of her students

Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries

Meet Rosemond and Pauline, two examples of dedicated teachers pouring their lives into the next generation in Port-au-Prince, Haiti:

Rosemond has been teaching for 10 years and currently teaches grade 6 at the school in Delmas 33, one of the United Brethren churches in Haiti. He wanted to be a teacher from a young age. He loves the children and especially enjoys teaching them history.

Rosemond and his family lived in a rural village when he was a child. He was able to attend elementary school at an unaccredited church school because it was supported by the church and those outside the community. As a result of being given this chance and exceling in school, his family moved in to the city of Port-au-Prince so he could attend high school. He then went on to get his teaching qualifications so that he could give an even better standard of teaching than the one he had received.

“Haiti needs schools,” Rosemond says. He likes to “bring my contribution to the children’s lives” so that they can “bring their contribution to Haiti as adults.” He is very glad to bring education and God’s love to children, since it meant so much to him at that age. He is grateful that school gave him a chance at a better life.

Pauline teaches grade 2 and loves teaching the children math and social studies. She loves the children. She says, “If you want to fight against vicious cycles and change culture, education is important.” She says she views her job as important because “any child could be the citizen that changes Haiti’s future.”

Pauline also enjoyed school growing up and went on to become a qualified teacher. As a child, she attended a quality private school because of the support she received through a child sponsorship program. She is so thankful for the sponsor who gave her that opportunity.

Education is investing in the next generation. Both Rosemond and Pauline were given roads to a better future through the educational opportunities they were given.

The Delmas 33 school is the result of a partnership between the United Brethren in Christ Church in Haiti and Christian Horizons Global. Together we are able to provide the opportunity for children to learn in an environment where they are also shown God’s love through teachers that love them. One way or another, children are Haiti’s future. It is our hope that they grow secure in God’s love and with the skills they need to make that future bright.

We have four United Brethren schools in Haiti. Currently, 194 children are sponsored and another 151 children are on a waiting list (128 children have never been sponsored, and 23 have lost their sponsor and are waiting to be re-sponsored).

There are two ways you can support the education of children in Haiti:

1. Support an individual child for just $36 per month
2. Provide a special gift to help fund the United Brethren school the children attend.

To learn more or to make a donation, visit our partners CH Global at CHGlobal.org/give/haiti/

14 May Vitamins for Honduras

Packing vitamins at Jerusalem Chapel for the Honduras Medical Team.

Jerusalem Chapel (Churchville, Va.) collected 64,000 vitamins for this summer’s Global Ministries medical mission trip to Honduras. That’s enough for 2100 patients. On May 7, people gathered at the church to pack the vitamins for the trip, which will hold clinics in five villages.

This is the fifth year that Jerusalem Chapel has collected vitamins for the Honduras medical team. Four persons from Jerusalem Chapel will be part of this summer’s medical team: Dr. John Ocheltree, and Rick, Wendy, and Christopher Wimer.

08 May Macau Church May Need to Relocate

The Living Stone UB church in Macau is looking at the possibilty of relocating. Their landlord significantly raised their rent, so they are looking at other possibilities, and property in Macau is very expensive. You might keep them in prayer as they go through this possible major transition. Both the church and the English Language Program use this facility.

Living Stone is a bi-lingual church, with services conducted in both English and Cantonese. The other (and first) UB church in Macau, Living Water, conducts services only in Cantonese.

07 May Workers Needed for in July for Jamaica

The new dormitory at Malvern Camp, though unfinished, was used during Jamaica National Conference this spring.

Dwight and Patti Kuntz will return to Jamaica on July 2 and would like to take a small work team with them specifically to do some finishing work on the first floor of the dormitory building at Malvern. They need a team of 5-6 people for the week of July 2 – 9. The work will include tiling floors, installing fixtures in bathrooms, and other work.

Though the building is not yet completed, it was used to house pastors at the annual conference in March of this year. The photo above shows the project as it stands now.

01 May Beyond Boston: Eternal Issues in Dagestan and Chechnya

Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries

In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, we have been hearing about brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev and their connection to Dagestan and Chechnya. Apart from being places we have heard little about, what we are learning is that they are centers of Islam with radicalized pockets under pressure to conform to the dictates of Russia.

What we don’t hear in the news is that praying groups have “taken into their hearts” (persistently and long-term) 31 of the 34 unreached peoples of Dagestan and the 11 unreached peoples between Chechnya and Adygheya. Among them are groups of evangelicals from Russia who have mobilized their people to live in the Caucuses and share with them the Jesus of the Bible–not the Western Jesus, not the Russian Jesus, but the Jesus who came to set Chechens free.

According to Mission Frontiers, 13 of 45 language groups are legitimately engaged with various phases of intentional, cross-cultural efforts toward disciple-making movements. Fruit comes from “work produced by faith, labor prompted by love, and endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 1:3).

Still, 32 unreached peoples in Dagestan, Chechnya, and Ingushetia remain painfully isolated from God’s blessings of messengers, the message, and [Christ-focused] communities.

While the CIA and other international intelligence agencies go about their work of trying to make the world a safer place, God is at work transforming nations and peoples in ways no human effort could ever imagine.

As you listen to the news, don’t forget to pray.

25 Apr Update on the Dave and Cathie Datema Family

Participants in the Ekballo Fast.

Dave and Cathie Datema serve with the US Center for World Mission in Pasadena, Calif. Dave is general director of Frontier Mission Fellowship, an umbrella organization for the US Center and other organizations.

Dave participated in a 40-day “Ekballo Fast,” March 1 – April 9, to launch the Antioch House of Prayer. “Ekballo” is the Greek word meaning “thrust out” that Jesus used when instructing his disciples to pray that the Lord of the harvest would “ekballo” laborers into the harvest field.

Dave Datema preaching on the final day of the fast.

Dave writes, “The fast was used to launch the house of prayer that will increasingly attract, nurture, and train young people to pray for unreached peoples and even go as missionaries. This is a collaborative effort and so far has been a big success. I loved the intense worship and prayer times and lost 20 pounds to boot! The Antioch House of Prayer is led by Lou Engle and another couple that facilitate things. They also have 5 dynamic young couples who will be the senior leaders and mentors to the many young people that will come for internships in the weeks and months ahead. We believe that many changes took place among unreached peoples as a result of our prayers during the fast, and we are trusting that God will use this house of prayer to continue to break strongholds for Kingdom advance. Coincidentally, April 9 is my birthday!”

Dave Datema preaching on the 40th day of the Ekballo Fast.

Financial support has become a concern for Dave and Cathie Datema, as it is with many other missionaries. They write: “We are in a financial pinch these days. When we arrived in Pasadena in 1999, we had only two children. Thirteen years later and without the usual furloughs that missionaries use to increase support, the added expense of a larger family with children involved in various activities, as well as increased rent and health insurance costs, has made its presence felt. If you are not presently on our support team as a donor and God has blessed you, we are in real need of additional funds (see info below). Dave is now giving serious attention to raising up new donors for our ministry here. Please pray for these efforts. Meanwhile, for those of you who are part of our team, THANK YOU for your generosity!

The Datema family.

Some general updates about the family:

• Cuyler continues to have occasional seizures, which we are able to stop with medication. He has monthly grand mal seizures. We continue to trust God to fulfill his purposes for Cuyler, for His glory.
• Callie is training to compete in Irish Dance on a team of 8 girls in the North American Championship in early July in Anaheim, Calif. Her team began special conditioning at a CATZ athletic training facility on Monday nights, to continue for 10 weeks.
• Jill was awarded the “gratefulness” character award at school this month. She is practicing to be on the girls flag football team.
• Cathie joined 24 ladies on a retreat in Big Bear, Calif., with other women from our organization. Our speaker helped us to consider spending more time practicing the discipline of silence while listening to God.