08 Dec UB Worship Leader Puts Out Christmas Album

Bethany Solyntjes, worship leader at Renew Communities, has recorded her first album. Renew is a UB church plant in Middleburg Heights, Ohio.

Pastor Andy Sikora (right) writes, “It’s a Christmas EP called ‘Hope Renewed.’ It’s got an indie-folk feel to it and has some really cool re-workings of some of her favorite carols as well as one original. In my opinion it’s really good!

“Bethany and Chris (her husband) are like most church planters in that they are raising their salaries for the first few years of our church’s life. This record is one way that they are hoping to supplement their income. They are giving 10% of each sale to a church planting project of our church (yeah, our church is less than a year old and we’re working on planting one church locally and one internationally).”

You can read more about Bethany on the Renew website. You can listen to the six tracks and buy the digital or physical album for $10 on Bethany’s Bandcamp page.

07 Dec Findlay First’s Prison Ministry Leads to a Baptism

As a result of jail ministry of Findlay First UB Church (Findlay, Ohio), a prisoner gave his life to the Lord and wanted to be baptized during a Thursday night service. Because Pastor Darwin Dunten was not available that night, Pastor Robert Cochran of the First Lutheran Church of Findlay was able to perform the service.

Every Thursday night, a jail ministry team from First UB goes to the Hancock county jail to present a worship service/discipleship program for the inmates. Some of the inmates have started attending worship services and discipleship programs at the church. This particular inmate will not be attending worship services at Findlay First for about 6 years.

05 Dec 750 Nativity Sets

Dean Hoobler, a longtime member of Kilburne Avenue UB (Rockford, Ill.), has a collection of about 750 nativity sets collected over the past 30 years. This year, as in some past years, the church hosted a public display of the nativity sets.

05 Dec Growing on Wednesday Night in Findlay, Ohio

Wednesday night attenders at Findlay First UB Church

Polly Dunten (left) with her class.

Last week, Findlay First UB Church (Findlay, Ohio) had the largest Wednesday night attendance in 12 years, with 57 participants. The elementary class had 27 children, and the adult prayer meeting is running out of room.

Pastor Darwin Dunten (right) writes, “Adults from our church are picking up these children and bringing them to church in their personal cars. Some cars are stuffed with children sitting on laps. Most of these children do not come from Christian homes. One girl stated, ‘What’s a Bible verse? Then she said, What’s a sanctuary? Another girl wanted us to pray for her mother and her boyfriend who are fighting, and for her father and his girlfriend who are not getting along. It breaks your heart, but what an opportunity.”

05 Dec Simulation Helps People Understand Life in Poverty

Hillsdale UB church (Hillsdale, Mich.) hosted a poverty simulation on November 18 to help people better understand what it’s like to live in poverty. The workshop was conducted by the Poverty Reduction Initiative, a Kalamazoo-based group that runs these workshops across the state of Michigan.

The simulation mainly drew members of Hillsdale County service organizations. Some attendees were assigned to family roles (schoolchildren, parents, teens, senior citizens), while others were given non-family roles (mortgage lender, business owner, etc.). Then the various persons interacted.

Through the simulation, participants were made more aware of specific problems poor people face, such as transportation, time constraints, quality of family life, difficulties in dealing with social agencies, the stigma of asking for help, and the importance of education in landing a job. They saw how parents, putting all their energy into just struggling to survive, had little left for family time. Sometimes children who ended up in juvenile centers were left there, because parents knew they would have food, shelter, and safety.

The purpose of the event was to help people think of ways to work together to help persons in need.

02 Dec Christmas Child – One (Make That Two) More

First UB Church (Van Wert, Ohio)
Number of Shoeboxes: 18

Sue Miller of Van Wert UB writes, “The Operation Christmas Child shoebox ministry is a group effort at our church. Our children from the AWANA program collected items for eight boxes. Our youth group brought in supplies to pack four more. Several families in our church filled the other 6, and many people helped to sponsor them. We brought all the boxes to the altar and asked a child or youth to stand next to each box as we prayed for the children and families that would receive these gifts. We have participated in Operation Christmas Child as a church for about ten years.”

Criders UB Church (Chambersburg, Pa.)
Number of Shoeboxes: 71

Chip Stottlemyer of Criders UB writes, “We had a shoebox packing party and the Kids Club, Youth Group, and many adults joined in wrapping and packing for our shoeboxes. A team of youth and some adult leaders delivered them and some extra items to the regional collection point and assisted there along with about 100 other people sorting and packing more boxes. What a blessing to be part of this ministry.”

30 Nov 20 Shoeboxes = 1 Cream Pie

Lake View Church (Camden, Mich.)
Number of Shoeboxes: 110

Ben Gladhill (right), associate pastor of Lake View, writes: “This is Lake View Church’s 9th year doing Operation Christmas Child. Each year we do a pretty good job at collecting items for our shoeboxes and filled shoeboxes. This year we collected 110 shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. However this year we threw in a twist.

“As Associate Pastor at Lake View and AWANA commander, I challenged our Awana Clubbers to get in on the action. So I told them for every 20 shoeboxes they filled by November 2, I would take a pie to the face. Our Awana clubbers and leaders jumped on board and filled 40 shoeboxes from Awana alone this year. So I kept good on my end of the deal and took 2 whipped cream pies in the face. It was a lot of fun, as you can see from the video above.”

Sunfield UB Church (Sunfield, Mich.)
Number of Shoeboxes: 65+

Annie Emmons (right) of Sunfield writes: “I provide the people with the ready-made shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. Last year I challenged each adult class to make a box. Our Sunday school class, JOY (Just Older Youth), couldn’t decide if they wanted to do one for a boy or girl, so they did one for each this year. So many articles were brought in that we ended up with 4 from our elderly class! And all the money for the boxes was provided too! I was so proud of them all!

“We all enjoy doing the boxes, and can only imagine the happiness of the boys and girls that receive them. We look forward to doing this each year! Some grandparents have their grandchildren go shopping for items to put into the boxes, and then fill the boxes. Everyone enjoys this project! Last year our church did 62 or 63, and I was afraid with the economy as it is, it would be less this year. But God provided and we topped that number! Praise His name!

Atlantic Avenue UB Church (Franklin, Pa.)
Number of Shoeboxes: 150

East Washington UB Church (Ashley, Mich.)
Number of Shoeboxes: 10,000

You read that right: 10,000 shoeboxes!!!

Kathy Stahl of East Washington writes, “We were really blessed by being able to send off over 10,000 shoeboxes. Ted and Michelle Beck were the people with the dream and led us to the goal. Last year we sent over 5000 shoeboxes, so Ted’s dream doubled and our community was blessed by his vision.”

Little Jacob Sheets helped pack these shoeboxes at Shepherd of the Valley UB.

Shepherd of the Valley UB Church (Logan, Ohio)
Number of Shoeboxes: 187

Veronica Sheets of Shepherd of the Valley writes, “As a church family we collected different items throughout the year. Then we as a whole church held a shoebox-packing day. We ate lunch, and then we got to work. In a matter of just a couple of hours, we packed 187 shoeboxes. Then they were loaded up on our pastor’s truck and taken to our drop-off location. In the photo is a little guy who helped pack the boxes, His name is Jacob Sheets.