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Bishop Wilber Sites, Jr., was hospitalized January 3 with congestive heart failure. He sent this note yesterday: “I have been home now for a week. My doctor says that recovery will be very slow. However, I can praise God for the progress that is being made. Thanks to all the staff for their prayers. I continue to pray for you as you prepare for the National Conference.”
Imagine This LLC in Grand Ledge, Mich., held its second annual Kid’s Shop for Christmas on Saturday, December 13, from 1-4 p.m. The local paper covered the event both before and after, and the congregation distributed flyers (download a copy) during the town’s Christmas parade. The idea was to help financially-burdened families by underwriting and providing quality gift items that children could buy for family members. This enabled children to enter into the true meaning of Christmas–giving–while preserving the family’s budget.
Here are some elements of Kid’s Shop.
Kid’s Shop was held the same day Grand Ledge’s downtown businesses held a special shopping day for adults. Coupons were available so parents could go shopping at local downtown businesses while their children were doing Kid’s Shop.
About 140 children attended. They selected from gifts geared for siblings, parents, grandparents, and others. Donations from local enabled them to keep the cost down.
Some other holiday activities at Imagine This:
When I became pastor of Devonshire UB church (Harrisburg, Pa.) in 1988, I laid out my six-month plan for preaching. A couple ladies approached me.
“We don’t think you’re being led by the Spirit.”
“Oh?” I said. “Help me understand why you think that.”
“How can you be led by the Holy Spirit if you’re planning things out six months in advance?”
I asked them, “When did God lay out the plan of salvation? It was before the foundation of the world. He created this plan, then Jesus came 2000 years later and implemented it.
“If God can plan 2000 years in advance, are you saying he can’t lead me to know what to preach about six months from now?”
To them, being led by the Spirit was flying by the seat of your pants.
Donna Hollopeter called from Sierra Leone, where she is part of a medical mission trip at Mattru Hospital. They held their second medical clinic today. Darlene Burkett, who took the call, wrote the following:
“Donna said they had a ‘terrific experience’ today! They were way out in the bush and saw at least 150 patients and accomplished very much! They’ll be back in Mattru tomorrow, then out to the bush again Thursday. Keep them in your prayers. The generator is still not operating, so that is a big request.”
Ron Ramsey, Bishop
This is from the Sillly file. Hey, it’s Saturday.
The “Noise Offering” is an interesting fundraiser for some of the upgrades at Mattru Hospital in Sierra Leone. Once a month, some churches take up the Noise Offering. People drop their loose change into a metal container of some kind–a coffee can, pie tin, cake pan–anything that makes a noise. The idea is “Change cane make a change at Mattru.”
Want to join this effort? Just contact Global Ministries.
Six people, destination Sierra Leone, fly out of the airport in Fort Wayne, Ind., this evening around 6 p.m. A predicted blizzard left some doubts about their flight plans, but everything’s sunshiny right now, and they should escape this Hoosier cold spell on time.
They’ll fly to Chicago, meeting up with Robert and Fonda Cassidy, from Mt. Olivet UB church in Mt. Solon, Va. Then it’s on to London, where they’ll meet up with:
They’ll arrive in Freetown about 7:30 Friday night, stay in a hotel near the airport, then go up-country to Mattru early Saturday morning.
The group will be in Sierra Leone until January 28. Then a second team will arrive. They’ll all stay in a house directly across from Mattru Hospital.
“Our primary purpose,” says Donna Hollopeter, Associate Director of Global Ministries, “will be medical work at Mattru Hospital, which will include doing daily rounds, seeing patients at the clinic they run daily, doing surgery, organizing the pharmacy, and whatever miscellaneous medical work needs to be done. Then three men will work on gathering information for future construction trips to Mattru to help with upgrades for the rooms and equipment.”
Here are the group members:
Ten persons are on their way to Sierra Leone. Or will be, in a couple hours. Six people from northern Indiana will fly out of Fort Wayne around 6:00 tonight. They’ll meet two persons from Virginia in Chicago, then fly to London, where they’ll meet two more persons. Then it’s on to Freetown, Sierra Leone. They’ll arrive tomorrow night (Friday, Jan. 16) around 7:30.
