(260) 356-2312

UB.orgUBGlobal.orgChurch Search

14 Feb

February 14, 2006 |

Ron Ramsey, Bishop
Roses are red
Violets are blue
I wish I had some snappy two-line ditty to finish this little poem to wish you all a Happy Valentines Day! But alas I am no poet and “my big feet show it” (and they are big if you need to know it).
Well enough of that stuff. I just wanted to remind you to send an expression of love to the “lover of your soul,” to the one who loved you so much He died so we might live, to the one who promises us an eternal home that He personally is preparing, to the one who blesses with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies, to the one who has promised to never leave us or forsake us, to the one whose love is not fickle, based on how He feels, whose love does not change….
I suppose the perfect Valentine for such a one is to give Him my obedience which he desires even more than my sacrifice. And I almost wish He hadn’t said that, because giving a sacrifice is much easier than obedience. At least, that is the way it is in my life. So the question for this Valentines Day is not what I can do for Him, but rather will I be obedient to Him.
Oh yes, and don’t forget your earthly sweetie either!

14 Feb

February 14, 2006 |

Dan Wust, endorsed missionary with the UB church, worked in partnership with Global Ministries in December 2005 doing leadership training with Nicaraguan pastors and lay leaders. He taught inductive Bible study, and its application to preaching and teaching.

14 Feb

February 14, 2006 |

Jamaica Conference will hold its annual meeting March 15-19. Gary Dilley (Director of Global Ministries) and Pat Jones (Director of Healthy Church Ministries), along with their spouses, will attend the event. Rev. Jones will lead several training presentations on church health.

The event will include the election of all major offices, including General Superintendent. They will also work on updating their ten-year ministry plan.

A major thrust of Jamaica Conference is to acquire additional land for church planting in the following areas: Iterboraele, Rhymesbury, Cockpit (Longville Park), and Eltham Park. They are also purchasing land at their church camp, Malvern. On the Sunday following the conference sessions, all UB churches across the island come together for a large combined service near Mandeville.

Superintendent Winston Smith (left) and the conference leadership will challenge those gathered to give generously toward making this dream come to pass. Pray that God’s people will be moved to participate. North American churches have been asked to consider working in partnership on this project.

13 Feb

February 13, 2006 |

Rhonda_200.jpgGary Dilley, Director of Global Ministries, and his wife Rhonda are celebrating the birth of their first grandchild. Brooke Alexandria Dilley arrived on February 11 at 1:30 a.m., weighing 6 lbs., 15 oz. Everyone is doing fine. That’s Rhonda in the picture holding Brooke.

13 Feb

February 13, 2006 |

Roger and Marilyn Reeck are UB partial support missionaries serving with Wycliffe in La Ceiba, Honduras. On February 7, Roger left for Guinea Bissau, a small West African nation, where he will spend the next five weeks teaching translation principles to national translators. He will teach in Portuguese, a language he has been working hard at mastering. He has been watching Portuguese movies, listening to Portuguese radio, and reading the Portuguese Bible for several hours a day. He taught in Brazi last year using the Portuguese language, but the Portuguese spoken in Guinea Bissau is slightly different from what is spoken in Brazil.

13 Feb

February 13, 2006 |

David and Melissa Kline are UB missionaries in Macau. Melissa sent this report dated January 17.
December always mean time with people and time in the kitchen, anywhere in the world I think. And Macau is no exception to that rule. David invited his ELP class over for dinner and I invited my class over for breakfast. Both events were filled with fun and good chances for relationship building. Time in the kitchen was spent baking Christmas cookies, peanut brittle, and Chex Mix. We put together around 30 Christmas snack bags and delivered them to our neighbors and ELP students as a way to spread the Christmas spirit. Later that week, we met one neighbor in the hall and she started to have a conversation with us for the first time! We pray that God will continue to open opportunities for us to share God’s love with those around us.

(more…)

13 Feb

February 13, 2006 |

Carlson and Naomi Becker, UB missionaries in Macau, sent the following as part of their January update letter.
The week before Christmas, we felt impressed to reach out to a young woman, a new Christian during the past year, who was struggling on her own away from her parent’s home and support. A church in the US had sent us a cash gift for Christmas, and we were enabled to take her to the grocery store and buy her some food to help stock her pantry. Naomi had been giving her tips about how to save money on food. We were humbled as we took her through the store and she first picked out two items as gifts to her father and mother for Christmas.
On Christmas Eve, this girl invited her father to go to an Evangelical Outreach Program with her, and because of the change he had seen in her, he went. They gave an altar call and the father went foreword to accept Christ. We were so thrilled that we practically walked on air after hearing the news. We were blessed to be a minute part of it and to see the joy in the young girl’s face.

(more…)

09 Feb

February 9, 2006 |

Pat Jones, Director of Healthy Church Ministries
Here are some questions for you to ask yourself and your leadership with tenacious honesty. Time is short and we must stop kidding ourselves about the effectiveness of our ministries. The reason some churches function at a high level of effectiveness in reaching the lost and fulfilling their purpose is that they ask tough questions over and over again. So, are you willing to ask these three and deal with the implications of the answers?

1. Who are you? (Your understanding of why God has you and your church here)
2. What do you do? (How do you accomplish that understanding?)
3. What does it matter? (If you didn’t do what you are doing, what would the result be?)

Brad Powell, pastor of Northridge Church in Plymouth, MI, a very effective and exciting ministry, stated that he believes that the church is the hope of the world but he fears that for a majority of our churches in America they could close down today and the level of hope in their town would not change at all. In other words, they have forgotten or failed to be hope providers to those who are lost and headed for a Christless eternity in their communities.
So, be willing to ask the questions. But you must be willing to pay any price to travel to the correct, heart of God responses. Failure in this endeavor is not an option for those who want to be useful in the Lord’s work today.

09 Feb

February 9, 2006 |

Ron Ramsey, Bishop
I have identified five stragetic initiatives for my term, and I would like your feedback on them, either through the comments or using the Contact link on the right:

1. Implement and encourage an atmosphere where multiplication of leaders and churches will be considered as normal.
2. Encourage Spiritual Formation and Renewal within the churches of the United Brethren in Christ
3. Actively equip churches and pastors for effective ministries.
4. Develop a plan to identify and retain those who are being called into fulltime Christian service.
5. Discover, evaluate, and articulate the perceived brand image of the Church of the United Brethren In Christ.

These five initiatives will comprise the areas that I consider priority issues and in which I will spend the majority of my time.
These were adopted October 4, 2005, by the Executive Leadership Team after some discussion. Now I would like to open the discussion of these five initiatives to a wider audience across the church.
How do you think these ought to be fleshed out? Or maybe you take issue that these are the areas that need priority attention in our denomination.
Talk to me, church!