26 Jun Call to Duty Ceremony for Crystal Carpenter

Randy and Crystal Carpenter with daughter Marlee (right).

Among the 130 soldiers at the Call to Duty Ceremony on June 23.

A Call to Duty Ceremony was held Saturday, June 23, at Bowsher High School in Toledo for the 323rd Military Police Company, which is getting set to deploy to the Middle East in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Among the 130 soldiers is Crystal Carpenter, wife of Randy Carpenter, who is senior pastor of Sunfield UB church in Sunfield, Mich.

Crystal has been a member of the Army National Guard for about seven years. This deployment, which will last 9-11 months, will be her first with the National Guard.

14 Jun Sunfield Providing Free Sack Lunches to Children

Children eating their sack lunches.

Pastor Randy Carpenter trying to outrun a water balloon.

A volunteer with children from the Sunfield area.

Leigh Pearson (right), administrative assistant, Sunfield UB Church (Sunfield, Mich.)

In our area school district, 70% of the children participate in the subsized school lunch program. For the summer months, we are partnering with a local buinsessman to provide a sack lunch to children in the Sunfield area. The sack lunches are free and are available Monday – Friday from noon to 1:00 pm. We started the program on Wednesday, June 6, and during the first week the number of kids participating tripled.

It is such a joy to pull up at the park and see all the kids waiting for you to help you unpack your car and pass out lunches. Each day, we have lunch and then the kids participate in some type of Bible-related craft or activity. Then we head out into the park and play games.

We are so blessed to have the opportunity to talk with and build a relationship with our children in the area over the course of the summer. We are really excited about it! I know we’ll be sad to see the summer end and will miss spending the lunch hour with them. But hopefully we will see a lot of them here at our church.

11 Jun Renew Communities Sending Team to Haiti

The church in Haiti is meeting under a simple structure.

Andy Sikora (right), senior pastor, Renew Communities (Berea, Ohio)

Today, June 11, Renew Communities is sending a team of 13 people to Jeremie, Haiti. They will assist in planting the latest church alongside Haiti Bible Mission. Chris Solyntjes, our worship pastor, is on the board of Haiti Bible Mission. They exist to train up indigenous church leaders in Haiti and have been training up church planters to plant where they live.

In December 2011, Renew Communities raised $7000 to help establish this new church and build a structure that will be used both for church and a Christian school. While in Haiti, our team will help build that structure, connect with people in that community, encourage the works that are already established, and care for some orphans in that area.

Please pray for safety, unity, growth, and power from the Spirit as we serve over the next week.

04 Jun Anchor UB Baptizes Ten Persons

Associate pastor Matt Kennedy (left) and senior pastor Tim Hallman (right) with a joyful member after being baptized.

Pastor Tim Hallman (center) with members of the Anchor worship team.

For over ten years, Anchor Community Church has held an annual service at the Stillwater Retreat on the south side of Fort Wayne, Ind. The event begins with a worship service which includes communion, and concludes with a potluck meal and fun times at the camp. But the highlight is the baptism. After the service, everyone heads down to the lake, where they sit on the dock or stand on the shore as various people share their testimonies and then walk into the lake to be baptized.

On June 3, 2012, around 180 people gathered at Stillwater to watch 10 persons be baptized.

A highlight was the presence of Joe Leatherman, who had arrived in town around 4:00 that morning after completing basic training in San Diego, Calif. He was now a Marine, and was proudly wearing his uniform. Joe, Anchor’s drummer for the past several years, talked about the spiritual reawakening which had occurred during basic training, and wanted to be baptized as a testimonial to what God was doing in his life.

Conducting the baptisms were Pastor Tim Hallman and associate pastor Matt Kennedy, with the assistance of several laypersons. Each person gave his/her testimony about how Jesus had changed their life, and why they were taking this step of baptism.

Hundreds of photos of the event were posted on Anchor’s Facebook page: photos of the service, the baptisms, and miscellaneous photos.

04 Jun Obit: Death of Jane Mason, UB Archivist

Jane Shutt Mason, 92 passed away on May 29, 2012, after an illness of several months duration. The funeral service was held Saturday, June 2, at the Myers Funeral Home in Huntington, Ind., with Dr. Kent Maxwell officiating.

In 1978, following the death of her husband, Wendell, Jane became the United Brethren Archivist. In 1988, she oversaw the relocation of the Archives from the denominational headquarters to a much larger space at the RichLynn Library at Huntington University, and the integration of the collection with the university archives. For the next 11 years, as an employee of Huntington University, she worked as Archivist for both the denomination and Huntington University.

Jane is responsible for professionalizing the denominational archives. After being named Archivist, she was sent to the National Archives in Washington DC for specialized training in archives management. Under her leadership, the United Brethren history collection was greatly expanded and items of relevance to UB history–books, annual conference minutes, magazines, and other records–were acquired. Many periodicals were put on microfilm.

Numerous people doing historical research appreciated Jane’s knowledge of United Brethren history and her helpfulness in locating the information they needed.

Jane and Wendell were very active in the College Park United Brethren Church, where she was a board member, children’s Sunday school superintendent and teacher, VBS director, and editor of the church newsletter. She also served as a youth leader with her husband. Later she was a member of the New Hope United Brethren Church in Huntington, Ind., close to her home. Since February 2009, Jane lived in Maumee, Ohio, with her daughter Barbara and her husband, Dr. Jonathan Rohrs.

30 May Homefront UB Church Ransacked by Thieves–But Good Prevails

On the evening of May 16, thieves drove what was probably a truck across the grass in back of HomeFront UB church, broke the window of the pastor’s office, backed the truck up to the church, and helped themselves to anything of value. They apparently spent quite a bit of time in the building. They kicked in doors and ransacked at will, leaving with TVs, computers, printers, guitars, projectors, and other items.

This happened between 9:30 Wednesday night, May 16, and 8:30 the next morning. The break-in was discovered Thursday morning by Josh Good (right), who had been senior pastor of HomeFront for just two weeks.

They also took items donated by local businesses for a silent auction to be held two days later, a Habitat for Humanity benefit for a single mom and her four kids. Missing was Zales jewelry, a digital camera, about $185 in cash, and other items from the auction table. They’d been preparing for this for several weeks, and the loss–up to $2000–was heartbreaking. The stolen church property was valued at around $6000, but is covered by insurance.

Two other churches in the area had been burglarized recently, but no connection has been made. Police don’t yet know the identify of the thieves. Pastor Good says seven acres of land lie behind the church building, and, “It gets really dark back there.” The thieves entered through the office window, but probably carried items out a door. One neighbor said he saw a truck at the end of the building for a few hours that night.

Pastor Good, who had served on staff at nearby Banner of Christ UB church since 2003, didn’t lose anything from his office. He was still waiting for a desk to arrive, so all of his books and other belongings were still packed in boxes, and he had taken his laptop home for the evening. “Apparently the thieves aren’t theologians, because they didn’t steal any of my books.”

The Lakeshore Habitat for Humanity is building a home for Julie Malfroid, her three sons, and a daughter who is severely handicapped from a brain injury and requires constant care. They’ve been living in a bad-off trailer. Construction of their new home will begin in July.

So, how did the auction go?

“It worked out really well,” says Pastor Good. HomeFront had set a goal of $3500 for the Malfroid family. Thus far, they have raised over $9000.

The break-in drew a lot of media publicity, and people and businesses responded with donations. Ticket packages came from the Detroit Tigers and the Grand Rapids Griffins hockey team. The Tigers tickets went for about $90 apiece. Some local businesses mailed in cash donations. A local ice cream shop auctioned off free ice cream once a week until the end of August. A card shop that went out of business brought purses and other items. Two private artists donated wood pieces.

“It has all worked out very well,” says Josh Good. “Insurance will cover our stuff, and we’ll go without for a few weeks. The response for the auction from the community was awesome. People came up big. And for a fairly young church like HomeFront, for newer believers to see a situation that is pretty bad and to see how God can use it for good and flip it upside down–that was really good for our people. I’ve been able to say from the pulpit that God has ways of doing things that we can’t foresee.”

29 May College Park Church Hires Two New Staff

Gary Dilley, senior pastor, College Park UB Church (Huntington, Ind.)

Nathan Hann and Paul Hirschy officially join the staff of College Park church on June 1. We are excited about the ministry they will provide to our congregation and community.

Nathan Hann will become our fulltime worship pastor. Nathan graduated from Huntington University on May 12 with a degree in Worship Leadership. He and his wife, Alyssa, have been active at College Park Church, and Nathan has served in various roles of music leadership since 2010.

In addition to overseeing the worship ministry of College Park, Nathan has taken over our technology and communication needs. He has helped us begin social networking at College Park, and is working with others on a newly revised website. In addition, he will help us in our interaction with college students. Nathan has been working with Pastor Mark Vincenti and the youth praise team, and is interested in encouraging musical opportunities for our children.

Paul Hirschy will join the staff as a half-time associate pastor. Paul is retiring from his role in the Advancement office at Huntington University, and is looking forward to returning to local church ministry. For those of you not acquainted with Paul, he served nine years as pastor of Park UB church in Bluffton, Ind., then worked at the United Brethren national office in the printshop (1978-1981), as Director of Church Services (1981-2001), and as bishop (2001-2005). He has worked for Huntington University since 2005.

Paul will work with such things as helping newcomers find a home at College Park, helping people find appropriate opportunities to serve God in the church and outside the church, developing the church’s prayer ministry, and helping with church administration.

29 May 550 People in Fowlerville’s 2nd Community Service Day

Mark Wilson (right), senior pastor, Fowlerville UB Church (Fowlerville, Mich.).

On May 19, 2012, Fowlerville UB Church hosted its second annual “Outflow Community Service Day.”

Last year, we sent over 250 people into our community to serve in practical and tangible ways. This year, we invited 6 other local churches to join us in these efforts. As a result, we sent out over 550 individuals to serve our community.

Our theme for this year was “The Church In Action.” We gave each volunteer a bright, florescent T-shirt with our logo “CIA” on the back. Imagine all those florescent shirts making their way into our community–it was a sight to see!

Our church rose to the challenge and raised almost $15,000 to fund the projects that we completed during the day. We wanted to bless the recipients with the extravagant love of God. All of our projects were done at no cost to the recipient, unless they already had the supplies.

Some of the types of projects we completed are:

• Minor and major home repair projects.
• Re-roofing an entire building.
• Constructing handicap ramps.
• Mulching and yard beautification.
• Staining decks.
• Constructing steps.
• Trash removal.
• carpeting and other flooring.
• Dry walling.

We also cleaned up our community parks and downtown areas, and washed all of the windows in our business areas. We were able to serve over 45 different individual residents along with several other larger projects in our community.

I was not only blessed by the other churches that partnered with us, but by the 370+ from our church who went out and served as well. It was nothing short of an amazing day.

The following day, Sunday, we celebrated what God had done during our serving day and then we had the privilege of baptizing 7 people.

12 Apr Easter Story: Dimondale, Mich.

Sally Hock-Harrison, layperson from West Windsor UB church (Dimondale, Mich.)

On Easter, West Windsor UB church held a SONrise service at the little Dimondale Cemetery, and then everyone returned to the church for breakfast.

Sunday school was a bit different. Mr. Hastings, who raises homing pigeons, brought about 20 of the birds. After showing one pigeon up close to the kids (18 of them under age 11), he let all of the birds out of the cage in the bad of his truck. They flew out, circled, and went to his home about two miles away.

Then came an Easter Egg hunt for all of the kids.

We normally have 45-70 people attending on Sunday mornings, but on Easter we had 92!

What happened at your church during this Easter season? Tell us on this form.