25 Mar Ordination of Mary Flamer

The ordination service for Mary Flamer. L-r: William Flamer, Ed Harvey, Mary Flamer, Roland Albert, and Bishop Phil Whipple.

Bishop Phil Whipple (left) with William and Mary Flamer.

On Sunday, March 20, 2011, I conducted an ordination service for Mary Flamer. Her husband, William, is associate pastor of Park Layne UB church in Dayton, Ohio. Interestingly, Mary and William actually live in Philadelphia, Pa. Once a month, they travel to Park Layne to participate in the service.

Ed Harvey, pastor of Lighthouse Community Church in Dayton, and Roland Albert, pastor of Park Layne, joined me on the platform to assist in Mary’s ordination.

01 Mar Atlantic Avenue UB Group Works in Haiti

Members of the Atlantic Avenue team that worked in Haiti. Front row (l-r): Deb McCorkle, Deb McElroy, Judy Heller, Jen Corbett, Jeneen Gahr. Back row (l-r): Fred McCorkle, Steve Craver, Rich Eakin, Jeff Judson, Jeff Corbett, Pastor Pat Daugherty. Missing from the picture are Melvin and Amy Coe.

The team digging foundations in the 90-degree heat

Melvin Coe giving a ride to 2 Haitian boys

View of current temporary homes and new homes under construction.

Team members with a completed new home for displaced families.

On January 28, fourteen members of Atlantic Avenue United Brethren Church (Franklin, Pa.) traveled to Titinyen, Haiti, to minister with Mission of Hope Haiti.

During their 7-day trip, they were involved in building new homes for people displaced by the January 2010 earthquake. Mission of Hope has been given 100 acres by the government on which they plan to erect 500 single-family homes.

The group also ministered at several orphanages. Jeff Corbett, an electrician, stayed an extra 2 weeks and made multiple repairs and upgrades at the Mission of Hope campus.

Atlantic Avenue plans to continue the work in Haiti through future trips.

18 Feb Renew Communities Set to Go Public

Renew Communities, a church plant in the greater Cleveland, Ohio, area, is less than a month away from holding weekly gatherings. They are advertising that they will begin meeting March 13, at 10:30 am, at the Polaris Career Center in Middleburg Heights, Ohio.

Andy Sikora is the church planter for Renew Communities. And according to their really sharp looking website, he’s got a great team working with him.

16 Feb A UB Connection to a Grammy Winner

The members of Arcade Fire with their Grammy awards. Tim Kingsbury is second from the right.

Brian Magnus, writing as pastor of Parkwood Gardens UB church in Guelph, Ontario (he’s also Bishop of the UB Church in Canada), sent this note:

“Tim Kingsbury, bassist of the Album of the Year Grammy Award winning band, Arcade Fire, grew up in and learned to play the bass guitar right here at Parkwood Gardens UB Church in Guelph, Ontario. We’re pretty proud or Tim, who first played guitar and bass in the worship teams of the church! His Mom played the piano here as well.”

04 Feb Upwards in a New Activity Center

On January 23, Hillsdale UB Church (Hillsdale, Mich.) dedicated an Activity Center. Bishop Phil Whipple gave a challenging address to the congregation before they went across the parking lot to enjoy a celebration meal in the new building.

Special guests included State Rep. Ken Kurtz, State Senator Bruce Caswell, and Congressman Tim Walberg. Rep. Kurtz, a member of Hillsdale UB, gave the dedication prayer to close the service.

The Activity Center was opened just in time to accomodate the explosive growth of the Upwards basketball/cheerleading ministry. In just its second year at Hillsdale, the number of children increased by over 100 and the number of teams grew from 19 to 30. Every Saturday, several hundred people pour in to watch the Upwards games. The majority do not yet attend services, but new families have been added to the congregation.

Even though Hillsdale County has had unemployment rates ranging from 15 to 20 per cent the last few years, an anonymous church member provided a check for $150,000 to purchase the building debt-free.

28 Jan Community Prayer for Drug Addiction

“It was a really powerful God-thing,” says pastor Greg Voight of the Prayer Meeting for Heroin and Prescription Drug Abuse. This special community service was held Sunday, January 16, at Lancaster UB church in Lancaster, Ohio.

The purpose was to rally local people to pray about the heroin and prescription drug problem in Ohio. Fairfield County ranks high nationally with prescription drug and heroin addiction.

“The church was absolutely full,” says Pastor Voight (right). Though they didn’t take an actual count, he estimates that over 400 people attended. “It’s the largest crowd we’ve had since I’ve been there.”

The attendees included the mayor, police chief, county sherrif, drug court judges, persons from various organizations, and a number of pastors.

The event was a cooperative effort of various churches of all flavors. Greg and another pastor spearheaded it.

After a brief time of worship, they showed a locally-produced video called “Hooked,” which included interviews with former addicts, the police chief, mayor, doctors, and others. The typical pattern is that addiction begins with prescribing pain medication, and when they can no longer afford it, opiates are a cheap and easy-to-find substitute. There was a tesimony from a woman whose daughter was “raised in the right way in all forms,” says Pastor Voight, yet she ended up addicted to heroin.

Each participating pastor prayed over a different aspect of the problem–root causes, law enforcement, medical fields, community awareness, civic organizations that work in this area, etc. Another time of worship ended the event.

Says Pastor Voight, “I think God is revealing to us that this the epidemic of our time, and God is calling the church out and calling the church together. The system won’t fix the problem. The only answer is God’s power unleased in the community in people’s lives.”

27 Jan Christmas in Harrisonburg, Va.

The UB church in Harrisonburg, Va., put on a Christmas play on December 19. The title was “St Nicholas, The Man Behind the Mask.”Here are a couple scenes from the program.

25 Jan Sunfield, Mich: Children’s/Education Director

Sunfield United Brethren Church (Sunfield, Mich.) is looking for a person to serve as Children’s/Education Director. This is a part-time position (20 hours per week).

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07 Jan Christmas at Our Church: Blissfield, Mich.

Christmas basket outreach in Blissfield, Mich.

Rochelle Jensen, Zion UB, Blissfield, Mich.

We joined with the Catholic Church to provide grocery bags full of supplies for their Christmas basket outreach program. Our children preformed in a wonderful Christmas Musical Program with singing and choreography. And on Christmas Eve, we had our annual worship and praise service with communion and candlelight ending. There were 141 in attendance for the service, which ended at midnight!!