07 Jul Closing of the Freeport, Mich., Church
The UB church in Freeport, Mich., has closed. A concluding service was held June 28, 2009.
30 Jun Fountain UB Again Collecting Christmas Child Shoeboxes
Once again, Fountain UB (Keyser, W. Va.) is serving as the collection site for the county’s Operation Christmas Child. In 2008, they collected 9100 shoeboxes full of small gifts, which were then distributed by Samaritan’s Purse to children in under-developed countries. This year’s goal is 12,000 boxes.
17 Jun Center Hill UB Church Closes
The Center Hill UB church (Mt. Carroll, Ill.) held its closing celebration service on Sunday, June 14. Bishop Ron Ramsey attended this final service. He writes, “It went well, with about 50 persons attending. There were only 10 members still listed, and many of them had not contacted the church in years. Only 3 members attended regularly. There were about 10 or so others who were not members who attended. The congregation voted to sell the building to another ministry. June 14 was the last UB service at the church.”
Bishop Ramsey is working with a lawyer to transfer property ownership to the new ministry, and hopes to complete the transfer before he leaves office in August. He notes that some funds from Center Hill will be coming to both Global Ministries and Huntington University.
13 Jun Bishop Ramsey Speaking at Church Closing
The Center Hill church of Mt. Carroll, Ill., will hold a closing celebration service tomorrow (June 14) afternoon at 2 p.m. The attendance has dwindled to only a few people, and the remaining members voted in April to close the church. Center Hill dates back to 1856, and officially organized in 1870.
11 Jun Center Hill Church Closing After 140 Years
Center Hill United Brethren Church of Mt. Carroll, Ill., is closing after nearly 140 years. A final celebration service will be held Sunday afternoon, June 14, at 2:00. Bishop Ron Ramsey will speak at the closing service.
The attendance of Center Hill had declined to the point where it was no longer viable. Bishop Ramsey met with remaining members on April 19. During that meeting, they voted to close.
“While this is a sad time for the congregation,” says Bishop Ramsey, “yet we rejoice over the faithfulness of God’s people who worshiped and served our Lord from that location. They have truly tried to fulfill being a lighthouse on the hill for that community.
He continues, “Closing churches is painful. We wish the closing service to be a time of great celebration.”
24 May Update from Flooded Florida
Chuck McKeown, pastor of First UB of Holly Hill, Fla., reported yesterday (Saturday, May 23), “As of Friday we had 29.5 inches. Today (Saturday) we got another inch. The water is going down quickly and work teams will start cleaning-up tomorrow.”
Vicki McKeown, from First UB of Holly Hill, Fla., add this on Sunday, May 24: “This newspaper article confirms what we knew to be true already. Our community in Holly Hill seems to have taken the brunt of the rain and flooding this week. The forecast predicts more rain on the way. We have several church families with inches of water standing in their homes. Many more in the community are affected. Pray that we’ll be effective as the body of Christ to our neighbors! Unfortunately, this area is probably the poorest and will suffer the most.”
22 May Flooding Around a Florida UB Church, a Plea for Help
I received a call from Chuck McKeown, pastor of First Church in Holly Hill, Fla. They had been in a drought condition, but since Monday have received 26 inches of rain. There is nowhere for it to go, and most of the area around Holly Hill and Ormond Beach (just north of them) is totally flooded. Chuck said it is almost worse than when they get hurricanes.
They are setting up the church as an emergency care center. They are in need of any teams that would be willing to come down and help their families and other families in their community to pull carpets and mattresses and help begin the process of recovery. He indicated that most of the folks do not have flood insurance, so this is going to devastate them financially as well.
If you have folks who can and would like to help, please coordinate through Chuck. His contact info and the address for the church are:
Pastor Chuck McKeown
First UB Daytona
1650 Center Avenue
Holly Hill, FL 32117
Office: 386-677-6940
Cell: 386-547-4005
His cell would probably be the best way to get him.
30 Apr New Website: Bethel Temple of Praise
Bethel Temple of Praise, a predominantly Jamaican UB church in Yonkers, N.Y., has a new website. Pastor Dalton Jenkins points out some of the new features:
- Podcast of messages he preaches.
- A blog on which Dalton shares his thoughts and reflections.
- A new page for connecting youth with a Youth Blog page.
- A page call Spiritual Checkup. One feature is a link for presenting the Gospel via the internet.
27 Apr 25 Years at Jerusalem Chapel
Top: Pastor Denny and Annette Sites with Denny’s parents, Bishop Emeritus Wilber and Mossie Sites. Bottom: Jerusalem Chapel Church.
On Sunday, March 29, the congregation of Jerusalem Chapel (Churchville, Va.) honored Pastor Denny and Annette Sites, who have now served the church for 25 years.
The celebration included musical favorites of Pastor Denny, and a video of the Sites family covering the past 25 years. A gift was presented from the congregation.
When Denny came here 25 years ago, 38 people attended his first service. Today we average 400. Under his ministry we added a sanctuary seating 300 and a fellowship hall. We held two services in the chapel until the current building was constructed, at which point we went back to one service. But a few years later, we had to go back to two services.
A few years ago, a fire destroyed the 125-seat chapel that was over 100 years old. That was a sad day for many in the congregation, but now an educational building stands where the chapel once stood. We don’t always understand why things happen, but the Lord had bigger and better things in store for us.
The Lord has truly blessed us under Pastor Denny’s ministry. We are also blessed to have Associate Pastor Matt Hann and his wife, Emily; and Youth Pastor Todd Yoder and his wife, Amy.
We thank the Lord for the staff he has given us and for what He has done for us as we look forward to the future.
27 Apr Easter Story: Hillsdale, Mich.
Holy week proved to be a real “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming” experience for Hillsdale UB Church. Three of our families lost five loved ones during the week. Our congregation and community were rocked by an automobile accident which claimed the lives of a young mother and two of her children. Her sister is a member of the church. The driver of the other car also is from our congregation and required surgery for an injury from the accident.
A couple who are leaders in the church had their house burn down the same day as the tragic accident. Other church members ended up in hospitals in Jackson, Hillsdale, Ann Arbor and Toledo.
In one sense the HUB congregation experienced a “Good Friday” week filled with pain, sorrow, and death. But Resurrection Day reminded us of the hope of the empty tomb and new life in a very profound way.
Our attendance was up 20% from last year with over 700 in our three services. After our early service, a single mom and first-time attender received eternal life.
The final service was an Easter musical called, “I’ve seen Jesus.” This was also the name of the theme song which ended the service. In the middle of that song at 12:16 pm, Parker Falke was born. His parents are members of the HUB. The baby’s mother was rushed to the hospital emergency room on Maundy Thursday, because she was several weeks short of her delivery date. So Easter Sunday brought to the HUB new life, one spiritual and one physical.