Canadaboy_100.jpgThe Roseville UB church (Roseville, Ontario) suffered a great tragedy on Saturday, October 4. David Perrin, a 14-year-old from Roseville, who also attended the United Brethren summer camp in Ontario, was killed in a farm accident.

David climbed a silo to check the silage. He was overcome by notrogen dioxide fumes, fell into the silo, and died.
Randy Magnus is pastor of the Roseville church.

Ron Ramsey, Bishop

I had a great day yesterday in Findlay, Ohio, at The ROCK, formerly known as Faith Community Church. Faith began in 1995 under the leadership of Dan Young, who now pastors Crestview UB church in Lafayette, Ind.

brad_jamie_kittle200.jpgA couple years ago, I appointed a young man as pastor of Faith Community Church. He had attended seminary with Brad Kittle (right, with wife Jamie), who was then pasturing a church in Findlay with the Evangelical Congregational denomination. They began talking about merging the two congregations. At the 2005 US National Conference, I met with Brad and a delegation from his church, and they attended part of the conference.

Early this year, they decided to begin holding services as one congregation. A few months later, they invited me and the Evangelical Congregational bishop to meet with them on a Sunday morning. Neither of us had any idea which way they would go, EC or UB. In this case, they voted to become United Brethren.

This past Sunday, October 5, was the grand finale. The EC congregation, plus a number of Faith people who had never joined the church, became members of the United Brethren church en masse. I was privileged to lead about 45 people in taking their UB membership vows.

They also baptized two women. One had been a Christian for a while, but had never been baptized. The other, however, was a brand new convert who was excited to be a Christian. We require people to be baptized before joining the church. These women joined the church the same day they were baptized, which was kind of neat.

I would guess they had 120 people there. They have a lot of kids for that size of church! They also ordained three men as a board of elders, and anointed them with oil. They held a hog roast after the service.

The church recently adopted the name The ROCK (Reaching Others for Christ’s Kingdom). Pastor Brad Kittle took the UB church history course this summer. He’s a fine young man doing a good job for us.

Dirk Small resigned as pastor of Idaville UB Church (Idaville, Pa.). He has taken a staff position with Otterbein Church in Waynesboro, Pa. (a former UB church that withdrew in 2005). Idaville is now looking for a new senior pastor.

In exactly one month, the Mt. Zion United African Church in Philadelphia, Pa., will relocate. They’ve been needing a bigger place, and they found one about 2.5 miles from their current meeting place. 

The grand opening is October 12, with a reception afterwards. Pastor Joe Abu invites you to attend, if you’re able.

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Dalton Jenkins, pastor of Bethel Temple of Praise, a UB church in Yonkers, N.Y.
It all began in the fall of 2007 with a call from then director of Global Ministries Gary Dilley. He asked if I was interesting in having a Youth Pastor, who was looking to do some missions work that summer, come and help us out with Vacation Bible School. I was glad for the opportunity and was later introduce to Pastors Dennis A. Sites, Todd Yoder, and Jerusalem Chapel.

This was around the time of the 2007 UB National Conference. Providence would have it that of all the places Todd and I could find in the hall to sit, we ended up next to each other. What made it more interesting is that we did not recognize each other until Bishop Ron Ramsey introduced me to the convention.

There we were, two guys from two different worlds, with the same passion, serving under the same banner. Little did we know that this was the start of a friendship built on the desire to mobilize the church to a missional cause, ministering to the total man.

Pastor Todd led a group from Jerusalem Chapel that summer to conduct a VBS for us at Bethel Temple of Praise. It was Virginia meets Yonkers. The spirit of the “We are brethren!” declaration of Otterbein and Boehm lived on. We put aside our differences and stood together as disciples commissioned to proclaim the Gospel.

This summer we decided to give back-to-school supplies to the kids in Yonkers. Qe were in the process of fundraising for the event when Pastor Todd called. He said they would love to buy supplies for our VBS this year. Since we were not planning a VBS, because we did not have the personnel, I told him of our efforts to give out supplies. He committed to contributing to our efforts.

With the contribution from Jerusalem Chapel and our own fundraising efforts, two groups of volunteers distributed over 70 bags of supplies at two locations–one group at a park near our church, the other in the middle of town. Two nurses did about 50 blood-pressure tests and provided other medical advice to persons who stopped by. This was done during two hours on Saturday afternoon, August 24. Thanks, Pastor Sites amd Todd and Jerusalem Chapel. This partnership is invaluable to the proclamation of the Gospel.

Reactions to our efforts were refreshing. Many were surprised that the church was giving away free supplies. Some people promised to visit our church.

On August 31, Lee Hiney preached his last sermon as pastor of Mt. Zion UB church in Wayne, Ohio. That was nearly 20 years to the day from when he preached his first sermon there–August 28, 1988.

A local newspaper posted a lengthy article about Pastor Hiney, which talks about the past 20 years, reflections from parishioners and staffers, and plans for the future.

Here is another “God sighting” report, this one about a community outreach event by Shepherd of the Valley UB church in Logan, Ohio. Doug Stull, the senior pastor, sent me this brief note:

The Festival turned out at least 200 unchurched people. Food, free school supplies, carnival games–all brought a lot of the community to the event. I believe we planted a lot of good seeds and hit the right button. Economically, people are hurting. We’re thinking now to keep the ball rolling by offering a free Thanksgiving dinner to families.

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Submitted by Ron Watterly, pastor of McCallum UB church, Delon, Mich.

Jerry Johncock recently completed his 103rd marathon. That’s normally not a newsworthy item. Did I mention that Jerry is 80 years old? He not only completed the race, he set a new national record for runners in his age group, four hours, 11 minutes, 51 seconds.

Johncock is a member of McCallum UB church in Delton, Mich. He took up running at age 50 as a way to bond with his five sons, and has been at it ever since. He competes in several races annually. Racing is sort of in the Johncock blood. A cousin is Gordon Johncock, winner of the 1973 Indy 500.

Jerry was raised in the McCallum church. After high school, he attended Huntington College with the intention of becoming a teacher. His education was cut short by a stint in the Navy. After the Navy, he married Dorlene Ramie.

Through the years, Jerry served as a traveling evangelist, missionary to Mexico, and pastor of the Otsego, Mich., UB church. He never made it back to Huntington, but did complete vocational training at Michigan Career and Technical Institute and worked as a television repairman.

Of the five sons, Mark, the youngest, graduated from Huntington University and is employed at the Michindoh Camp and Conference Center (Hillsdale, Mich.). Jim, next to the oldest, is chairman of the administrative board at McCallum. Besides raising their own children, the Johncocks provided a home for numerous foster children over the years.

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NorthPointe Church (Lewis Center, Ohio) baptized six persons in a member’s pool last Saturday. Pastor Dan Kopp tells about some of them:

  • One is seeing victory over addiction and is reaching out to others in a VERY exciting way.
  • Another couple’s marriage was for all intents and purposes over, and they’ve come to Christ and were both baptized (and would have been joined by their son had he not had a conflict with the date).
  • One is the son of a former atheist whose whole family has come to Christ.
  • A daughter who makes the fourth and final member of the family to come to Christ and be baptized at NorthPointe.

Exciting stuff.