• The first Children’s Leaders Summit kicks off today in Holly Hill, Fla.
  • The first Warmth Summit, for staffpersons who work in areas related to spiritual care, begins tomorrow (May 18) in Wheeling, W. Va.
  • Bishop Phil Whipple and his wife, Sandy, are on their way back to Indiana from Pennsylvania. They’ve been on the road for about a month, beginning with the Youth Workers Summit in Florida in mid-April.
  • Jeff Bleijerveld is flying back today from a four-day visit to Haiti.
  • Former bishop Paul Hirschy has come down with pneumonia.

Steve Dennie, the UB Communications Director, is undergoing surgery May 5 for a torn cartilage in his left knee. It’ll put him on crutches for a few days, and keep him out of the office at least through the weekend. The surgery’s at around 8 a.m.

On April 16, Steve had surgery in which an “endolymphatic shunt” was placed behind his left ear. Since 2004, Steve has battled Meniere’s Disease, which causes vertigo, hearing loss, and a constant ringing in his left ear. The vertigo can be incapacitating at times. There is no cure for Meniere’s, but several surgical procedures can lessen the symptoms. The endolymphatic shunt is the least invasive procedure and has a high success rate.

Everything went well with that surgery, but it’s still too early to tell how much affect it will have in preventing future spells of vertigo. But, he’s pretty sure he’s noticed a positive improvement already.

Mabel Mundy, who has worked at the national office since 1987 (most of that time in Global Ministries), became a great-grandma this morning.

It’s always interesting to get outside perspectives on the United Brethren church. Here’s a blog post from the Church of God General Conference which makes envious reference to our Confession of Faith and other governing documents.

Billy Simbo, Bishop of Sierra Leone Conference, reports the death of Rev. Idrisa Murana, Pastor of the Trinity UB Church in Allen Town (the Western region). He had been sick with typhoid and malaria, which he was treating at home. He was admitted to the hospital on March 2 and passed away the next day.

Pastor Murana was 44 years old. He leaves behind his wife and four children. He will be buried in his home town of Talia, near Mattru.

We’re using a variety of ways to communicate via the internet, and people are taking advantage of them. Here’s a summary:

  • 1220 people worldwide have joined the UB news email list. We average 2-3 emails a month, only sending them as needed (rather than on a set schedule).
  • 230 people are now fans of the United Brethren Facebook page (up from nothing a few months ago).
  • 92 people are following the United Brethren Twitter feed.
  • 59 people are using Feedburner, a nifty service from Google which sends a daily email of everything posted to UBCentral.
  • 2900+ people are fans of the Huntington University Facebook page.
  • 369 people receive the monthly Huntington University Prayer Ministry email. This comes from the office of Bishop Emeritus Paul Hirschy, who says, “I would like to see it top 500.”

Darlene Burkett’s father, Max Conner, passed away Saturday night, February 20. Darlene is the administrative assistant in Global Ministries. Darlene and her husband, Phil, now Minister of Music and Worship at College Park Church (Huntington, Ind.), were one of the founding couples of the missionary work in Macau.

Funeral arrangements:

Visitation: 2-4 pm and 6-8 pm Tuesday, February 23; and one hour before the funeral on Wednesday.
Funeral: 11 am Wednesday, February 24.
Visitation and funeral location: Smith & Son Funeral Home, 207 North Main Street, Columbia City, Ind.

Max is survived by his wife, Sue; Darlene (their only child); and two grandchildren. He and Sue have been members of College Park UB church in Huntington, Ind.

when-helping-hurts150In my opinion, “When Helping Hurts” is the single best book I’ve read on the topic of working with the poor. Not only should every Christian worker read it; every Christian ought to read it whether or not they work directly with the poor.

The authors of the book, Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, are community development specialists with the Chalmers Center for Economic Development and professors at Covenant College. Striking to me were the misperceptions we often have regarding the true needs of the poor. Summarizing the results of a polls, they comment:

Poor people typically talk in terms of shame, inferiority, powerlessness, humiliation, fear, hopelessness, depression, social isolation, and voicelessness. North American audiences (or the wealthy) tend to emphasize a lack of material things such as food, money, clean water, medicine, housing, etc.

The result of such misconceptions is that we seek only to bring relief or aid, when what is ultimately needed is rehabilitation and restoration in relationship with God and others. They write that there are three reasons we do this:

  1. Many service organizations have a material definition of poverty; hence they believe that handouts of material things are the solution to that poverty.
  2. Relief is easier to do than development. It is much simpler to drop food out of airplanes or to ladle soup out of bowls than it is to develop long-lasting, time-consuming relationships with poor people, which may be emotionally exhausting.
  3. It is easier to get donor money for relief than for development. “We fed a thousand people today” sounds better than, “We hung out and developed relationships with a dozen people today.”

Key to their approach to relief and development is assessing local assets. Too often we ask, “What do they need?” and fail to ask the even more important question, “What do they have?” They point attention to Colossians 1:16-17, where we’re told the Christ is holding all things together and that he does not allow the effects of sin to completely destroy the inherent goodness of the assets he has created. In Christ, God is reconciling to himself all things–natural resources, individuals, neighborhood associations, schools, businesses, governments, etc. All are being liberated from their “bondage to decay” (Romans 8:12).

The process of assessment involves appreciating, envisioning, co-constructing and sustaining, and can only be done together. We need to move from “doing for” to “doing with” so that eventually they will be able to do it for themselves and even assist others in the same way they have been helped.

Finally, they wrap up the book with a chapter entitled, “Doing Short-term Missions Without Doing Long-Term Harm.” This is a Must Read for anyone going on a short-term trip. The key here is quite simple: don’t do for people what they can, or should, do for themselves. The goal is for the work to be done primarily by the community members with the team in a helping role. Stay away from the “go-help-and save-them” and maintain a “go-as-a-learner” attitude.