04 Apr Four Countries to Benefit from 2014 Easter Offering

During the Easter season, United Brethren churches are invited to raise funds for several Global Ministries projects. Most churches take an offering, which is then forwarded to Global Ministries. This year’s Easter Offering will support the following projects. Bulletin inserts have been sent to all UB churches with information about these projects.

HIV/AIDS Ministries in India: $20,000
We have three avenues for HIV/AIDS work in India. These may seem like medical-only projects, but the spiritual work is evident in the lives that are changed early in or near the end of people’s lives. Many have taken baptism and joined churches.

1. Project Compassion currently serves 54 children with HIV/AIDS. It provides medical treatment, drugs, education, spiritual counseling, food, clothing, vocational training, and caregivers’ salaries.
2. Home Based Care has 70 families who are HIV/AIDS positive. They live in their own villages, but come to the hospital once a month for provisions, medical care, and spiritual counseling. The Indian government provides drugs after we get them registered. During the month, workers visit the villages to check on the patients’ progress.
3. The Care and Counseling Center, with 20 beds, treats various ailments. It may involve surgery or treating any infections in the final stages of life. The ages range from 1-50 years. The Indian government withdrew funding for this project. In 2013 we started asking patients to pay, in full or in part, for the drugs they need. If they can’t pay, we provide them.

Leadership Development in Mexico: $15,000
The leaders of our 45 churches in Mexico have limited resources for training. Most pastors are bi-vocational, so training takes place through non-formal learning, periodic seminars, and the internet.

Denis Casco, our bishop in Mexico, is training these new United Brethren pastors but needs financial resources to accomplish the task. Your gifts will help buy materials, conduct training events, and cover some of Denis Casco’s expenses.

Conference Center in Nicaragua : $10,000
The new conference center in Masaya is nearly completed. It will provide classroom space, dining facilities, and lodging for 48 persons. In addition, it will be used by volunteers and outside groups to provide income for Nicaragua Conference.

Hospital Renovations in Sierra Leone: $15,000
The United Brethren Mattru Hospital is the only hospital for hundreds of miles. It offers medical care to hundreds of people each month while also sharing the Gospel with them.

In 2013, we repaired vehicles and began renovating a guesthouse and doctor’s quarters. We’d like to finish these projects and continue upgrading the facilities at Mattru Hospital.

We invite you to give toward these projects through your church, or by sending a check directly to Global Ministries:

Global Ministries
302 Lake Street
Huntington, IN 46750

02 Apr With Rick Tyler, Global Ministries Endorsed Staff, in Peru

Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries

Rick Tyler is an endorsed member of the Global Ministries staff from Parkwood Gardens UB church in Guelph, Ontario. He serves with the Christian Missions Resource Centre. Rick is currently in Peru on a missions trip. I asked him if he could share a little bit about what they’re doing. Rick sent the following.

Christian Missions Resource Centre serves indigenous ministries in Cuba, Peru, Guatemala and Jamaica spiritually, and with practical gifts of helps.

High in the Peruvian Andies, our short-term mission team in Urubamba, Peru, is ministering with Mision America Church and school (March 29- April 12). Pastor David and Duska Chavez have served their community for over 15 years. Their church has grown to include a TV channel that CMRC had the privilege of building a production studio for last fall. With a medical doctor and family therapist on this year’s team, our team will journey to remote villages offering medical clinics and distributing blankets.

The Mision America school includes all grades, with teaching in both Spanish and English. The school is recognized by local officials as a model educational institution, and enrollment is on the rise. We assist with construction projects and supplies as the school continues to grow.

I consider it a privilege to call these folks friends, and I marvel at their faith in God’s provision. Every trip has its God moments, and this trip is no exception.

The support and encouragement received from Parkwood Gardens church (my home church in Guelph, Ontario), the Ontario Conference, family and friends is greatly appreciated. My mission work truly is a team effort.

02 Apr 38 Years for the Cascos

Congratulations to Denis and Reina Casco, whose 38th anniversary is today. Denis is bishop of Mexico Conference, and Reina pastors a church in Glendale, Calif. Unfortunately, they won’t be celebrating the day together–Denis is currently traveling in El Salvador.

Denis and Reina are originally from Honduras. Denis is the son of the late Arturo Casco, a prominent UB minister and church planter for many years. Denis was trained as a lawyer and worked for World Vision International in Honduras.

They moved to the United States in 1988, at the request of Global Ministries, to launch Latin American Ministries. Denis started a number of Hispanic UB churches in southern California, and also developed relationships with other Hispanic churches in the Southwest.

Relationships in the California churches brought Denis into contact with a group of independent churches in central Mexico, and he began providing general oversight. When Latin American Ministries drew to an end in 2003, Denis maintained his work with the churches in Mexico and in the cities of Juarez and El Paso, which face each other across the Rio Grande. They became an official national conference in 2005, and chose Denis as their bishop.

We now have about 40 churches in Mexico, mostly in the central part of the country north of Mexico City. Denis and Reina continue living in the Los Angeles area, and Denis, often accompanied by his wife, is continuously traveling to visit the churches under his jurisdiction.

28 Mar Group of Ten UBs Travel to Thailand

Frank Y (right), associate director of Global Ministries, is currently in Thailand with nine persons from three different United Brethren churches that are interested in supporting our new outreach in Thailand:

• King Street (Chambersburg, Pa.).
• Mount Pleasant (Chambersburg, Pa.).
• Emmanuel Community (Fort Wayne, Ind.).

The group will meet up with Global Ministries staff Bryan and Emily Gerlach, who are serving in Thailand, and with two persons from Hong Kong Conference: Superintendent Yiu Kin Keung and conference missions director Carol Chan.

26 Mar God’s Protection on the Roads of Honduras

Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries

A car load of United Brethren pastors from El Copan, the western region of Honduras, was traveling to a cluster meeting last Saturday evening (March 22) when their car left the road and rolled. The passengers suffered cuts, bruises and some broken bones, but all survived. The car was written off. Superintendent Juanita Chavez is praising the Lord for protecting them, but also asks for our prayers.

26 Mar Prayer for Darlene Eberly

We’re asking for prayer for Darlene Eberly, a former missionary in Sierra Leone with her husband, Bob. Darlene had been treated for melanoma, but it has now returned in an aggressive fashion. She has begun radiation, and will have another biopsy in the next couple days. It’s a very serious situation. Bob and Darlene Eberly are members of Otterbein UB church in Greencastle, Pa.

Their daughter, Brenda Moore, and her husband Chris, an ordained UB minister, are endorsed staff with Global Ministries; they serve with Here’s Hope Ministries, which operates in Belize and several other countries. Bob Eberly is founder and president of Here’s Hope Ministries.

Address for Darlene Eberly:

Darlene Eberly
PO Box 323
Greencastle, PA 17225

14 Mar The HU Baseball Team in Nicaragua

In January, 21 persons participated in a baseball ministry team which spent about two weeks in Nicaragua. The team included 12 members of the Huntington University baseball team, five soccer players, and two United Brethren ministers–Jeff Dice, associate pastor of Brown Corners UB church (Clare, Mich.), and Josh Kesler, pastor of The Well (Huntington, Ind.). A similar team went in 2012.

They conducted baseball and soccer clinics for Nicaraguan children, and also competed against Nicaraguan semi-pro baseball teams.

It’s am amazing story in several ways, but especially in what happened within the team of Americans. Twelve members of the team were baptized in the Pacific Ocean by Josh Kesler.

The complete story has been posted here.

13 Mar Missionary MaryAnn Hancock has 12-Hour Cancer Surgery

MaryAnn Hancock underwent a 12-hour surgery on Tuesday, March 11. A routine physical in January led to a diagnosis of parotid glandular cancer, located behind the left ear. The physical was in preparation for returning to Jamaica, where she and her husband, Harold (right), are Global Ministries staff working at Regent College of the Caribbean.

The doctor told the family that all of the cancer was removed. He did not have to remove and transplant the facial nerve, which they originally thought would be necessary. Also, the mastoid bone did not have to be removed, just shaved so MaryAnn’s hearing was not impaired.

Next come six weeks of radiation treatments, five days a week. That will start once MaryAnn has had time to heal and recuperate. She will be in the hospital at Ann Arbor until next Tuesday.

Cards can be sent:

MaryAnn Hancock, Room # 4123
University of Michigan Medical Center
1500 E Medical Center Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-5066

11 Mar Masaya Conference Center Nearing Completion

Jeff Dice (right), a member of the Global Ministries staff who spends part of each year in Nicaragua, stopped at the national office in Huntington and talked about progress on the new conference center in Masaya.

“We have progressed quite a bit. When we first floated the idea, it was mainly because after having been there numerous times and seeing how much money we invested in using other people’s buildings, I thought it would be good to invest in our own building. Along with that, we want the conference to become self-supporting. If someday the US becomes less involved than it is today, the church in Nicaragua could still flourish.”

Masaya is a city of over 140,000. Other groups in the city would no doubt be interested in renting the building for meetings and other events. The conference could then use the income for church planting and conference ministries.

“It’s a two-story building,” Jeff explains. “When completed, it will have two dormitory style rooms which can sleep 12 in each one, 24 total. Then there are three hotel-style rooms with their own bathrooms. Two of them are basically doubles, and the third is a larger room which a family could stay in. Downstairs is a dining room and meeting room.”

How will the conference use the center? The conference, of course, will use the center for training purposes (like seminars for ministers and laypersons). But it will also provide a safe place for foreigners to stay, when they come for ministry opportunities. Jeff mentions three types of groups.

1. Mission groups. Two major logical needs confront every group that comes to Nicaragua to minister—where to stay, and what to eat. The center answers both questions.

2. Retired people. “Nicaragua is a wonderful place to spend the winter months,” Jeff says. “If people want to combine the desire to be warm and the desire for ministry, we have a ready-made place for them to stay.”

3. College students. The center would be ideal for college students who want to spend a semester or summer in a cross-cultural experience.

The three hotel-style rooms are completed. Additional work remains to finish the dormitories. All the rough plumbing and electrical work is done, but work remains with tiling, toilets, and sinks. They also want to build a couple of balconies—not necessities, but nice to have.

A youth group from Brown Corners will work on the center this summer, and will stay in the hotel-style rooms.

“Latin America is a great place to visit,” Jeff says. “If you’re a friendly person, they are a friendly people. My experience in Nicaragua is vast acceptance of the aid foreign people are trying to give.”

If you or your church are interested in serving in Nicaragua, you may contact Jeff Dice at:

Office phone: (989) 386-2702
Email: thedices@hotmail.com

27 Feb 2014 Easter Mission Offering

Missions Moments – Easter 2014 from Global Ministries on Vimeo.

Jeff Bleijerveld (right), Director of Global Ministries

It may not seem like Easter is just around the corner, but it is. In the coming weeks, United Brethren churches will receive bulletin inserts and other materials for our annual Easter Missions Offering.

This year, we will raise support for the following projects, all of which involve the UB international fields:

• Mexico: leadership development,
• Nicaragua: completion of the new conference center in Masaya.
• Sierra Leone: continued renovations at Mattru Hospital.
• India: HIV/AIDS ministries.

Along with the inserts and other materials your church may have requested, we will send a DVD promotional video. You’re welcome to preview the video above.