18 Jun UB Team Arrives in Poland

Donna Delik, UB missionary in Kutno, Poland, with Operation Mobilization, sent this note, upon the arrival of 18 UBs in Poland:

It’s time for our annual English workshop again! The UB team from America arrived safely and sound this morning. We are very thankful that all their luggage arrived, it is the very first time without missing luggage! One more team member will arrive tomorrow, so please pray for safe travelling.

This weekend the team will work together to do the final preparation and then we will launch our English workshop on Monday, June 22.

We will appreciate your prayer for us as a team in the coming 2 weeks:

• Please pray for unity and work with one spirit with the team.
• Pray for our health: physical, mental and spiritual.
• Pray for those 63 teenagers who will participate in the camp, that God will use the team to speak to them.
• Pray for each team member, especially those who are in mission the very first time. We are so encouraged to see 13 teenagers in the team, and we pray that God will work in their lives through these 2 weeks.

17 Jun Two Mission Teams Heading Overseas

Two denominational mission teams are beginning their trips.

• A group of 18 people left for Poland on Wednesday, June 17. They will conduct an English camp for young people in the city of Kutno. Arek and Donna Delik, UB missionaries serving with Operation Mobilization, minister in Kutno. The trip will conclude with two days of sight-seeing in Krakow before they return to the States on July 1.
• A medical team is leaving Thursday, June 18, on a ten-day trip to Honduras. They will conduct five medical clinics before returning on June 27.

17 Jun Dave Datema Assumes Leadership of Frontier Mission Fellowship

On May 6, we noted that Dave Datema had been named to succeed Dr. Ralph Winter as General Director of Frontier Mission Fellowship, the umbrella organization for the US Center for World Mission and the William Carey International University. Dave officially assumed that role on May 5.

Dr. Winter passed away on Wednesday, May 20. In their newsletter, Dave and Cathie wrote:

Dave had spent Tuesday evening and all day Wednesday on a retreat with the Frontier Mission Fellowship executive team. After fasting for three days, going through 16 hours of meetings on the retreat, and then coming back to find that Dr. Winter had passed away 30 minutes after we returned, Dave was physically and emotionally spent. Yet God’s goodness and grace were very evident in the meetings and in the circumstances surrounding Dr. Winter’s death.

For all of us on staff, we have lost our leader, the one whose vision drew us here, for many of us a journey of thousands of miles away from home and family. These are somber but hope-filled days. Dr. Winter leaves a rich legacy behind.

Dave has discovered the “tyranny of the inbox” as he begins his new role. Within the next couple weeks, he will move his office to a different building on campus. Between now and our Staff Conference in July, Dave plans to meet face to face with the bulk of our members, part of which will involve a trip to one of our regional offices in Philadelphia. Much time will also be spent coming to grips with the policies and practices of the FMF’s multiple projects. Pray for Dave! Also, remember Cathie and our children as Dave will be out of town for 12 days in June.

Dave Datema is an ordained United Brethren minister, and a member of the Global Ministries Leadership Team. As a UB missionary kid, he spent a good chunk of his childhood in both Sierra Leone and Jamaica. He attended the recent US National Conference in Huron, Ohio.

15 Jun Death of Troy Hendricks’s Father

Troy Hendricks and family, missionaries in Spain with SEND International, are heading back to Michigan after the unexpected death, by heart attack, of Troy’s dad.

28 May Earthquake Hits Honduras

A strong earthquake hit Honduras this morning. Juanita Chavez, superintendent of Honduras Conference, sent this note:

“By God’s grace we are fine here in Honduras. Seven of our superintendents have been in touch and tell me that all our people, pastors and families are thanking God as none have suffered personal or material injuries with the exception of Puerto Cortes. Pastor Janiria reports damage to the church and parsonage. Walls and floors were affected, and the parsonage is uninhabitable.

“This evening the pastor will be staying with family. The cement for the patio around the church building is also damaged. We’re listening closely to the recommendations on the radio and television as tremors continue. Although they are less violent, citizens are still on edge. We thank the Lord for His mercies.”

25 May Costa Rica: with Pastor Eric

While I was visiting in Pastor Eric’s church in San Jose, Costa Rica, I met one fellow who came out of a drug addiction background. He first came to the church to case the joint–see what kind of sound system they had, so he could come back and steal it. Instead, he became a Christian. If he doesn’t become a pastor or preacher in some way, I’ll be surprised.

He developed a huge tumor on his neck, about the size of a soccer ball. It was intertwined with his vocal chords. The doctor said, “You can have the surgery, but you’ll probably never speak again.” The church prayed over him. He speaks a little rough, but he has a voice and he intends to use it.

At this same church, we heard a knock at the door, and a fellow entered with his wife and two young children (in pajamas). He had been influenced by the church for some time. He was a heroin addict, and wanted to be set free. We prayed with them as he confessed his sin and accepted Christ into his life.

14 May It’s Becoming a Dangerous World

At the Cristo Rey UB church in Costa Rica.

Before Charlene and I went to Spain as missionaries, we spent a year attending language school in Costa Rica. When I visited San Jose in January to see our churches in that city, I discovered some major changes.

The city is much more violent. I used to walk all around the city with no sense of danger. Now, I was told, even the locals don’t go out walking on the streets.

Probably the biggest crime now is extortion–not only in Costa Rica, but all through Central America. Someone calls you on a cell phone and says that if you don’t leave a certain amount of money at a certain place tomorrow, they’ll kill you, or your wife, or your children. They don’t even bother to kidnap you. They just threaten you over the phone.

Anyone who appears to have any money is at risk. You don’t need to be rich; a middle class person will do. The police don’t know what to do about it, because how do you prove anything from a phone call? And people don’t go to the police, because they have no idea who called them. Maybe it was a policeman.

In Honduras, one day I walked from the Bethel School, where we held the conference, back to my hotel. I heard about it. They said I shouldn’t put myself at risk like that.

The same is true in many places around the world. In the Philippines, Sierra Leone, and other places where United Brethren churches operate, you just don’t go walking around. Even locals get mugged, have their pockets picked, have cell phones taken off their belt. If they’re hitting the nationals, sooner or later, if you visit regularly, you’ll get victimized if you don’t take reasonable precautions.

07 May Meet Galen and Maritta Fiedler

Galen Fiedler and his son, Jared, in front of the school where Galen teaches.

Before visiting Sierra Leone in December, I traveled to Germany to meet with Galen and Maritta Fielder. In April, they were approved as Global Ministries missionaries.

Galen is the son of Phil and Carol Fiedler, former UB missionaries in Sierra Leone, so he is a missionary kid. So is Maritta. She is a German citizen whose parents were missionaries in South Africa, Namibia, and Papua New Guinea.

Galen and Maritta (right) met in Israel at a kibbutz. They corresponded for about five years. Then she made her first visit to the United States. That first night, Galen proposed, and she said yes.

Now they’re married with two children, and very actively ministering to neighbors and families in their community in southwestern Germany. Galen teaches at a Christian school called Aloys Henhofer Schulem. There are very few evangelicals in that part of Germany; most evangelicals live in the north around Berlin and Hanover. People in their area would be traditionally Catholic, mostly post-Christian.

The school primarily educates Christian children, but wants to make a broader impact in the community. So Galen, because of his English-speaking ability, developed an English club for kids from the school and community.

Galen began thinking about raising partners back in the US. It’s not about finances. That’s not an issue, because the Fiedlers earn their own living. Rather, they wondered if some English-speaking people could partner with them and maybe help them reach into the community.

So we began an email dialogue. We’re working to develop a relationship between Global Ministries and the school which might include such things as:

• Short-term teams doing summer English camps.
• Practicums for Huntington University students in the new English Teaching major.
• Exchange students.

The first exchange student will come this summer and stay with Cathy and J. R. Reich (Cathy is Bishop Ramsey’s administrative assistant). This 13-year-old girl is the daughter of the school’s director.

The Fiedlers are been approved as “non-traditional” missionaries. That’s a new category. They are UB missionaries, but non-traditional since most of their support comes from his employment. They will require only a very small budget to facilitate involvement with short-term teams and other ministries. So they’re not going out in the traditional sense as fulltime missionaries, but their ministry is definitely fulltime.

This category may be used a lot more in the future by people who can support themselves through alternative means–business, retirement, other opportunities.

The Fiedlers live with Maritta’s parents, Opa and Oma. They took very good care of me, and fed me very well. Opa is suffering from cancer right now, and was quite weak while I was there. But he told me great stories. He learned to speak English from Australians while living in Papua New Guinea. It was interesting hearing this German speak English with an Australian accent.

06 May Needed: for Summer Mission Trips

Global Ministries is sponsoring several short-term ministry trips this summer–to Central America, Europe, and Asia. Almost 100 persons are involved. Please–

• Pray for each person and team as they prepare for their trip.
• Prayerfully consider how you might help financially.

Because of the economy, some of the teams have found fundraising for their trip challenging. Supplies that are needed for the work these groups will do. It would be a huge answer to prayer if you could assist financially. Any size gift is greatly appreciated.

Checks should be made out to Global Ministries. On the memo line, place the location to which you would like to contribute–Central America, Europe, or Asia.