04 Jan Obit: Rev. Paul Cairl, 87

Paul W. Cairl, 87 passed away January 3, 2016, in Findlay, Ohio. at Birchaven Village. He is survived by his wife, Virginia, whom he married in 1948, and a daughter. Paul was an ordained United Brethren minister, and a former administrator at Huntington College.

Visitation: 3-8 pm Wednesday, January 6, 2016; and 10-11 am Thursday, January 7.
Funeral: 11 am Thursday, January 7, 2016.

Both visitation and funeral will be held at the Lehtomaa Funeral Home, 201 Osborn Ave. Findlay, Ohio 45840.

04 Jan Obituary: Rev. Donald Bender Passed away January 1

Rev. Donald Bender, 85, passed away January 1, 2016, in Chambersburg, Pa. He graduated from Huntington College and spent his life pastoring churches in Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. He was a member of Blue Rock UB church in Waynesboro, Pa., which was one of the churches he pastored. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Shirley, and three children.

Visitation: 6-8 pm Monday, January 4.
Funeral: 11am Tuesday, January 5.

Both the visitation and funeral will be held at Grove-Bowersox Funeral Home, 50 South Broad Street, Waynesboro, PA. Rev. Gayle Ruble will officiate at the funeral.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to: SpiriTrust Lutheran Home Care and Hospice, 2700 Luther Drive, Chambersburg, PA 17202 or St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105 or at www.stjude.org.

29 Dec Death of Esther Lange, wife of Rev. Burton Lange

Esther Lange, widow of Rev. Burton Lange, passed away at 9:15 pm on Monday, December 28, 2015. Sons Roger and Jerry were praying around her bed as she took her last breath.

Esther and Burt served 58 years in United Brethren pastoral ministry–in Kansas, Indiana, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Burt passed away June 22, 2015. Funeral details for Esther will be posted when available.

29 Dec Obit: Doris Malson, wife of Rev. Charles Malson, Sr.

Here are the funeral details for Doris Malson, who passed away on December 24.

Visitation: 3-6pm on Saturday, January 2, 2016,.
Visitation location: Mt. Hope UB church Fellowship Building, 5011 Mt. Hope Road, Carson City, Mich.
Memorial service: 3pm Sunday, January 3, 2016.
Memorial service location: East Washington UB church, 8051 S. Crapo Road, Ashley, Mich. (corner of Crapo and M 57 just west of Ashley). Visitation one hour prior to the service. Rev. Steve Malson, a son, will officiate.

Doris M. Malson was born August 17, 1923 in Lansing, Mich., the daughter of Fred and Bessie Crowl. She was a good student, athlete, and president of her class the last three years in high school. She and Charles F. Malson met and fell in love at Camden High and were married after graduation in the fall of 1941, a couple weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor. They were married for 73 years. Charles preceded her in death in 2013.

Doris is survived by her children Beth and Lee Palmer, Cathie Kesler-Collins and Tom Collins, Chuck and Kate Malson, Patsy and Trent Bushnell, Steve and Jody Malson, Mary and Doug Streeter, by 19 grandchildren, and a growing number of great-grandchildren.

Doris’ life was manifested by her love for Jesus, her devotion to Charles, her family, and a host of those who loved her as family. She spent her life caring for others and was proud of how many were unofficially adopted into the Malson clan. She cooked for camps and conferences at the Carson City Christian Camping Center. She readily hosted people for meals. Visitors knew that they would be offered ice cream and her famous homemade chocolate topping and/or homemade donuts even if it were a drop-in visit.

Doris and Charles farmed after marriage until Charles answered the call to Christian ministry. They moved to New York, where Charles attended Houghton College. To supplement their income, Doris did laundry for college men. One Monday she washed, starched, and ironed 58 white shirts along with the other laundry. (This was before dryers were common.)

She served alongside Charles at Brown Corners UB church in Clare, Mich., 1952-1957, and at Richfield Road UB church in Flint, 1957-1982. Dozens consider her to be Mom or Grandma. Doris traveled extensively with Charles, who was fulltime superintendent of Michigan Conference 1982-1991, when he retired.

Doris and Charles visited various countries while serving on the denominational Board of Missions. She was president of the Michigan Conference Women’s Missionary Association for several years. While in the Carson City area, they were faithful members of the Mt. Hope United Brethren in Christ Church.

She and Charles believed in giving back to the community where they lived. They volunteered at Carson City Hospital for more than 25 years, developing many community friends while helping to create a wonderfully welcoming atmosphere as people registered.

Memorial funds may be made to any of the following:

• Carson City Christian Camping Center, 10890 Easy Street, Carson City, MI 48811.
• Greater Lansing Youth for Christ, 5222 Dumond Dr, Lansing, MI 48917.
• Samaritan’s Purse, PO Box 3000, Boone, NC 48607.

24 Dec Death of Doris Malson

Doris Malson passed away at 6:30pm on Christmas Eve. She had suffered a massive stroke on Friday, December 18.

Her son Chuck wrote, “At 6:30 tonight, Christmas eve, my Mom, Doris Malson said Merry Christmas to St. Peter at the gates of heaven, knelt at the feet of Jesus, and looked around for Pop, Charles Malson. At least, that’s how I imagine it. What a great time for a great woman. Thank you for all your prayers and love. No details yet on the visitation or Memorial services.”

10 Dec Obit: Death of Evaline Macy

Evaline M. Macy, 86, wife of Rev. Vernon Macy, passed away October 31, 2015, in Hastings, Mich. She and Vernon, a former UB missionary in Honduras, were married in 1986. For a brief time they pastored in Michigan.

The funeral was held November 4 at Hastings Baptist Church in Hasting, Mich.

28 Sep Death of Missionary Ellen Saufley

Ellen Margaret (Bressler) Saufley passed away at 5:30 pm on Monday, September 21, 2015. Ellen and her husband, Aldean, served as missionaries in Haiti for 45 years under One Mission Society and were partially supported during part of their time by United Brethren Global Ministries.

Ellen had been a resident of the Menno Haven Nursing Center in Chambersburg, Pa., since September 30, 2010. She became a resident there after suffering a fall in 2010 and spending two months in unsuccessful rehabilitation.

Ellen was born on July 7, 1930, outside of the town of Herndon, Pa. She gave her heart to Christ around the age of five, and at age 11 sensed God telling her to prepare to be a missionary/Bible teacher. Her studies beyond high school were all directed toward becoming the best teacher she could be.

One of her instructors at the Intercession City Bible College invited her to spend a year in Haiti working with a mission the instructor had established. Ellen said she moved ten times in eleven months as she worked in different areas of Haiti. The Creole language of Haiti has at least five different dialects, depending on which part of the country the speaker comes from. While traveling across Haiti that year, Ellen learned Creole and throughout her lifetime was able to identify people by the dialect of Creole they spoke. However, very few were able to identify Ellen’s dialect because she spoke such a universal Creole.

When she returned from that year in Haiti, Ellen enrolled at the Transylvania Bible School at Freeport, Pa., north of Pittsburgh. Her three years of study culminated in a three-year certificate for Biblical Studies. In 1979, the school upgraded the value of that certificate to a three-year Bachelor of Theology Degree and at the end of a special convocation week, Ellen was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree.

When the Oriental Missionary Society (now One Mission Society) opened its Bible school in Haiti, Ellen transferred from the correspondence department for the mission’s Radio 4VEH ministry to become a fulltime professor in the school. She taught, at one time or another, every subject in the school’s catalogue and at several times she was assigned to serve as Director of the school.

Ellen and coworker Aldean worked together in various job assignments. On January 1, 1963, they were united in marriage. Although they each had their own responsibilities—Aldean in the radio station and Ellen in the Bible School—they helped each other. Ellen served as recording technician in the radio station, and Aldean taught English and provided music training for the Bible School students.

Ellen had a thirst for knowledge and was constantly talking about the need to upgrade her teaching qualifications. This resulted in her spending a lot of time during each of their furloughs in furthering her education. This is a partial list of her achievements:

• 1958: Three-year Bible Certificate (Transylvania Bible School).
• 1979: Upgrade of Three-year Bible Certificate to 3 Year Th.B. (Transylvania Bible School).
• 1976: Upgrade of Three-year Th.B to Five-year Th. B. In Allentown, Pa.
• 1986: Master of Christian Ministry degree (Huntington University).
• 1991: Master of Arts in Religion Degree (Evangelical Seminary, Meyerstown, Pa.).
• 1994 – Doctor of Religious Education Degree (Florida).

In spite of suffering from fibromyalgia, Ellen carried through with her work assignments at the Bible School in Haiti until the Saufleys retired from missionary service in 2002. At that time, the daily pain from her fibromyalgia prevented her from doing much of the work she would have liked to have done, and her fall in 2010 resulted in her spending her days sitting in a wheelchair or lying in a bed at Menno Haven.

Ellen often told her husband that she would like to have engraved on her tombstone the words which our Lord spoke of the woman who anointed his feet in Bethany before his crucifixion: “She has done what she could” (Mark 14:8).

The memorial service for Ellen Saufley was held at 2pm on Friday, September 25, 2015, at Salem United Brethren Church in Chambersburg, Pa.

06 Aug Video: In Memoriam from the 2015 US National Conference

The above video was shown during the business session of the 2015 US National Conference as a memorial to United Brethren ministers, missionaries, and others who passed away since the 2013 US National Conference. They are presented in the video, and listed below, in the order of their passing.

• Ruth Benner, missionary in Sierra Leone.
• Pauline Stephens-Hall, pastor.
• Richard LePage, pastor.
• Norm Picket, pastor.
• Pauline Gibbs, volunteer missionary in Macau.
• Dr. C. Stanley Peters, pastor, Director of Publications.
• Robert Blaine, pastor.
• Darlene Eberly, missionary in Sierra Leone.
• Eleanor Laughlin Morey, missionary in Sierra Leone.
• Marylou Birdsall, pastor’s wife, volunteer missionary.
• Dave Stephens, minister, Camp Cotubic director.
• Howard Munn, pastor.
• Virginia Kopp, wife of Bishop Clarence Kopp, Jr.
• Carus Campbell, pastor.
• Letitia and Sundima Sinnah, pastor’s wife and son.
• Keith Davis, pastor.
• Mary Carter, missionary in Sierra Leone.
• Burton Lange, pastor.
• Robert Staup, pastor.
• Emmett D. Cox, missionary in Sierra Leone, director of Global Ministries.

(If reading this by email, you’ll need to click on the link below or here to view the video on UBCentral.org.)

13 Jul Obit: Rev. Emmett D. Cox

Emmett D. Cox, 89, passed away during the night on July 10, 2015.

Emmett and Shirley Cox served as missionaries in Sierra Leone over a 20-year period beginning in 1957. Emmett served as a secondary school principal, business manager, general superintendent, primary school secretary, and field secretary.

From 1969 to 1973, he served as the elected General Secretary of Missions for the denomination, overseeing our mission work around the world.

Visitation: 3-7 pm Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Visitation location: Bailey-Love Mortuary in Huntington, Ind.

A memorial service and burial will be held at a later date.

Emmett Cox grew up in the Garnett UB church in Garnett, Kansas, and was converted in 1943. He graduated from Huntington College in 1951, and from its theological seminary in 1964. In 1969, he received a Masters in Missions from Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Mission in Pasadena, Calif. He was ordained in 1964.

He subsequently pastored several United Brethren churches:

• 1958-1960: Fredonia UB church (Muncie, Ind.).
• 1976-1984: Victory UB church (Burbank, Calif.).
• 1984-1985: First UB church (Lake Havasu City, Ariz.).
• 1985-1992: Willshire UB church (Willshire, Ohio).

From 1992-2003, he and Shirley served Six Mile Church, a non-UB congregation in Bluffton, Ind. In retirement, they also served short-term as volunteers in Myanmar.

Emmett and Shirley were married on August 14, 1948. Shirley is from the North Bruce UB church in Port Elgin, Ontario, and graduated from Huntington College in 1951 with a degree in Education. They have three children: son Douglas, daughter Darlene, and foster son Billy Simbo, from Sierra Leone.