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24 Oct

October 24, 2014 |

Rev. Howard Munn, 92, passed away October 23, 2014. He was ordained in 1945, and went on to serve as a UB conference superintendent for 23 years in the former Sandusky Conference. He pastored UB churches for 41 years:

  • Bethel UB in Elmore, Ohio (7 years)
  • First UB in New Castle, Pa. (8 years).
  • Mt. Zion UB in Wayne, Ohio (26 years).

After retiring in 1988 he became Pastor of Visitation at Mainstreet UB church in Walbridge, Ohio. His wife, Dolly, whom he wed in 1941, passed away in 2011.

Visitation: 5-8 pm Thursday, October 31.
Visitation location: Dunn Funeral Home, 408 W. Wooster Street, Bowling Green, Ohio.
Funeral: 11 am Friday, October 31, 2014.
Funeral location: Mt. Zion UB church, Wayne, Ohio (corner of Bays and Reynolds Roads).

Rev. Kenneth Graham will officiate at the funeral.

22 Oct

October 22, 2014 |

Justin Marva, superintendent of Administration and Finance for Sierra Leone Conference.

The following update was sent to Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries, on Wednesday, October 22.

The Ebola situation is still ravaging the country. The flash points at the moment are Waterloo, Makeni, Port Loko, and Shenge.

We have got military personnel from England to help us fight the disease, but people are still not following the safety precautions. They are still washing dead bodies and conducting burials at night. Nurses and doctors are also infected because they are not taking the necessary precautions.

However there is much improvement in areas like Kenema and Kailahun where the outbreak first started.

There was a riot yesterday in the eastern district of Kono among youth and police because they wanted to take away a 90-year-old woman who was suspected to be Ebola positive and the youth refused to hand over the old woman to them.

The Defense minister of Sierra Leone has now been appointed by the president as the Chief Executive Officer of the Ebola Response Team in Sierra Leone.

Right now Kenema, Moyamba, Gbangbaia, and Taninahun are quarantined areas where United Brethren churches and schools are located. The second-largest city, Bo, is relatively quiet with minimal cases, but all other private health facilities are closed. It is difficult to buy drugs for even headache.

Please continue to pray for us as a church and as a nation.

21 Oct

October 21, 2014 |
Todd Fetters opening the Tuesday morning session.

Todd Fetters opening the Tuesday morning session.

Bishop Phil and Sandy Whipple.

Bishop Phil and Sandy Whipple.

During the Tuesday morning session.

During the Tuesday morning session.

L-r: Marc Stephenson (Chambersburg, Pa.), Jim Bolich (Shippensburg, Pa.), and Milt Herrold (Greencastle, Pa.).

L-r: Marc Stephenson (Chambersburg, Pa.), Jim Bolich (Shippensburg, Pa.), and Milt Herrold (Greencastle, Pa.).

The third Pastors Summit is in progress in Daytona Beach, Fla. This one is for pastors and wives from churches with an attendance of 150-300. Next week, pastors and wives from churches of 300+ attendance will meet at the same hotel in Daytona Beach. It’s designed to be a time of learning and challenge, but also a time of relaxation–a get-away–for pastors.

There are a total of 44 persons. Twenty of them are pastors, and 17 are pastors wives. Seven people from the national office are also attending–Bishop Phil and Sandie Whipple, Jeff Bleijerveld, Todd and Lisa Fetters, and Steve and Pam Dennie.

The group began meeting with supper on October 20. After the meal, Matt McKeown, associate pastor of the United Brethren church in nearby Holly Hill, led the group in worship. Then Todd Fetters, director of National Ministries, led in helping people get acquainted with each pastor and pastoral couple.

On Tuesday morning, Bishop Phil Whipple spoke during the opening session. After a break time, Lisa Fetters convened all of the pastors wives for a separate time together, while the pastors participated in a discussion time.

Everyone had all afternoon and evening free. It was a great first day.

A number of photos have been posted on the United Brethren Facebook page.

17 Oct

October 17, 2014 |

Rev. Dave Stephens passed away Thursday night, October 16, 2014. He was an ordained United Brethren minister, former UB pastor, and for 25 years, director of Camp Cotubic in Bellefontaine, Ohio.

Dave’s son, Scott, wrote the following on Facebook:

With his family at his side, dad passed away on October 16th at 8:00 pm. He’d battled cancer for a year and fought the good fight right up to the end. Dad was such a great man and had a way of making everyone he came in contact with feel like they were family. He was truly a man with the heart of Christ….

God blessed him with a great stage in Camp Cotubic to simply love on people, and that’s what he did every day. He loved the camp so much and gave his heart and soul to it every day for 25 years. God gave Dad a vision 25 years ago, and he worked hard to see that vision come to pass. A couple years ago, Dad sat down and tried to figure out the number of kids that have come through the camp. He quit counting once the number of kids reached a number that would fill Ohio Stadium.

Dad has left us with a great example we all should follow in how to treat others. He always left people better than he’d find them. As I sit here I can’t help but imagine what Dad is seeing right now. He understood this earth isn’t home and looked forward to seeing his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and he also looked forward to seeing his earthly father who passed away in 1984.

We, the Stephens family want to thank everyone who has shown us so much love. It has truly been overwhelming to see the number of people Dad has touched come and love on us over the last year of his battle with cancer. We love you all so much and couldn’t have made it through this without you. Know we’re doing fine and are celebrating as we know where Dad is and who he’s with now! No more pain, no more tears, and no more cancer.

Funeral details will be posted when available. Tentatively, the viewing will be held Monday, October 20, with the funeral on Tuesday in Bellefontaine, Ohio.

16 Oct

October 16, 2014 |

The Executive Leadership Team, during its October 13-14 meeting, approved the Pastoral Compensation guidelines for 2015. Many UB churches use this formula to set salaries and budgets for the coming year.

The minimum fulltime salary (called Standard Base Salary) for senior pastors was set at $37,981 for 2015. This is an increase of 1% over the 2014 figure.

The Standard Base Salary is only the starting point. Other factors–such as experience, education, church attendance, staff size–add to the base salary.

Benefits such as parsonage, utilities, SECA, insurance, and pension round out the total compensation package.

To be a fulltime pastor, the compensation package must meet all of these criteria in full. If a church cannot meet these guidelines, a pastor may pursue supplemental employment to achieve the compensation level.

16 Oct

October 16, 2014 |

Pastors are highly encouraged to register for the Prepare/Enrich Certification Training being held at the UB national office on Thursday, October 23. This class will provide excellent insights and tools for premarital and marital counseling.

Pastors and counselors regularly engage in pre-marital and marriage counseling. A special class is being held October 23, 2014, to help persons become more effective in this area. You can still sign up.

Date: Thursday, October 23, 2014
Time: 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Location: UB Headquarters, Huntington, Ind.
Cost: $150 (usually $225)

Helping couples strengthen their relationships is no easy task. With this training, you can make a significant impact in the life of a premarital or married couple by using this relationship assessment tool. It helps a couple identify their relationship strengths and how to resolve current issues and prevent future problems. With this workshop, you’ll get thorough training in how to:

  • Administer the online assessment.
  • Interpret couple’s reports.
  • Provide useful feedback to couples.
  • Guide couple’s exercises.
  • Teach proven relationship skills.
  • Work more effectively with couples.

The instructor is Dr. Steve Lee, a former professor of psychology at Huntington University who went on to become an instructor at Focus on the Family Institute and a Certified Relational Wisdom Instructor.

Says Bob Bruce, pastor of Spiritual Care at Emmanuel UB church (Fort Wayne, Ind.): “I have personally found this training to be valuable for working with premarital and married couples. It gives great insight into a couple’s relationship and their attitudes towards various aspects of marriage. It provides a solid platform to work with couples.”

10 Oct

October 10, 2014 |

Roger and Marilyn Reeck (right) are UB endorsed missionaries serving with Wycliffe in Honduras. They sent this update on October 4, 2014.

The bone fusion operation Roger underwent in February is successful and he is walking on that foot. But the pain caused by nerve damage has continued and has been quite intense. So far, the meds prescribed by the surgeon here and the doctor at the pain clinic have not lessened the pain.

Last week Roger saw Dr. Owen, the orthopedic surgeon who travels to Honduras every 6 months. X-rays indicate that the tibia bone and the talus bone in the ankle are touching, and arthritis has set in which together lead to part of the pain. The doctor injected steroids into that area, but it will be a few weeks before he feels the full effect. Please pray that this will be a solution bringing about a reduced amount of pain. If this is the case, then he could be re-injected every few months.

We were excited to be in Venezuela again and spend time with the teams that we work with. Over the last few months, we have continued checking their stories remotely. It was fulfilling and exciting to see them bring the work on their story sets to completion and record the stories. These can now be distributed to their people and used in many different venues such has fellowship groups, radio,etc.

On October 6, Roger travels to Brazil. Please pray for his trip and his time there. He will be working with a group of translators that speak Yaminahua. The Yaminahua Indians live in the most remote part of the Amazon where Bolivia, Peru, and Brazil meet. The translation is especially difficult because some of the men speak Portuguese and some speak Spanish. Last time Roger was with the team (in Bolivia), they spent hours and hours on this phrase (from the story of the “Prodigal Son”): “I am not worthy to be called your son.”

It is exciting to work with a people group that doesn’t have even one book of the Bible in their language yet. Please pray that God will help us to make good progress during the two weeks time. Another goal during this time is to train Victor, a Venezuelan Curripaco Indian who will meet Roger there, to begin translation into his native language.

In the meantime, Marilyn will stay back home working on perfecting the two sets of Spanish stories that are used in training courses.

10 Oct

October 10, 2014 |

Harold and MaryAnn Hancock returned to Jamaica on Tuesday, October 7 after being in the States for nearly a year. They have invested themselves for two years in working with students at Regent College of the Caribbean.

The Hancocks returned to the US in November 2013 and planned to return to Jamaica in early 2014. However, a routine physical by MaryAnn in January led to a diagnosis of parotid glandular cancer, located behind the left ear. MaryAnn Hancock underwent a 12-hour surgery on March 11, during which all of the cancer was removed. She then underwent six weeks of radiation treatments.

This will undoubtedly be an emotional return for the Hancocks. They will be in Jamaica until November 23. Pray for them as they re-engage with the students, and that there will be much fruit as they continue to mentor the students and staff at RCC.

10 Oct

October 10, 2014 |
Members of the Board of Directors of Laurel Mission. In the front, l-r, are Debbie, Nathan, and Lindsey Boggs.

Members of the Board of Directors of Laurel Mission. In the front, l-r, are Debbie, Nathan, and Lindsey Boggs.


Ben Gladhill (right), Pastor of Christian Education, Lake View Church (Camden, Mich.).

On October 3-4, the Board of Directors for Laurel Mission met at Laurel Mission in Big Laurel, Kent. The board consists of 11 members from Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina.

Nathan Boggs, with his wife Lindsey, has been the Director of Laurel Mission since 2011, following his father Titus in directorship. Nathan also serves as the youth pastor of Rock House Youth Ministries and pastor of Little Laurel Bible Church. Debbie Boggs, wife of the late Titus Boggs, serves as the associate director of Laurel Mission.

Laurel Mission exists for this purpose: to minister primarily to the residents of Harlan, Leslie, and Letcher Counties of Kentucky by effectively communicating the Gospel of Jesus Christ in word and deed, to the end that all shall know Him as Savior and Lord, adore and praise Him through worship, grow in spiritual maturity, and experience the more abundant life through expressions of Christian social concern.

Laurel Mission also provides opportunities for mission outreach and ministry to people as they undergird the mission with prayer, finances, labor, and share in spiritual retreats.

For more information about the ministry or how to support Laurel Mission, check them out online at LaurelMission.com.

08 Oct

October 8, 2014 |

Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries

When we announced last week that we had opportunity to send a pallet of food items to our United Brethren churches in Sierra Leone, we did not inform you that another shipment was already being prepared.

The Mount Zion United African Church in Philadelphia, pastored by Rev. Joe Abu, has been working with UB churches in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland to send a 20-foot container later in October. Among the items collected are 3000 surgical gloves, 1300 fluid-resistant surgical masks, 400 disposable isolation gowns, 64 Bibles, and an oxygen concentrator. Their container is nearly full and ready to send out.

Just this week, Rev. John Pessima, bishop of Sierra Leone National Conference, expressed concern regarding the lack of medical supplies on hand at our Mattru Hospital to deal with Ebola patients. The shipment Mount Zion UB is sending will be an answer to prayer.

Many of the contributing churches have already donated money to help pay for the shipping costs, but your gift would be welcome. If you would like to assist with the shipping cost of this or other shipments going out to West Africa, send your gift to Global Ministries and indicate that it is to be used for West Africa Ebola Relief.