18 Nov Honduras Continues to Expand Ministry

Juanita Chavez (second from left) with church planters in the remote community of Hatos del Santo.

Jeff Bleijerveld (right), Director of Global Ministries

With more than 100 churches and numerous church plants, Honduras National Conference is not resting on its laurels but advances on every level.

Superintendent Juanita Chavez reports that they are setting up capital development accounts for each district and appointing leaders to oversee the needs of pastors and local churches. This let the national office focus more time on leadership development and training.

With regards to training leaders, the conference adopted the BILD program developed by the Antioch School of Ministry from Ames, Iowa. This non-formal, competency based program revolves around in-service training in the local church context. This low-cost, four-year program allows students to continue on to graduate and post-graduate studies.

After their upcoming national conference January 15-18, 2014, I will meet with other Central American conference leaders to discuss the development of a missions leadership team. We fully anticipate that our Central American conferences will engage in sending missionaries to serve overseas in the future. This makes formation of a missions leadership team essential.

You can also pray for Honduras as national elections take place November 24. This comes at a critical time, as drug cartels are running rampant over police and federal authorities. Pray that God would have his hand in providing effective leadership to the nation.

18 Nov The Jesus Film – Telling Christ’s Story in Sierra Leone

The conference uses an old two-reel projector to show the Jesus film.

Transporting the Jesus film equipment by canoe.

Steve Dennie (right), Communications Director

A major evangelistic tool for Sierra Leone Conference is the Jesus film, which tells the life of Christ. The conference owns copies in Mende and Krio, the two languages spoken predominantly in southern Sierra Leone.

Jesus, a two-hour film based on the book of Luke, is considered one of the greatest evangelistic tools of all time. The vision for the film came from Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, which provided most of the financing. It was filmed over a period of several months in the Middle East, sometimes using actual locations (like the Jordan River). Each day, new footage was sent to a team of biblical scholars, who reviewed it for biblical accuracy.

Warner Bros. released the film in the United States in 1979, but it got terrible reviews and lost money. Then, in 1981, Bill Bright created the Jesus Film Project with the vision of translating it into numerous languages and showing it around the world. In that way, the film has proven to be a huge success. New material was added in 2001 to show how Christ’s life fits into history—the creation story, Adam and Eve being expelled from the Garden of Eden, Abraham, and prophecies from Isaiah.

Since 1979, over 200 million people have made decisions to follow Christ after watching the film. It has been translated into nearly 1200 languages.

The Jesus film has been a very effective evangelism tool in Sierra Leone. They began showing it in Pujehun, a predominantly Muslim area. They use a portable screen or, if available, the wall of a building. The film requires an old two-reel projector. The conference projector gets a regular workout, but is on its last legs. They’re looking for a replacement.

After showing the film, an evangelist gives a talk and, often, many people will give themselves to Christ. They then organize discipleship training for the new Christians to get them grounded in the faith. In one place, the town chief saw the film and became a Christian. His influence as a figurehead in the community has made a big impact.

Many of these people, says Bishop John Pessima of Sierra Leone Conference, are not literate and have had no formal education. So, they plan to organize classes to teach them how to read the Mende Bible.

Sierra Leone Conference obtained the Mende and Krio versions of the Jesus film many years ago through the Great Commission Movement. The films are showing their age, but continue showing the ageless message of Christ to people in search of a Savior.

16 Nov Bishop Pessima: Among the Vai People

A visit to Pujehun in February 2013. L-r: Jeff Bleijerveld, Bishop Phil Whipple, Bishop John Pessima with Sierra Leone leaders and workers in Pujehun. (click to enlarge)

Donna Hollopeter with people from the Vai church in Pujehun in February 2013.

Bishop John Pessima (right) of Sierra Leone Conference is currently in the United States, where he is spending a couple months visiting United Brethren churches. During a stop at the National Office in Huntington, Ind., he talked about the conference’s work among the Vai people.

The Vai, a predominantly Muslim group, live on the border with Liberia in Pujehun, one of the 12 districts (like states) of Sierra Leone. It is sparsely populated, with about 300,000 people living mostly in villages of less than 2000 people. We now have a church and school in Pujehun.

They were introduced to Pujehun by a man who grew up there as a Muslim. He moved to Freetown as a young man, became a Christian, and joined the Wellington United Brethren church. John Pessima personally baptized him.

The man later moved back to Pujehun, and died in April 2013. But before passing, he instructed that two plots of land he owned be given, free of charge, to the United Brethren church.

“We are now trying to document ownership,” says Bishop Pessima.

The church currently meets in that man’s home, and the school uses a small classroom. “For now, Rev. Peter Kainwo, the conference superintendent of evangelism, is leading the church and school,” says Bishop Pessima.

A few young men, UBs from Bo and Freetown, moved to Pujehun because of their jobs with non-government organizations. Bishop Pessima describes them as “strong UB youths who are assisting greatly.”

14 Nov United Brethren Churches in Liberia? Yes.

Members of one of the United Brethren churches in Liberia. Note the sign at the top of the church building.

In early 2013, someone from Liberia called the United Brethren office in Huntington, Ind. In a thick West African accent, the person claimed to be part of the United Brethren in Christ church in Liberia, and said they wanted to be connected to us.

We’ve never had mission work in Liberia. However, this group was using our exact name—Church of the United Brethren in Christ. It’s possible they are a remnant of the “other” United Brethren group from which our denomination split back in 1889.

Anyway, Global Ministries passed along the information to Bishop John Pessima (right) of Sierra Leone Conference. Sierra Leone and Liberia are neighboring countries. Bishop Pessima made contact, and some relationships are forming.

“We’ve been to Liberia three times to meet with that group,” says Bishop Pessima.

He says they have nine churches—“Very good, large churches”—and that he has visited four of them.

“They are very receptive and are willing to join a communion of United Brethren,” he says. “We are moving gradually, because there are many things we need to look into. We’ve looked at their governing documents, and have presented out doctrines and core values.”

He plans to make another visit in December to meet with the man supervising those churches. “We’re planning to spend 4-5 days with them to talk about the logo and the Confession of Faith.” He hopes to take the UB national presidents of their organizations for men, women, and youth to talk to their Liberian counterparts.

He says they want to start by exchanging delegates to various events.

They’ll invite the Liberian women to send delegates in April 2014 to the Sierra Leone national women’s convention. Likewise with the national UB youth camp in 2014, which will probably be held in Mattru.

In this way, the two groups of churches—over 70 UB churches in Sierra Leone, and the 9 UB churches in Liberia—will get better acquainted. And we’ll see where things go from there.

12 Nov Bishop Pessima: Among Longtime Friends

L-r: Sharon Frank, Bishop John Pessima, and Judy Hoath.

John Pessima, bishop of Sierra Leone Conference, is currently in the US visiting a number of United Brethren churches. A few days ago he was at the UB church in Hillsdale, Mich., where he encountered two former missionaries, both of them nurses at Mattru Hospital. Sharon Frank served in Sierra Leone 1965-1983. Judy Hoath served several terms before completing her service in 1986.

12 Nov Philippines: UBs Working with Samaritan’s Purse

Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries

Global Ministries is partnering with Samaritan’s Purse in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, which devastated the Philippines last week. All funds we receive–100%–will be forwarded to Samaritan’s Purse.

United Brethren people are compassionate and generous. So when disaster strikes a country, they want to help. People often contact Global Ministries to ask if we are doing anything to help in a specific situation.

Our practice is to partner with organizations which specialize in disaster relief. When the earthquake hit Haiti in January 2011, we channeled relief contributions to Samaritan’s Purse and CH Global. Within weeks of the earthquake, UBs had sent nearly $70,000 for disaster relief. Likewise, in 2012 UBs gave over $11,000 after  a tsunami hit Japan. All of it was channeled to Samaritan’s Purse.

Typhoon Haiyan requires the expertise of a major relief ministry. Global Ministries is again working with Samaritan’s Purse.

Donors can direct funds to the organization themselves. Or, we will gladly forward your gift—100% of it—to Samaritan’s Purse. Some prefer the latter to avoid being placed on a mailing list.

If you want to channel relief money through Global Ministries, you can send a check to:

Global Ministries
302 Lake Street
Huntington, IN 46750

Include a memo note on the check designating the gift for “Philippines relief.” Your entire donation will go toward relief efforts.

08 Nov Oliam Richard Recovering from Surgery

Pastor Oliam Richard (right), our superintendent in Haiti, underwent surgery on Wednesday in France (where he and his wife have lived for many years). Joan Sider, from the UB church in Toronto, sent this note:

“I just got off the phone from talking to Pastor Richard. He sounds great. His surgery on Wednesday was successful. He will remain in the hospital until Monday or Tuesday. The expectation then is to remain in Paris for another three weeks before returning to Haiti.”

A team from Canada will visit Haiti January 31 – February 9, 2014.