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14 Dec

December 14, 2011 |

Sara Powell dancing as Alice with the East Pointe Ballet Company.

Here’s an inspiring story involving Sara Powell, an 8th grader from Fountain UB church in Keyser, W. Va. The information comes from an article in the online NewsTribune.

In March 2011, Sara, who has cystic fibrosis, had a successful double-lung transplant. Before that surgery, she made two wishes:

  • To visit DisneyWorld on her 13th birthday.
  • To dance the role of Alice in “Alice in Wonderland” with East Pointe Ballet Company in Keyser. That story has always been her favorite.

On June 5, a cystic fibrosis nurse from Pittsburgh’s Children’s Hospital, where the surgery was performed, helped provide a benefit concert for Sara. There, she was surprised with a trip to Florida. She and her family spent a week in Orlando beginning September 30, visiting Universal Studios, Epcot, and DisneyWorld, where she met Disney’s own Alice.

Then, on November 8, her second wish came true when she danced as Alice for her hometown’s East Pointe Ballet Company.

Sara stays very active–taking dancing lessons through East Pointe Ballet, participating in Fountain UB’s bell choir and youth choir, and teaching in the children’s church program.

13 Dec

December 13, 2011 |

Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries

Arek and Donna Delik (right) are UB endorsed missionaries in Poland, doing church planting and other ministries with Operation Mobilization. The Deliks received $10,000 from our Easter/Self Denial Offering toward the completion of the Youth Drug/Alcohol Rehabilitation Centre in Kutno. Donna wrote:

Thank you very much for the UB donation for the building project again. We are so overwhelmed by the great support we receive from the churches in the States and Canada. It’s not just about finance, but the many other ways like sending us team and individual churches sending us cards, etc. Please thank everyone on our behalf!

The following information, written by Donna, came from their December 2011 newsletter.

These days, besides teaching English, I have been working with my computer most of the time, doing a lot of financial work for the church, building project, OM, and Mission-Net 2011. I am not sure if it is too much computer work or because of the shorter days and longer hours of darkness, but I feel very sleepy all the time. I have decided to do something a little bit different for a few days: I joined Arek to do some handy work in the building, painting 100 planks for our new gates. It shouldn’t be hard, I suppose, yet it took us almost 2 hours to prepare the place for the work in the very first day.

Even though this winter is mild compared to last year, the temperature drops to sub-zero in the mornings, which isn’t very suitable to paint the planks, not to mention that it is a bit too cold to work outdoors. However, the cold didn’t diminish our determination, and we “created” a little warm workshop inside the building to get the work done. Even though it was hard work and my feet stayed cold all the time, it was a nice break from the routine, and frankly, we quite enjoyed doing something different together. After that, we rewarded ourselves with a nice meal.

13 Dec

December 13, 2011 |

Arno Neggenschwartzer, one of the suspects, interacts with one of the three Healthy Ministry Resources tables.

Jeff Bleijerveld picked Latina, the ship's activities director, as the culprit, and she didn't appreciate it.

The Healthy Ministry Resources staff (the national office) held its annual Christmas “party” at the Courtyard Marriott in Fort Wayne, joining about 100 other people in a mystery theater program called “A Christmas Cruise.”

The program was based on the game Clue. Everyone watched a performance, which started with the death of Captain Lenny Ledbeter of the SS Whatamess cruise ship. The performance gave clues to who committed the murder, and ended with four suspects. The audience then wrote down who they thought the villain was, and why.

Oh, the program began with a wonderful buffet. Can’t forget that.

It was a very fun evening, with lots of laughter. The program was put on by Bower North Productions. Larry Bower is part of the morning team at local Christian radio station WBCL.

Here are some photos from the evening.

09 Dec

December 9, 2011 |

Donna Delik (right), UB Endorsed Missionary Poland

In October a team of 8 persons from the UB churches of Hong Kong Conference traveled to Poland to work with Arek and Donna Delik, UB endorsed missionaries serving with Operation Mobilization. Donna is originally from Hong Kong. Donna wrote the following about the visit.

Chinese calligraphy, erhu music, Kung-Fu tea and Taoism: what brought them all together? These were some of the elements of our colorful Chinese week “Made in China” in October. Our dear brothers and sisters from Hong Kong travelled thousands of miles to Poland to share the gospel through Chinese culture with people they had never met.

The small team of 8 people demonstrated the kind of servanthood Jesus Christ taught us. We were very encouraged by their self-denial and serving attitude. Everyone was willing to step up to help the others without being asked. They didn’t speak a single Polish word, but their sincerity and warm-hearted personality broke the language barrier.

We met with teenagers in schools, who were enchanted by the vivid talk on the structure and development of Chinese language. Writing Chinese calligraphy proved to be challenging yet fascinating. We also held various meetings for the public in the community center. Pastor Carol Chan’s talk comparing “Truth” in Taoism and Christianity, presented the gospel very clearly to the audience. We believe that the seed was sown and pray that God will make it grow.

We enjoyed working with them, sharing meals at home together and drinking coffee in the local café. Fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ is a wonderful thing. We were truly blessed and encouraged by the team.

09 Dec

December 9, 2011 |

Bishop Denis and Reina Casco

Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries

Global Ministries continues to disperse funds raised as part of our Easter/Self Denial Offerings. Among our recipients have been the United Brethren churches of Mexico Conference. Bishop Denis Casco sends the following message:

“The news of the $10,000 allocated for Mexico is a great blessing as we are involved in various church planting projects. The following is a list of projects that will be helped with these funds.

  • Completion of construction at the Adonai Church in the State of Michoacan.
  • The new construction in Queretaro in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.
  • Training pastors and leaders (two per year).
  • Various Vacation Bible Schools, which have been a tremendous source of growth among our churches.

“God has provided in miraculous ways in Mexico, as there is little money from the churches to support special projects like these. But there are always very good friends like you who support us. I am extremely grateful for this, and hope God continues to bless the work in Mexico.”

09 Dec

December 9, 2011 |

Edna G. Davis, 77, of Elmore, Ohio, passed away Tuesday, December 6, 2011, with her family at her side. She and her husband, Rev. Keith Davis, were married in 1952 and served various United Brethren churches, including Bethel UB in Elmore, where she was a member. A strong supporter of Samaritan’s Purse, Edna made hundreds of Christmas shoeboxes over the years for Operation Christmas Child.

She is survived by her husband, Keith, and four children, 9 grandchildren, and 4 great-grandchildren.

Graveside services will be held at 9:30 am Friday, December 9, at Mt. Zion Cemetery, Wayne, Ohio. A celebration of Edna’s life will follow at 11:00 am at Bethel United Brethren Church, Elmore, Ohio. Memorial contributions may be made to Samaritan’s Purse (Operation Christmas Child) or the palliative care unit of Mercy St. Charles Hospital.

Condolences can be sent to Rev. Keith Davis at:

Keith Davis
15115 S. Portage River Road
Elmore, OH 43416

08 Dec

December 8, 2011 |

Bethany Solyntjes, worship leader at Renew Communities, has recorded her first album. Renew is a UB church plant in Middleburg Heights, Ohio.

Pastor Andy Sikora (right) writes, “It’s a Christmas EP called ‘Hope Renewed.’ It’s got an indie-folk feel to it and has some really cool re-workings of some of her favorite carols as well as one original. In my opinion it’s really good!

“Bethany and Chris (her husband) are like most church planters in that they are raising their salaries for the first few years of our church’s life. This record is one way that they are hoping to supplement their income. They are giving 10% of each sale to a church planting project of our church (yeah, our church is less than a year old and we’re working on planting one church locally and one internationally).”

You can read more about Bethany on the Renew website. You can listen to the six tracks and buy the digital or physical album for $10 on Bethany’s Bandcamp page.

07 Dec

December 7, 2011 |
Craft activities for children at an Asian schiool.

Craft activities for children in the Beautiful Family and Project Compassion programs.

Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries

During November, a team of nine persons–eight from Emmanuel Community Church (Fort Wayne, Ind.) and one from Jerusalem Chapel (Churchville, Va.)–traveled to South Central Asia. In addition to providing a leadership development event, the team offered a variety of English conversation activities to 600 students at the local high school. Those activities included a fun-filled time of crafts, games, and Bible stories to 220 children who are part of our Beautiful Family and Project Compassion Ministries.

Getting to our ministry site involved some 16-hour flights and a 12-hour overnight train ride to the literal “end-of-the-line.” But the warm welcome and joy in the faces of the children in the leprosy and AIDS programs made it all worthwhile. During our time, 22 children made decisions to follow Jesus.

07 Dec

December 7, 2011 |

As a result of jail ministry of Findlay First UB Church (Findlay, Ohio), a prisoner gave his life to the Lord and wanted to be baptized during a Thursday night service. Because Pastor Darwin Dunten was not available that night, Pastor Robert Cochran of the First Lutheran Church of Findlay was able to perform the service.

Every Thursday night, a jail ministry team from First UB goes to the Hancock county jail to present a worship service/discipleship program for the inmates. Some of the inmates have started attending worship services and discipleship programs at the church. This particular inmate will not be attending worship services at Findlay First for about 6 years.

05 Dec

December 5, 2011 |

Hong Kong Conference has a Social Service Division which operates youth centers at several large high-rise estates which can house thousands of people. It’s a pretty big deal.

The Social Service Division surveyed 3207 students, ages 12-23, during October and November, asking them about their perception of love. They could choose among 39 possible characteristics of love. Their top 5:

  1. Trust.
  2. Consideration.
  3. Loyalty.
  4. Good communication.
  5. Honesty.

The bottom 5:

  1. Romantic.
  2. Satisfying sexual needs.
  3. Making surprises.
  4. Being able to provide support.
  5. Fulfilling materialistic desires.