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12 Apr

April 12, 2011 |

Registrations for this summer’s US National Conference hit 487 on April 12, and will no doubt pass 500 by the end of the week.

You can register online, or by using the registration brochures mailed to all churches.

Attendees are invited to join the first-ever National Conference Choir. Participants from across the denomination will sing on Friday, July 8, during the evening session.

The Choir will have ONE practice: 1:30 – 3:30 Friday afternoon, July 8.

Much more information is available on the conference website, including:

  • A PDF file containing all of the music, so you can download and print the songs.
  • Links to YouTube videos of all of the songs, in case you’re not familiar with some of them.
  • A form you can use to confirm your interest in joining the choir,

 

12 Apr

April 12, 2011 |

The Executive Leadership Team

Bishop Phil Whipple (left), who chairs the ELT, with Global Ministries Director Jeff Bleijerveld.

The Executive Leadership Team met Monday night and Tuesday, April 11-12, in Huntington, Ind. The Executive Leadership Team meets twice a year, and is the highest governing body of the US churches between meetings of the US National Conference. Bishop Phil Whipple chairs the meetings.

Some items which came out of the meeting:

  • Bishop Phil Whipple presented a strategic plan for the US churches on Monday night, and the ELT spent a couple hours on Tuesday further discussing his vision.
  • Lee Rhodes, pastor of Countryside UB (Breckenridge, Mich.), was appointed by Bishop Whipple to chair the Nominating Committee for the US National Conference. The only elections which will be needed at National Conference this summer are for the Executive Leadership Team; members serve only two-year terms. The National Conference will elect 8 members, and the new ELT will then appoint four more members.
  • Bishop Whipple doesn’t anticipate doing any revising of the UB Discipline at National Conference.
  • About 30 churches still have not submitted their annual reports, which were due in February.
  • The partnership fees (3.5% of income from each church) are coming in well.
  • Global Ministries anticipates hiring an additional (and much-needed) associate director in the near future.

11 Apr

April 11, 2011 |

Bishop Phil Whipple (left) and Bishop Winston Smith

Bishop Brian Magnus of Canada spoke during the Friday night banquet during Jamaica Conference.

The banquet hall.

Jamaican choir. (click to enlarge)

Phil Whipple, Bishop

I had the privilege of attending Jamaican Conference this year as they celebrated their 60th anniversary. The sessions and services were held the Battersea UB church in Mandeville.

The event kicked off on Wednesday, March 9, with “Jamaica Night, which included music, dance, and skits–some religious in nature, some related to Jamaican cultural.

The conference business began Thursday morning and continued into the afternoon on Friday. I spoke during their Thursday night service.

Friday night featured a big banquet, with probably 250 people attending. It was very elaborate, and many of the women wore formal gowns. They gave plaques to longstanding members of their churches, persons who had been members of their church for a least several decades. The wives of district superintendents (they have three districts) gave out the awards, and a photographer recorded everything. I would guess they honored at least 50-60 people. If the person couldn’t attend, someone received the award for him. Brian Magnus, bishop of the UB Church in Canada, spoke that night.

Nothing was planned on Saturday, conference-wise. Instead, they scheduled a bus to take us to Malvern to see the building project at the camp. Then we had lunch at a restaurant on the beach.

They expected 1200 people for the closing service on Sunday, and they were packed out. The tabernacle area was full, and there were lots of people roaming outside the doors. That service service was held at Missionary Church campground in Mandeville.

Rev. Jasper Green spoke in the morning, and after lunch we had an afternoon youth service. Then in the evening, Bishop Winston Smith spoke. After his message, they read off the stationing committee report, telling where pastors would be assigned during the coming year. I was told it was a year with more transitions than normal.

08 Apr

April 8, 2011 |

Arek and Donna Delik (right), UB missionaries in Poland working with Operation Mobilization, sent their April newsletter, which gives an update on their building project. Last fall, their church bought a building which they plan to use not only for church services and other meetings, but as a rehabilitation center for helping people with addictions (especially alcohol) and as a teen center. They worked into February, finishing most of the interior demolotion, and then took a break as freezing weather his Poland. Now, with spring’s arrival, they resumed work. Donna writes:

Arek and our brothers started working in the site again on March 14. We had planned to finish the rest of the demolition work in two weeks, which included tearing down the old roof. However, the work was put on hold after 3 days as the weather turned bad and we didn’t have enough volunteers.

We did wonder whether we could complete the task. Since there was no one we could turn to except God, we committed our situation into his hands.
Miracles happened in the second week. God not only granted us the needed weather, but a friend of a friend, who had a family-run construction company, came with 4 other family members, including a 60-year-old grandmother, and they tore down the roof for us. We were stunned as they ripped off the whole roof in 2 days and only took the wood back home as their payment.

Another friend of a friend came with his big trucks and removed tons of rubble from our building site for one-fifth of the normal cost. We had to load the big truck by ourselves. Our men were completely exhausted after several loads and couldn’t do it anymore. A digging truck, which was passing by, came to their rescue. Arek stopped the truck and asked the driver to give us a hand, and he happily did it without taking any money.

It is beyond our comprehension, for so much has been done in such a short time. We didn’t understand why those strangers, non-believers, showed such favor to us.

Step by step we are moving forward, and God has amazed us and blessed us through all kinds of support which has poured in from different directions. We know that we still have a long way to go, but so far we are very encouraged

As the demolition comes to an end, we look forward to the next phase: building a new roof. The old one, we decided, was beyond repairing. This will require three different firms to do the job. We also hope to do the roof insulation and basic utilities during this phase.

We hope to finish all of this by the end of June if funding is available, which is around $55,000 US. God has been supplying all of our need so far, and we continue to trust him for meeting our needs.

08 Apr

April 8, 2011 |
Ordination of Elizabeth Cudney

Rev. Elizabeth Cudney kneels next to her husband, Dr. D. Neil Cudney. Leading the ordination are (l-r) Bishop Brian Magnus, Rev. Nick Swirski, and Rev. Martin Magnus.

The congregation at Mill Crossing

The Mill Crossing UB Church in Cambridge, Ontario

Worship team at Mill Crossing. That's pastor Neil Cudney in the background playing guitar.

On Saturday, April 2, the Mill Crossing UB church in Cambridge, Ontario, celebrated two events:

  • The dedication of their new facility.
  • The ordination of one of their pastors, Rev. Elizabeth A. Cudney.

City Councilor Rick Cowsill cut the ribbon and a capacity crowd enjoyed a time of worship, special music, welcomes by local dignitaries, and then the ordination service.

Elizabeth Cudney and her husband, Neil, are co-pastors of Mill Crossing. They started the church together in 2005 with a core group from Parkwood Gardens UB in Guelph. About half of the core group members have since returned to Parkwood Gardens.

In 1998, Liz Cudney started the Port of Grace UB church in Port Colborne, Ontario. The mother church was Grace UB in Sherkston, about 15 miles away. Neil, the pastor of Grace, resigned after a couple of years to devote all of his attention to Port of Grace, joining his wife as co-pastor. They both worked part-time on the side. Since this is Liz Cudney’s second successful church plant, it puts her in somewhat elite company among North American UBs.

Neil recently successfully defended his doctoral thesis and will receive his Doctor of Ministry in Leadership and Business Ethics from Gordon-Conwell.

07 Apr

April 7, 2011 |

Members of the Global Ministries Leadership Team headed for Ontario the morning of Thursday, April 7. They meet twice a year, usually in Huntington, Ind. But this time, they decided to meet at the Parkwood Gardens UB church in Guelph, Ontario.  Two members of the Global Ministries team are from Ontario, including Brian Magnus, pastor of the Parkwood Gardens church.

Global Ministries is not strictly a ministry of the US National Conference, but is a joint partnership with the Canadian national conference. The Ontario churches are given representation on the board in proportion to the missions giving by the Ontario churches. That is necessary in order to satisfy the charitable giving requirements of Revenue Canada (their IRS). Revenue Canada wants to make sure that if Canadians give money to entities outside of the country (and want it to be tax deductible), that they have some say in how that money is used.

The Global Ministries team will meet Friday and Saturday. The entire Global Ministries staff will be there–Jeff Bleijerveld, Donna Hollopeter, and Peggy Sell, who began about a month ago as the new administrative assistant.

01 Apr

April 1, 2011 |

L-r: Joseph Stowell, Ted Bendall, Phillip Howard, Bill Fisher.

Huntington University’s annual Commencement exercises are coming up in May. This is the 113th edition.

Date: May 14, 2011
Time: 3 pm.
Location: Merillat Physical Education and Recreation Complex.

The university will award 333 graduates with master’s, bachelor’s, or associate degrees.

The commencement exercises and the baccalaureate sermon are open to the public, and no tickets are required.

The Commencement speaker is Dr. Joseph M. Stowell, president of Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Mich. His address is titled “True Identity” and will focus on Matthew 4:18-22. He is a nationally known speaker and author of more than 20 books including “Jesus Nation,” “The Trouble with Jesus,” “Simply Jesus and You” and “Radical Reliance.” From 1987 to 2005, he served as the president of Moody Bible Institute, and as the teaching pastor at Harvest Bible Chapel in suburban Chicago 2005-2008 prior to assuming the presidency at Cornerstone.

Three honorary doctorate degrees will be awarded to:

  • Dr. Joseph Stowell, the Commencement speaker (Doctor of Divinity).
  • Theodore L. Bendall, a Huntington attorney whose firm has provided legal counsel to Huntington University since 1968 (Doctor of Laws).
  • Phillip G. Howard, president and co-owner of InterDesign, which has served as the university’s architect for over 30 years and is responsible for most of the buildings on the campus (Doctor of Commercial Science).

Rev. Bill Fisher, Huntington University dean of Christian Faith and Life, will present the baccalaureate sermon at 10:30 a.m. in the fieldhouse. His message is titled “Sticky Business” and will focus on a passage from John 15. Fisher became Huntington University’s dean of Christian faith and life in 1993.

You can read more about from the official university press release.

01 Apr

April 1, 2011 |

Registrations for this summer’s US National Conference have now hit 210, with new registrations being added every day.

You can register online, or by using the registration brochures mailed to all churches.

Reminder:

Date: July 6-9, 2011
Location: Saw Mill Creek Resort, Huron, Ohio

If you haven’t made hotel reservations, you need to do that as soon as possible. Especially if you want to stay at Saw Mill Creek, where the meetings will be held. It’ll be filling up before long. (But there are lots of other hotels in the area.)

01 Apr

April 1, 2011 |

Global Ministries is sponsoring three summer trips. We’ve already publicized them. One is completely filled up, but spots remain open for the other two.

Spain (July 12-19, 2011)

We need four persons for this trip. Participants will work with UB missionaries Ron and Brenda Anderson in a Family English Camp on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The cost is $500 plus airfare.

Poland (June 24 – July 5, 2011)
We have 9 people for this trip, but could use up to 7 more. This trip is open to high-school aged students through adults. Participants will work with Polish teens in a camp atmosphere to improve their conversational English skills. There will also be time for informal teaching of basic sports skills. The trip is being led by Roger andf Sharon McDonald of Auburn, Ind. Cost: $700 plus the cost of airfare.

Honduras (June 17-25, 2011)

This summer’s medical trip is all filled up (once again).

If you’re interested in participating on any of these trips, please contact Donna Hollopeter in Global Ministries.

31 Mar

March 31, 2011 |

Jenaya with some students

Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries

One of our team’s strategies in Macau is to engage students through conversational English. Three of our staff work directly in the local school system as English teachers and look for ways to engage students both in the classroom and outside. In addition to her class time, Jenaya invites students to her home to make cookies and socialize. Bridger plays soccer and hangs out at “noodle” houses. David and Melissa Kline have a revolving door at their home as students come and go throughout the day and evening.

The constant challenge is in engaging students for Christ. There’s an acute sense of apathy among young people in Macau who have little direction for the future in a city-state dominated by the world largest gambling industry. Just days after leaving Macau last month, I was informed by David Kline that one of his students was found floating near the ferry boat pier in what appears to have been a suicide.

Pray for the work in Macau and neighboring regions and for spiritual breakthroughs in the lives of students and adults.