28 Mar Children’s Ministry Summit Cancelled
The Children’s Ministry Summit, previously scheduled for May 17-18, 2011, has been cancelled. They had hoped for 15 registrants, but weren’t close to that number, so the decision was made to pull the plug.
28 Mar Two Youth Groups Raise $1500 to Fight Hunger
Jason Sheets, associate pastor of Shepherd of the Valley UB church (Logan, Ohio), sent a report on a youth group activity. Sixteen youth from the Shepherd of the Valley and nearby West Pleasant Hill (Rockbridge, Ohio) UB churches participated in a 30 Hour Famine. The groups together raised over $1500 to help fight world hunger. (click photo to enlarge)
28 Mar With Our Haitian Congregation in Florida
Phil Whipple, Bishop
On January 25-27, Sandy and I visited our Haitian church in Bradenton, Fla. I did three leadership training sessions for them, using the “Habitudes” materials.
About 30 people came on Friday night. My session lasted about two hours. When I finished, one of their guys did a ten-minute recap of the main points in the Creole language, which is used widely among Haitians.
Something similar happened during the Saturday morning and evening sessions on Saturday, though the translation became more detailed as the day wore on. About 20 people attended both of those sessions, but not always the same people; some people came for just one session, depending on their work schedules.
We arrived at the church on Sunday morning during the Sunday school hour. They have three adult classes which meet in the sanctuary at the same time. In our American culture, we think you need a separate walled room for each class, but that wasn’t the case here. One class of about 30 met on one side, a group of 15-20 ladies met a little further back, and clear in the back of the sanctuary was a class of about 15 guys. All three teachers were every animated and engaged with teaching their material, and the people didn’t seem distracted by the noise. They were really focused on their teachers.
At the end of the Sunday school hour, the children and youth came in from their areas. Everybody moved up to the front, and they had a traditional Sunday school closing, complete with awards for the classes that gave the most money and brought the most visitors.
I delivered the morning sermon, with the help of a translator. I estimate that 100-110 people attended that morning. Although the community includes Hispanics and other ethnic groups, this was very much a Haitian congregation.
Pastor Jean Claude Presendieu would like to see them expand to other groups, but as long as they speak Creole, they’ll be a Haitian congregation. He said most people communicate in English at their jobs. But when they come to church, they prefer using Creole, which is their native, heart language.
One lady gave an announcement in English. She’s Haitian, but was more comfortable speaking in English than in Creole. They didn’t translate for her, so I figured enough people could understand what she said.
The Bradenton congregation keeps a strong tie to Haiti, especially in the aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake. Pastor Presendieu will go to Haiti in April or May to help conduct a crusade. They’ve done some projects, like putting together buckets of supplies to send back to Haiti.
25 Mar Death of Rev. Herbert Cherry
We received word that Rev. Herbert (“Herb”) Cherry passed away Thursday night, March 24, 2011. He was an ordained minister and former pastor in the United Brethren church, and the brother of fellow UB ministers Harold and Howard Cherry. The funeral is set for Thursday, March 31st, at Eden UB church in Mason, Mich.
- Visitation – Wednesday, March 30th, 5-8 pm at Chas. J. Burden & Son Funeral Home, 1806 E Michigan Avenue, Jackson, MI 49202
- Funeral – Thursday, March 31st, 11 am at Eden UB Church, 1938 Eden Road, Mason, Michigan 48854, with visitation one hour prior.
25 Mar Ordination of Mary Flamer
The ordination service for Mary Flamer. L-r: William Flamer, Ed Harvey, Mary Flamer, Roland Albert, and Bishop Phil Whipple.
Bishop Phil Whipple (left) with William and Mary Flamer.
On Sunday, March 20, 2011, I conducted an ordination service for Mary Flamer. Her husband, William, is associate pastor of Park Layne UB church in Dayton, Ohio. Interestingly, Mary and William actually live in Philadelphia, Pa. Once a month, they travel to Park Layne to participate in the service.
Ed Harvey, pastor of Lighthouse Community Church in Dayton, and Roland Albert, pastor of Park Layne, joined me on the platform to assist in Mary’s ordination.
21 Mar Update from the Reeck Family
Amanda Reeck with her certificate of acceptance.
Roger and Marilyn Reeck, UB endorsed missionaries serving with Wycliffe in Honduras, sent this update on March 17:
Exciting news: Yesterday, in a formal ceremony our third daughter, Amanda, was handed the announcement that she has been accepted to the internal medicine residency program at Southwestern University Hospital in Dallas (that was her first choice.) Her sisters Teresa and Elisa were able to be with her. She graduates from med school on May 24. We praise the Lord for making all of this a reality!
We have now survived (and thoroughly enjoyed) three of the many workshops that we will be involved in this year and we are very happy with the outcome of each.
In February, Marilyn taught a “Learning that Lasts” (how to teach adults so that they retain the information) workshop. Twelve Garifuna pastors and leaders attended. It was quite exhausting for her, but she was thrilled with how well the group understood the methods, which were successfully displayed during their practice teaching.
Next, Marilyn set out for Guatemala along with three Garifuna leaders to attend a Scripture Meets Culture workshop. The men learned how to identify their cultural rituals, search for what the Word says about these practices, and then make a decision as to accept, reject, or change them. The three men readily embraced the teaching and came up with a very detailed plan of how to share this with all of the Garifuna Christians.
Immediately after arriving back, a One Story workshop was held here in Honduras. Thirteen stories form the book of Acts were learned and discussed, and church planting principles were drawn from each of these.
Now, Roger is on his way to Suriname to hold two One Story workshops. The first one will be held in a Lokono language village and the second in the capital city, Paramaribo, with 5 different language groups. Doing this all by himself will be a rather awesome task. He has spent the last several weeks relearning the Sranan Tongo language which he will use to teach the classes. He still experiences much pain in both legs and especially while travelling.
Marilyn stays back here in Honduras finishing off many different projects and preparing materials for several teaching opportunities. It is so wonderful to have our daughter Chrysti and her family just an hour away.
We will celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary in June!
20 Mar God at Work in the Mexican State of Queretaro
Bishop Denis Casco (right) of the Mexico National Conference sent this report on Saturday, March 19.
This is a report from Mexico, where God is powerfully acting through a campaign of evangelization that Bishop Denis Casco launched with the help of pastors, leaders, and members of the United Brethren in Christ churches Mexico.
Today, March 19, more than 400 United Brethren members from ten churches met in one of its church buildings in the state of Queretaro to celebrate The Regional Conference of the Cluster 3, located two hours from Mexico City.
Highlights of this conference:
- Over 400 people attended the event.
- Bishop Denis Casco anointed the leaders with oil in an inspirational ceremony in which there was prophecy, anointing of the Holly Spirit, and Word of exhortation.
- All who met in this conference committed themselves to take the spiritual leadership of cities, villages, indigenous groups, youth, the family, and the children to reach them for Jesus Christ.
- After a beautiful worship service in which people were moved by the power of the Holly Spirit, we ate a delicious meal together food, sharing with the families and other friends that were invited to the celebration.
- Finally, we are so thankful to God because the building of the UBC Evangelical Center Church of Begoña was finished and their doors are open to receive to all people who are needy and heartbroken.
20 Mar Obit: Rev. Robert Sanders
Rev. Robert Sanders, 82, of Reedsville, Ohio, passed away Saturday evening, March 19. He had pastored UB churches in southern Ohio since 1955–Mt. Zion, Salem Chapel, Laurel Chapel, West Pleasant Hill, Liberty, Logan, and Mt. Hermon. He concluded his ministry with 23 years as senior pastor of Mt. Hermon UB of Pomeroy, Ohio, 1980 to 2003.
Rev. Sanders served in the Army-Air Force in the Philippines 1946-1947. He also taught school for 30 years. Rev. Sanders was ordained in 1973.
Rev. Sanders is survived by his wife of 58 years, Nina, three daughters, and one son.
Funeral: 1 pm Wednesday, March 23, 2011. Rev. Peter Martindale will officiate.
Visitation: 5-8 pm Tuesday, March 22.
Location: White-Schwarzel Funeral Home, 9 Fifth St., Coolville, Ohio. Phone: 740-667-3110
19 Mar HU’s Online Programs Recognized in Ten Best
Huntington University has been ranked sixth in the nation for Online Christian Colleges & Universities for 2011. Huntington offers online degree programs through its EXCEL Adult Degree Programs and the graduate school.
The rankings were compiled by The Best Colleges, a publication that reviews publicly available data and then produces independent ranking assessments of colleges in various disciplines. Rankings were based on schools that exemplified a Christ-centered education and met other criteria–graduation and retention rates, education quality, financial issues, reputation, and other factors.
Best Colleges wrote, “With strong showings in every category we measured, Huntington University online is one of the top online Christian universities around.”
Huntington’s oline programs are designed to fit into the busy schedules of adult students. EXCEL offers associate degree programs in Christian ministry and organizational management, in addition to bachelor’s degree programs in business management, human resource management, and not-for-profit leadership. The graduate school offers master’s degree programs in youth ministry leadership and education in an online hybrid format.
The Top Ten Online Christian Colleges were:
- LeTourneau University (Longview, Tex.)
- Liberty University (Lynchburg, Va.)
- Azusa Pacific Uniersity (Azusa, Calif.)
- Northwestern College (St. Paul, Minn.)
- Malone University (Canton, Ohio)
- Huntington University (Huntington, Ind.)
- Crown College (Bonifacius, Minn.)
- Ohio Christian University (Circleville, Ohio)
- Dallas Baptist University (Dallas, Tex.)
- Northwest Christian University (Eugene, Ore.)
18 Mar HTV News Takes Second in National Competition
HTV News, Huntington University’s television station, won second place in the “TV Studio Production” category from the National Religious Broadcasters Association.
Students Katrina Helmer, a senior broadcasting major from Noblesville, Ind., and Brendon Shick, a senior film studies and broadcasting double major from Grand Rapids, Mich., are listed as producer and director. They were presented with certificates at the national NRB convention in Nashville in February.
HTV News also took second place in the 2011 IASB College Broadcasting Competition Awards for the “Television Newscast” category. Shick won third place in the Television Spot Production category for that same competition.
HTV is a weekly news program written, directed, produced and edited by Huntington University students.