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17 Feb

February 17, 2011 |

Delegates and guests to the 2011 Nicaragua National Conference (click to enlarge)

Nicaragua National Conference held its annual meeting in January, with guests coming from Honduras and Costa Rica. Rev. Erik Rojas (far right), church planter and head of our mission field in Costa Rica, served as guest speaker, and Rev. Juanita Chavez (left of Rev. Rojas), superintendent for Honduras, attended as a guest.

We currently have UB churches in five Central American countries: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.

Rev. Juan Pavon (far left) is superintendent of the 33 churches in Nicaragua. We have a number of opportunities for mission teams in Nicaragua this summer under the leadership of Jeff and April Dice, Global Ministries’ Central American Liaisons. Visit our website for more information.

17 Feb

February 17, 2011 |

We’ve been having email problems at the national office, the result of some mischief from a Nigerian spammer. To counter that, we are migrating all of our email offsite to Google Apps. If you have sent email to someone with an @ub.org extension, your email may have bounced back to you. Hopefully, this will all be resolved over the weekend.

We are receiving most email. A bigger problem has been sending email from the national office, and having it get rejected (thanks, Mr. Nigerian, for getting us blacklisted as a spammer). If you have questions about whether or not an email got through, feel free to contact the appropriate person at Healthy Ministry Resources. Call toll-free 888-622-3019.

16 Feb

February 16, 2011 |
Phil and Darlene Burkett

Phil and Darlene Burkett

Philip and Darlene Burkett, known across the denomination for their missionary service in Macau and for their musical talents, are leaving us. At the beginning of March, Phil will become senior pastor of Cass City Missionary Church in Cass City, Mich.

Phil and Darlene, along with Luke and Audrey Fetters, left for the Orient in 1987 to help found the UB mission work in Macau. After serving there for four years, the Burketts pastored the UB church in Toronto for 6 years. Since 1996, Phil has been Minister of Music & Worship at College Park UB church in Huntington, Ind.

Darlene’s departure will be felt strongly in the Global Ministries department, where she has worked since November 2003. In her role as administrative assistant, she handles a wide range of responsibilities.

Global Ministries has hired a replacement for Darlene and will introduce her in the near future.

16 Feb

February 16, 2011 |
Fire Arcade

The members of Arcade Fire with their Grammy awards. Tim Kingsbury is second from the right.

Brian Magnus, writing as pastor of Parkwood Gardens UB church in Guelph, Ontario (he’s also Bishop of the UB Church in Canada), sent this note:

“Tim Kingsbury, bassist of the Album of the Year Grammy Award winning band, Arcade Fire, grew up in and learned to play the bass guitar right here at Parkwood Gardens UB Church in Guelph, Ontario. We’re pretty proud or Tim, who first played guitar and bass in the worship teams of the church! His Mom played the piano here as well.”

15 Feb

February 15, 2011 |

Anthony L. Blair, an ordained UB minister, has been named President of Evangelical Theological Seminary in Myerstown, Pa. He was selected by a unanimous vote of the seminary’s board of trustees, and will take office July 1.

Blair, 46, is co-senior pastor of a non-denominational church called Hosanna! A Fellowship of Christians, and teaches in the master’s and Ph.D. programs at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pa., where he’s been on the faculty since 1997. In addition, Blair has taught church history at Evangelical Theological Seminary since 2009.

Blair has been a pastor, church planter, and superintendent in the former Mid-Atlantic Conference. He pastored these UB churches in Pennsylvania:

  • 1986-1989: Lurgan UB (Lurgan, Pa.)
  • 1989-1991: Macedonia UB (Greencastle, Pa.)
  • 1991-1994: Devonshire UB (Harrisburg, Pa.)
  • 1994-2000: Strinestown UB (Strinestown, Pa.).
  • 2000-2005: Grace Now! Ministries (Middletown, Pa.)

Blair holds a bachelor’s in religion from Messiah College; a master’s in religion from Evangelical Theological Seminary; a doctorate in history from Temple University; and a Doctor of Ministry from George Fox Theological Seminary.

He and his wife of 22 years, Carol, have two daughters.

Evangelical School of Theology has 185-190 students pursuing graduate degrees. Two other UB ministers, Ray Seilhamer and Kirby Keller, previously served as EST’s president.

11 Feb

February 11, 2011 |

Mrs. Marie Simbo, mother of Rev. Billy Simbo, passed away February 11, 2011, in Sierra Leone. She was 84 years old. Rev. Simbo, who concluded his transition role as bishop of Sierra Leone Conference in January, delayed his return to the States in case she passed away, knowing he would need to abruptly return. However, he decided to return to the States on February 4. He will head back to Sierra Leone for memorial services on February 25 and 27.

You can contact Billy Simbo at:

Billy K. Simbo
1822 Erlen Road
Elkins Park, PA 19027
Email

Here is information which Billy sent to Global Ministries on February 11.

(more…)

10 Feb

February 10, 2011 |

Do you have some of the old maroon 1973 United Brethren hymnals sitting around somewhere? We occasionally receive requests for that hymnal.

Most recently, The Village of Laurel Run (formerly Piney Mountain Home, once operated by Mid-Atlantic Conference) expressed interest in some. Lois Culler writes, “I go there and play the piano and I have found that some of these hymnals are in real bad shape. A group of us are going up to try to put masking tape on them to hold them together.” If they could get some donated hymnals in good condition, that would be great.

The Mount Zion United African Church in Philadelphia, Pa., pastored by Rev. Joe Abu, was also interested in obtaining hymnals.

If you have some hymals to donate, contact Steve Dennie.

10 Feb

February 10, 2011 |

A group of 11 persons from Blue Rock UB church (Waynesboro, Pa.) will travel to Honduras Friday 11-19, 2011. They plan to finish pouring the deck at the conference camp outside of La Ceiba, and to hold a Bible school.

10 Feb

February 10, 2011 |

Mainstreet Church (Walbridge, Ohio) is replacing its phone system, and wonders if another church or organization would like the previous system, which is 3-4 years old. They are switching to an IP Voice system. The phone system they are hoping to sell consists of:

  • Toshiba CIX40 Strata cabinet and Power Supply (CHSU40A)
  • CIX40 Processor Card (GCTU2A)
  • CIX40 4-Port TIS16 Voice Mail System
  • HPFB-6 Battery Backup Module for CIX40 and CTX28
  • Six (6) Toshiba DKT3220-SD 20 button digital Speakerphones
  • Two (2) Toshiba DKT3207-SD 7 button digital Speakerphones

If interested, contact:

Tom Caldwell, Pastor of Grouplife
Mainstreet Church
5465 Moline Martin Rd.
Walbridge, Ohio 43465
419-838-7600

08 Feb

February 8, 2011 |

Nick Woodall, pastor of Stryker UB Church (Stryker, Ohio), has experienced the loss of his father. Robert A. Woodall passed away Thursday, February 3, 2011, at age 82. He was a member of Mainstreet UB church in Walbridge, Ohio. The funeral was held Monday, February 7. You can send condolences to Rev. Woodall at:

Nick E. Woodall
P.O. Box 329
Stryker, OH 43557
Email: