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Rev. Fred A. Miller, 87, passed away February 10, 2011. He served as a pastor for 45 years, including the UB churches in Modesto, Calif., and Philomath, Ore. He then worked 23 years with Oregon Nursing Home Ministries.
Fred is survived by his wife, Jane, whom he married in 1943. They had five children.
The funeral was held February 18 at Siskiyou Perl Chapel in Medford, Oregon, where he lived.
The medical team and national workers. Jane Baker is in the middle (red top), with Ron right behind her.
Ron Baker performing surgery at Mattru Hospital.
Jane Baker sharing Scripture with a Sierra Leonean.
Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries
Dr. Ron Baker led a team to Mattru Hospital in Sierra Leone, January 18-28, 2011. While Ron has made several trips back to Sierra Leone over the years, this was the first time his wife, Jane, has returned since they left the field in the 1980s. Accompanying them were Luke and Shannon Brown and Roger and Denise Cable. Ron and Shannon were the only medical personnel on this team.
I wanted to share a bit of what I heard from Jane Baker. Jane is legally blind, and so returning to Sierra Leone was a particular challenge for her. She and Ron had talked about it a number of times, but she was both nervous and concerned that she would be a burden. Then one Sunday morning the message was from Isaiah 6, and when the pastor read, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” Jane knew in her heart that the Lord was speaking to her. So she responded, “Here am I, send me.”
While some of the team did medical work at the hospital and others helped with maintenance, Jane was led from house to house to encourage, admonish, and share God’s Word with everyone she met. She was able to catch up with old friends, meet some who had come to faith in Christ since they left Sierra Leone, and share the Gospel with those still on a journey of faith.
I’m reminded again of the old adage, “God doesn’t care as much about our abilities as he doees about our availability.”
Global Ministries has been asked by Ron and Brenda Anderson, endorsed missionaries in Spain, to send a team of four persons to do a family English Camp outside of Madrid July 15-17, 2011. Departure date would be Tuesday, July 12, and they would return on Tuesday July 19.
Dates: Tuesday, July 12, through Tuesday, July 19.
Cost: $500 plus airfare.
The camp would focus on the Two Toledos–Toledo, Ohio, and Toledo, Spain. There would be several opportunities to teach conversational English to the participants through workshops, childrens sessions, and special activities. Teaching credentials are not a requirement for this ministry opportunity.
If you are interested, please contact or by calling toll-free at 888-622-3019, ext. 305.
Dave and Cathie Datema and children.
Dave and Cathie Datema are endorsed missionaries serving with the US Center for World Mission in Pasadena, Calif. Dave is General Director of Frontier Mission Fellowship, an umbrella organization for a variety of related ministries.
Here are some pieces of their February 16 newsletter.
Huntington University’s annual tuition is nearly $5,000 below the national average, and the modest increase approved for next year will help keep Huntington among the region’s best values.
The Board of Trustees approved a moderate increase of 3.9 percent for tuition and fees for the 2011-12 school year. That comes to $22,710, with $500 in fees and $7680 for room and board costs. According to College Board, the average tuition rate for a private college education in 2010 was $27,293.
Approximately 90 percent of Huntington University students receive financial aid in the form of scholarships, grants, loans, or work-study assistance.
Huntington University was ranked fifth in the “Great Schools, Great Prices” category for best-value colleges in the Midwest in the 2011 version of the guide to America’s Best Colleges published by U.S. News & World Report. Among independent colleges in Indiana, Huntington ranked 10th out of 31 schools for the lowest tuition rates in 2010.
For the 2010-11 school year, tuition was $21,850 while fees were $480 and room and board was $7,430.
| Change | Percent | ||
| Tuition | $22,710 | $860 | 3.9% |
| Fees | $500 | $20 | 4.2% |
| Room & Board | $7680 | $250 | %3.36% |
| Total | $30,890 | $1,130 | $3.8% |
Renew Communities, a church plant in the greater Cleveland, Ohio, area, is less than a month away from holding weekly gatherings. They are advertising that they will begin meeting March 13, at 10:30 am, at the Polaris Career Center in Middleburg Heights, Ohio.
Andy Sikora is the church planter for Renew Communities. And according to their really sharp looking website, he’s got a great team working with him.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
