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20 Jan

January 20, 2009 |

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Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries

Jeff is in Costa Rica, and sent this report a few minutes ago via his iPhone. 
We visited Casa de Oracion in Guadelupe, Costa Rica, for an impromptu gathering last night. About half of the usual 75 gathered with us. Pastor Joe Leighton of Junction City, Ohio, shared his testimony and some words of hope.
The neighborhood is one of the most dangerous neighborhhods in the greater San Jose area as was evidenced by the drug addicts that shouted curses through the barred windows as we worshipped.
I’ve been impressed with each of the four church plants here in Costa Rica. Each is located in areas few church planters would dare to enter – let alone live! Yet they are the areas with the greatest need for Christ.

19 Jan

January 19, 2009 |

Ron Ramsey, Bishop

I was with a group of guys who were discussing the question something like this: “When was prayer most meaningful and when was it not meaningful.” 
I’ll never forget what one man said. “Prayer is most meaningful when I have something specific to pray about, and is least meaningful when I don’t have something specific to pray about.” How profound! I have continued over the years to think about that answer.
But I have since changed my mind. 
A believer should always have something specific to pray about, don’t you think? I mean, isn’t one purpose of prayer to bring praise, honor and glory to our Lord? Yes, I know, we are also invited to share our petitions and then confessions, but to me the most urgent reason to pray is to give praise and glory to our Lord and King. 
I guess that is why I enjoy reading the Psalms over and over. They teach me how to think properly about God and how to regard him in my praying and worship. Even aside from praising and adoring a holy, loving and generous God, is there any moment of any day that I don’t have needs to be met? 

17 Jan

January 17, 2009 |

This is from the Sillly file. Hey, it’s Saturday.

Seasoned ministers understand the importance of getting your spouse’s approval before using her in a sermon illustration. Here’s an amusing video about that, a parody of Carrie Underwood’s song “Before He Cheats.”

16 Jan

January 16, 2009 |

The “Noise Offering” is an interesting fundraiser for some of the upgrades at Mattru Hospital in Sierra Leone. Once a month, some churches take up the Noise Offering. People drop their loose change into a metal container of some kind–a coffee can, pie tin, cake pan–anything that makes a noise. The idea is “Change cane make a change at Mattru.”

Want to join this effort? Just contact Global Ministries.

16 Jan

January 16, 2009 |
Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries, is traveling to Costa Rica today. Here’s where he’s been and where he’ll yet be during this extended trip.
  • Jeff attended Honduras Conference last week.
  • Saturday, January 10: He traveled to Masaya, Nicaragua, to attend Nicaragua Conference. 
  • Friday, January 16: Travel to Costa Rica to visit the UB churches there. Joe Leighton, pastor of Salem Chapel UB (Junction City, Ohio), will join him there. 
  • Wednesday, January 21: Travel to Guatemala to visit the UB churches there (Joe Leighton will return to Ohio). 
  • Monday, January 26: Travel to Haiti to visit Oliam Richard and the UB churches in Haiti. 
  • Thursday January 29: Return to Indiana. 

15 Jan

January 15, 2009 |

Six people, destination Sierra Leone, fly out of the airport in Fort Wayne, Ind., this evening around 6 p.m. A predicted blizzard left some doubts about their flight plans, but everything’s sunshiny right now, and they should escape this Hoosier cold spell on time.

They’ll fly to Chicago, meeting up with Robert and Fonda Cassidy, from Mt. Olivet UB church in Mt. Solon, Va. Then it’s on to London, where they’ll meet up with:

  • Ken Graham, a retired minister returning from a trip to Israel.
  • Mamee Simbo, on her way to join her husband, Rev. Billy Simbo, in Sierra Leone for the next six months.

They’ll arrive in Freetown about 7:30 Friday night, stay in a hotel near the airport, then go up-country to Mattru early Saturday morning.

The group will be in Sierra Leone until January 28. Then a second team will arrive. They’ll all stay in a house directly across from Mattru Hospital.

“Our primary purpose,” says Donna Hollopeter, Associate Director of Global Ministries, “will be medical work at Mattru Hospital, which will include doing daily rounds, seeing patients at the clinic they run daily, doing surgery, organizing the pharmacy, and whatever miscellaneous medical work needs to be done. Then three men will work on gathering information for future construction trips to Mattru to help with upgrades for the rooms and equipment.”

Here are the group members:

  • Donna Hollopeter, Associate Director of Global Ministries.
  • Jason Hollopeter, pastor of Corunna UB church in Corunna, Ind.
  • A former missionary doctor at Mattru.
  • Karen Sibery, a staff nurse at Auburn Family Medicine.
  • Sharon McDonald, a nurse from Auburn who works at Parkview North Hospital in Fort Wayne. She attends Corunna UB church.
  • Ray Proud, a mechanical engineer, going as one of the construction consultant. He is from Corunna UB.
  • Robert and Fonda Cassidy, from Mt. Olivet UB, Mt. Solon, Va. Fonda is a nurse, and Robert is going for the construction part. They have previously led trips to Central America.
  • Ken Graham, retired pastor from Mainstreet Church in Walbridge, Ohio.

15 Jan

January 15, 2009 |

Ten persons are on their way to Sierra Leone. Or will be, in a couple hours. Six people from northern Indiana will fly out of Fort Wayne around 6:00 tonight. They’ll meet two persons from Virginia in Chicago, then fly to London, where they’ll meet two more persons. Then it’s on to Freetown, Sierra Leone. They’ll arrive tomorrow night (Friday, Jan. 16) around 7:30.

This group will stay in Sierra Leone until January 27. Then another team–three doctors and a nurse–will arrive for a two-week stay at the hospital.

14 Jan

January 14, 2009 |

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Phylis Stouder, right, displaying the Nutcracker soldier given as a parting gift. On the left is Marilyn Waters, the bookstore manager. Phylis and Marilyn have been a team for about 15 years.

Steve Dennie, Communications Director
Healthy Ministry Resources said good-bye to Phylis Stouder, who has worked there since October 1986. That’s 22 years. 

On Tuesday, January 13, we held a farewell luncheon for Phylis at the Habecker Dining Commons at Huntington University. Pat Jones and Jeff Bleijerveld were traveling, but everyone else was there. The staff gave her a couple gifts, including a Nutcracker wooden soldier to add to her collection. 
Phylis originally came as a secretary in what was then the Church Services department. I was editor of the monthly United Brethren magazine, and Phylis did a variety of chores for me, and helped out the others in the department–Paul Hirschy, Carlson Becker, Denny Miller–in whatever ways she could. 
Since 1993, Phylis has worked primarily with the bookstore. Every quarter, she packages hundreds of boxes of Sunday school materials. She also helps with everyone else’s mailings–the Bishop’s office, Global Ministries, you name it. If you receive something from the national office, Phylis probably had her hands on it. 
Phylis and her husband, Lowell, are members of College Park UB church in Huntington. They spent most of their married lives running a dairy farm (Lowell got out of that a while back). They’re also big Purdue fans. Please don’t ask Phylis for her opinion of Bobby Knight.
We’ll miss Phylis a lot. She worked hard and conscientiously, willing to do anything asked of her. 
Over the years, she learned how to do some of everything, an office jack-of-all-trades. We’ll miss her good sense of humor. 
Actually, Phylis will keep coming back occasionally to help in the bookstore or do mailings or whatever. But she’s basically retired, no regular hours. Which is what she wanted.
Twice a week, we start the day with office devotions. After our prayer time, Phylis would always say, “Have a nice day.” That was our signal to head to our desks and get started. We haven’t decided who will say that now.

13 Jan

January 13, 2009 |

On Sunday, January 11, the people of imagine this LLC (Life, Love, Community) entered into a partnership project with each other. After hearing a message focused on the parable of the faithful servants, each person was been given the opportunity of returning an increase from the resources entrusted to them, the Pastor Gordon Kettel challenged them to be that most faithful servant.

The challenge is to raise enough money to purchase an ark of animals from the nonprofit organization Heifer International. The cost of a project like this is $5000 per ark. These animals will be sent to a variety of locations across the world, wherever the need is the greatest. The range of animals consist of cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, ducks, chickens, lamas, oxen, alpacas, and even bees.

Each person in attendance was given $20 to invest and use as seed money for the next 90 days. During that time, people can turn in money, and the amount will be posted on one of the large windows facing Jefferson Street in downtown Grand Ledge, so that everyone–whether part of the church or not–can see the progress. All the money will be used to buy as many arks of animals as possible.

When asked to explain the passing out of money to individuals, Pastor Gordon stated, “In the past when there has been a call to the faith community to stretch and demonstrate a deeper commitment, we have put all the risk on the individual. Today I wanted to show the faith community that it’s important for the church to take risks and trust the hearts of the people, even first-time visitors. I’m excited to see what God will do.”

The community is encouraged to get involved also, as this gift of animals will be coming from the Grand Ledge community, not the people of imagine this LLC.

13 Jan

January 13, 2009 |

Bishop Ron Ramsey has appointed Barry Skinner as the interim pastor at Kilburn Ave UB, Rockford, Ill. Barry is currently pursuing a BS in Religion and working toward Mastor of Arts in Pastoral Counseling and Master of Divnity through Liberty University distance Learning Program. Barry lives in Mt. Morris, Ill.