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We learned that Ruth Boggs, the mother of Titus Boggs (director of Laurel Mission in Kentucky), passed away Tuesday, August 26. Ruth’s late husband, Alvin, grew up at Laurel Mission and later served on staff there. Titus’s address:
Titus J. Boggs
77 Cedar Chapel Road
Big Laurel, KY 40808-7611
Here is another “God sighting” report, this one about a community outreach event by Shepherd of the Valley UB church in Logan, Ohio. Doug Stull, the senior pastor, sent me this brief note:
The Festival turned out at least 200 unchurched people. Food, free school supplies, carnival games–all brought a lot of the community to the event. I believe we planted a lot of good seeds and hit the right button. Economically, people are hurting. We’re thinking now to keep the ball rolling by offering a free Thanksgiving dinner to families.
L-r: Pat Jones, Ron Ramsey, Bridger Fetters, Jeff Bleijerveld.
A pizza buffet seemed like a good way to say goodbye to Bridger Fetters, the summer intern for Global Ministries. So the entire Healthy Ministry Resources staff headed to Pizza Hut for lunch. Bridger returned to Huntington University this week; he’s a senior English major.
Bridger helped out in a number of ways:
Bridger also participated in the China English Camp in July and August (as he did in 2007).
So we definitely got our money’s worth out of Bridger. It was great having him in the office, and we wish him well as he finishes his schooling. (Bridger is the oldest son of Luke and Audrey Fetters.)
Frank Strine, a retired ordained minister, will undergo a heart catheterization Thursday morning, August 28, at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, Ind. Frank and Phyllis Strine live in Markle, Ind., at this address:
Frank Strine
PO Box 613
Markle, IN 46770
The first of five leadership training events took place August 22-23 at Salem United Brethren Church in Chambersburg, Pa. The sessions focused on developing effective short-term mission teams and covered the nuts and bolts of putting it all together like a pro.
Here are a few comments from those who attended:
Additional training events will be held:
The cost for the two-day event is $60.
The Huntington University men’s soccer team partnered with Mainstreet Church in Walbridge, Ohio, to host the Onside Soccer Camp August 11-14. Two coaches and 23 players worked with 86 children, ages 4-13. The children participated in drills, games and team time activities. This is the second camp the team has organized for the church and the community.
“Not only do we share the game of soccer, but we also have an opportunity each night to share our faith with the children,” said Russ Lawson, head coach of the Huntington men’s soccer team. “This stretches most of our players and moves them out of their comfort zones. This week also allows us to learn more about each other and prepare for the season with a handful of training sessions.”
Lawson added that Cathy Burson, children’s ministry director for Mainstreet Church, and her staff volunteers “do an amazing job of taking care of us.”
I don’t know how I got on the email list for Beyond Borders, but I received an email from them yesterday. The subject is something that we have a lot of problem with in the UB Church: gossip (I don’t think we are unique in that). I suggest that you read the little article by Carl Richardson called “They Say.”
One of our staff members in Macau writes:
Going to the Olympics was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me. I’m not actually that huge of a sports fan, but I’ve always thought it would be fun to experience the atmosphere of the Olympics…and it was!
I think the thing I enjoyed most was just the excitement and joy among all of the Chinese there. They were so excited and proud to be hosting the Olympics. The volunteers were all very sincere, and knew enough English phrases to at least tell us to enjoy the games. Many of them were retirees, and I’m sure they had never imagined that China would have an opportunity like that.
This year will go down in history for China for so many reasons, and I’ll be glad I got a close-up glimpse of it.
Submitted by Ron Watterly, pastor of McCallum UB church, Delon, Mich.
Jerry Johncock recently completed his 103rd marathon. That’s normally not a newsworthy item. Did I mention that Jerry is 80 years old? He not only completed the race, he set a new national record for runners in his age group, four hours, 11 minutes, 51 seconds.
Johncock is a member of McCallum UB church in Delton, Mich. He took up running at age 50 as a way to bond with his five sons, and has been at it ever since. He competes in several races annually. Racing is sort of in the Johncock blood. A cousin is Gordon Johncock, winner of the 1973 Indy 500.
Jerry was raised in the McCallum church. After high school, he attended Huntington College with the intention of becoming a teacher. His education was cut short by a stint in the Navy. After the Navy, he married Dorlene Ramie.
Through the years, Jerry served as a traveling evangelist, missionary to Mexico, and pastor of the Otsego, Mich., UB church. He never made it back to Huntington, but did complete vocational training at Michigan Career and Technical Institute and worked as a television repairman.
Of the five sons, Mark, the youngest, graduated from Huntington University and is employed at the Michindoh Camp and Conference Center (Hillsdale, Mich.). Jim, next to the oldest, is chairman of the administrative board at McCallum. Besides raising their own children, the Johncocks provided a home for numerous foster children over the years.
We adopted the cluster system at the 2005 National Conference. At that time, two competing philosophies were at work:
We’ve tried letting clusters develop the way most helpful to them, with the basic focus of churches becoming outward focused and healthy. But some structure works better for many of our pastors. So I’m working on ways to have more structure, but great flexibility, basically telling them, “Here are some things we’d like you to consider, but you figure out how to do it.”
Every group is unique. I sent out surveys to see if pastors felt their cluster was effective and helpful to them. I found that a majority of the pastors enjoy their cluster and enjoy getting together, with a few guys wanting more instruction and leadership development. We’ve had people change clusters, because they wanted a more intentional approach and a nearby cluster was doing that. For the most part the clusters are working.
