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22 Jul

July 22, 2008 |

Iglesia Reformada Emanuel is located in Jamaica Plain, Mass., a very urban suburb of greater Boston. It’s not a good neighborhood. They told me you don’t want to be out at night. When they hold late-night services, they ask the police to come stand guard during the service.

The congregation has a tradition of holding their Easter service at 3 a.m. This past Easter, while police officers stood around the periphery of where they were meeting, a young man in the house next door to the church was shot in the neck and killed. The officers saw the assailant toss the gun away after the shooting and while running through the back yard to escape. They caught him.

21 Jul

July 21, 2008 |

We just learned about a two-day conference called “The Sticks” which may appeal to you. It’s designed for churches in rural and smalltown settings. They’ve got some excellent speakers lined up, and seem to have a great spirit and purpose.

Date: November 11-12
Location: Loudonville, Ohio (about halfway between Columbus and Cleveland (near Mansfield).

Their promo says:

Do you live out in the sticks (small cities and towns of 50K or less).
Do you want to make a big impact?
Tired of small towns being left out of the conversation?
Have you bought into the lies…”We can’t do that” or “We don’t have the funds to pull that off”?

CHECK OUT THE STICKS!
The sticks is a gathering to inspire and equip pastors in small to medium towns to make a big impact for the Kingdom!

They’re only taking 400 people (at $159 per registration), so if you’re interested, you might jump on it quick.

20 Jul

July 20, 2008 |

Scott Hardaway’s June 29 blog post, “What I Don’t Believe,” presented 26 things that he doesn’t believe. It’s an interesting list. Here are a few of them. (Scott is pastor of Pathway Community Church in Jackson, Mich.)

  • I don’t believe in the avoidance of pain or discomfort as a goal of life.
  • I don’t believe in the American Dream.
  • I don’t believe that inauthentic relationships are worth any time or effort.
  • I don’t believe that most people who claim the name of Christ actually have any kind of true relationship with him (in America, at least).
  • I don’t believe in cutting short the mission of the church to please the already-convinced.
  • I don’t believe in worrying about high or low self-esteem, since Jesus calls us to die to ourselves.
  • I don’t believe any church will ever be perfect.
  • I don’t believe any concept of joining people together will ever be greater than the church.
  • I don’t believe that the pursuit of power, pleasure, possessions, popularity, or prestige will ever lead to fulfillment.
  • I don’t believe an American political structure will ever work as an effective model for a church structure.

Does that peak your interest? You can read the rest of the list on Scott’s blog, and he invites you to add your own items to the list.

19 Jul

July 19, 2008 |

Global Ministries is sponsoring four events to train mission team leaders. With more and more mission teams going out, we need more people who understand how to make these teams successful. These seminars, fun and interactive, will be led by Jeff Bleijerveld and Donna Hollopeter in four regional locations.

The cost is $60 per person.

You can register online, and view information about each event–directions, hotels–by using the links below.

August 22-23 Salem UB Church, Chambersburg, Pa.
September 12-13 Emmanuel Community Church
Fort Wayne, Ind.
October 3-4 (Details still being confirmed)
Charlotte, Mich.
November 14-15 Lancaster UB ChurchLancaster, Ohio

18 Jul

July 18, 2008 |

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Every year for the past five years, Global Ministries has sponsored a medical team in Honduras. I’ve been part of each team as one of the support workers. This year’s trip, June 20-28, was phenomenal. Everybody gelled. We conducted clinics in five locations, and saw a total of 1945 patients.

The last clinic was in the town of La Flecha. We planned to stay overnight there, stay in San Pedro Sula the next night, and fly out on Saturday. But then we heard about a national strike scheduled to hit the country Friday morning.

Transportation workers–taxis, buses, truck drivers–were protesting the high cost of gasoline and government taxes on gas. The strike would start at 6 a.m. on Friday. This raised doubts about our ability to even get to San Pedro Sula. So we decided to try to beat the strike.

We drove from La Flecha for two-and-a-half hours, and arrived at the hotel in San Pedro Sula just after midnight. We had rooms reserved there for Friday night, but they had nothing available for Thursday night. Although there were no rooms in the inn, they did make room for us. They said we could sleep on the floor of the exercise room and lobby.

So that’s how we spent the rest of the night. I slept on a sofa in the lobby, using a sofa pillow. As people arrived to check in, I was right there.

The next night we slept in the rooms previously reserved. And Saturday morning, we flew home.

17 Jul

July 17, 2008 |

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Team leader Fonda Cassidy treating a patient.

On Tuesday, we told about the Global Ministries medical team that went to Honduras June 20-28. We treated all kinds of ailments. I thought you might be interested in some of the medical conditions we encountered.
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    • We saw a man who had been hit by a car. He’d never had his leg attended to, so it was ulcerated and gangrenous. Really, he needed to have it amputated. They had to tell them that. He said he would rather die than lose his leg–and he probably will, because it was bad.
    • Everyone is treated for parasites. Children especially, as well as adults, had a lot of open sores that had become infected as a result of spider or mosquito bites. In other cases, parasites come in through open sores and create stomach aches or chronic diarrhea. So we do a lot of wound care–draining them, cleaning them out, applying an antibiotic ointment, and covering them. Sometimes there are so many sores we can’t cover them all, and we give anti-biotics to alleviate it.

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  • A lot of people are diabetic and don’t know it, so we did sugar screening.
  • A 13-day-old baby girl was diagnosed as septic, her body full of infection with open sores. We took her to the hospital and paid for hospital care. We don’t know if she made it or not. And we wondered what kind of situation she came from to have that many open wounds and be in that condition. The very young mother probably didn’t know how to care for her.
  • We saw an eight-year-old boy who, because of head lice, had itched his head to the point where open wounds developed, became infected and swollen, and just continued to fill up with more and more infection. boy_headsores_250.jpgThose all had to be opened and drained. The whole top of his head was covered with those.

We were able to treat many of the ailments we saw. But we couldn’t do follow-up, and that’s always a concern. We explained how to take care of a wound, or if they were diabetic, stressed the importance of going to a doctor regularly. But a lot of this depends on where they live, which might be 2-3 hours away from the nearest doctor. So how regularly they go is a real problem.

17 Jul

July 17, 2008 |

Darwin and Polly Dunten started a blog so people can keep up-to-date about Polly’s condition. She will undergo surgery on July 28 to remove a brain tumor. 

Darwin sent me this story, and gave me permission to pass it along. I think you’ll find it encouraging. 

Last Thursday (July 10), I went to the Hancock County Jail for the weekly Celebrate Recovery session we have with about 35 inmates. When I walked in, inmates started shouting, “Hey, there is Pastor “D.”  Unknown to me, the director of the church’s jail ministry told all the inmates what was happening in my family’s life. 

After the men’s Bible study, three inmates surrounded me to let me know that they were praying for Polly. It actually was more than that. They told me that they stop what they are doing and have the entire cell block pray for Polly every day. They said, “All of us pray for her every day.” 

During the women’s session, I explained to the women what was going on with my wife and then started the Bible study. Following the lesson, one female inmate approached me and started to cry. She then started to talk about her mother who died a few years ago from cancer and how she was angry with God. This anger is what prompted her drinking that brought her to  jail. This gave me an opportunity to share the eternal truth of God’s love and eternity.

This illness has also given my wife opportunity to share her faith with women that she works for. (She cleans houses.) It has also give me opportunity to share my faith with others in secular organizations that I am involved with. Regardless, we can see God working in many ways.

15 Jul

July 15, 2008 |

The United Brethren Church in Canada is organizing a medical mission team to go to Haiti January 23 – February 3, 2009. A number of experienced volunteers have already signed on, but they have openings for additional volunteers.

They will conduct 4-6 clinics in “triage” style. The most common problems relate to stomach and head maladies. Based on the doctor’s findings, appropriate medicine is dispensed as available, or treatment is administered. A month’s supply of vitamins is also provided. After each patient is seen, a Haitian pastor or church leader prays with them before they leave.
If you’re interested in participating on this team, please contact Joan Sider at parklawn@sympatico.ca.