14 Feb Jamaica Conference: Focus on “Healthy Churches”
Jamaica Conference will hold its annual meeting March 15-19. Gary Dilley (Director of Global Ministries) and Pat Jones (Director of Healthy Church Ministries), along with their spouses, will attend the event. Rev. Jones will lead several training presentations on church health.
The event will include the election of all major offices, including General Superintendent. They will also work on updating their ten-year ministry plan.
A major thrust of Jamaica Conference is to acquire additional land for church planting in the following areas: Iterboraele, Rhymesbury, Cockpit (Longville Park), and Eltham Park. They are also purchasing land at their church camp, Malvern. On the Sunday following the conference sessions, all UB churches across the island come together for a large combined service near Mandeville.
Superintendent Winston Smith (left) and the conference leadership will challenge those gathered to give generously toward making this dream come to pass. Pray that God’s people will be moved to participate. North American churches have been asked to consider working in partnership on this project.
Gary Dilley, Director of Global Ministries, and his wife Rhonda are celebrating the birth of their first grandchild. Brooke Alexandria Dilley arrived on February 11 at 1:30 a.m., weighing 6 lbs., 15 oz. Everyone is doing fine. That’s Rhonda in the picture holding Brooke.
December always mean time with people and time in the kitchen, anywhere in the world I think. And Macau is no exception to that rule. David invited his ELP class over for dinner and I invited my class over for breakfast. Both events were filled with fun and good chances for relationship building. Time in the kitchen was spent baking Christmas cookies, peanut brittle, and Chex Mix. We put together around 30 Christmas snack bags and delivered them to our neighbors and ELP students as a way to spread the Christmas spirit. Later that week, we met one neighbor in the hall and she started to have a conversation with us for the first time! We pray that God will continue to open opportunities for us to share God’s love with those around us.
The week before Christmas, we felt impressed to reach out to a young woman, a new Christian during the past year, who was struggling on her own away from her parent’s home and support. A church in the US had sent us a cash gift for Christmas, and we were enabled to take her to the grocery store and buy her some food to help stock her pantry. Naomi had been giving her tips about how to save money on food. We were humbled as we took her through the store and she first picked out two items as gifts to her father and mother for Christmas.
Several people have asked me how Paul Hirschy is doing. I am happy to report that Paul is doing fine and in fact has a new position with Huntington University. Effective February 1, 2006, Paul was appointed as a development officer at Huntington University. Paul will travel in the tri-state area meeting with alumni and friends to share the Huntington University story.