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21 Mar

March 21, 2003 |

Central Conference Superintendent Tom Brodbeck provides this update on the new Hispanic church plant in Columbus.

“The church has 56 different people who are active in the ministry, averaging around 40. Pastor Volfi Valenzuela reports that 13 people have been saved and five others have rededicated their lives. The need continues for Hispanic Bibles and other Spanish literature. The church will be participating in a Columbus, Ohio, Latin festival June 20-21. Over 300,000 people attend this event each year. The church continues to worship on Sunday afternoons at the Columbus First UB church facility.”

21 Mar

March 21, 2003 |

Troy and Julie Hendricks and family are planning to arrive in Spain at the beginning of August, where they will serve with SEND International. They are UB endorsed missionaries from Lake View UB in Camden, Mich. Troy is finishing the year as a high school teacher in Angola, Ind.

21 Mar

March 21, 2003 |

The Global Ministries Leadership Team has endorsed three new missionaries–one family and two singles.

Jim and Michelle Kegerreis are from the Otterbein UB church in Greecastle, Pa. In 1998, they began working with a ministry that built family-style homes for children at risk in Honduras. Jim oversaw the construction of nine buildings and the overall infrastructure, while Michelle helped with bookkeeping.

In November 2002, they joined Providence World Ministries as self-supported missionaries. Jim will lead teams of volunteers to build facilities near Tegucigalpa, Honduras. PWM aims to reveal God’s love to orphaned and abandoned children, widows, and the poor through direct and practical help. For this, they are creating a new kind of orphanage, in which 100 children will receive basic necessities, education, and medical attention. They will be nurtured by Christian, native house parents in family groups of eight children. The presence of elderly widows means the children will receive the love and nurture of grandmothers as well. A medical clinic and school will also minister to the community.

Mark Stephan is from College Park UB in Huntington, Ind. He serves in the Middle East with Mission to Unreached Peoples, an organization based in Seattle. MUP has over 100 missionaries in 16 countries. They focus on evangelism and church planting in places which are often closed to traditional missionary work. In Mark’s case, it involves ministry to Muslims.

Bridget Ho, a Hong Kong native, committed her life to Christ in 1989 at St. Luke’s UB church. In 1993, she volunteered to help plant St. Mark’s UB church, and has been very active there ever since, doing some of everything–secretary, deaconess, worship leader, piano accompanist, Sunday school teacher, and more.

Bridget holds a degree in Translation from Hong Kong Baptist University, and has worked as a translator. She also earned two Certificates of Church Ministry from Ecclesia Bible College, and has acquired significant training in evangelism through several programs.

In 1994, sensing God calling her into mission work, Bridget traveled to Thailand to visit the UB work there. She asked herself, “Could I spend a year or a few years in the mission field like Pastor Lee in Thailand?” She visited Thailand again the next year, and also in 1998. In 1999, Bridget began working for Operation Mobilization as Assistant Personnel Officer, and continued in that role until August 2002. She then decided to join OM’s Asia Challenge Team. She is now serving in Sri Lanka on a two-year assignment.

21 Mar

March 21, 2003 |

Thirty-two students are enrolled in “Perspectives,” a course on world missions which the US Center for World Mission sponsors at various locations throughout the country. The class at Huntington College started January 7 and is running for 15 weeks, meeting for three hours every Tuesday night.

03 Mar

March 3, 2003 |

Rev. Jim Preece, 43, former pastor of the Salem Chapel church (Junction City, Ohio) in Central Conference, passed away on Saturday, March 29. The funeral will be held at 1:30 pm on Wednesday, April 2, at the Living Word UB church in Columbus, Ohio (145 Obetz Road, Columbus). Rev. Bill Pitts will officiate. Calling hours are on Tuesday, April 1, from 2-4 pm and 6-9 pm at the Graumlich & Son Funeral Home (1351 South High Street, Columbus, OH).

Jim’s heart condition made it necessary to place him on permanent disability at the end of 2002. He had been pastor of Salem Chapel most recently, but before that pastored two other UB churches–Zanesville UB (Zanesville, Ind.) and Mount Victory UB (Decatur, Ind.). Jim is survived by his wife, Jenny, and children Rebecca and Tim. The family’s home address is: 1846 Pine Grove Place, Lancaster, Ohio 43130

26 Feb

February 26, 2003 |

The Women’s Ministry Leadership Team has completed its first year. Kathy Bruce, who chairs the team, reports, “It was a busy year, as we got established and focused, and began meeting women’s leaders in our UB churches. We hope to bring that focus and encouragement to the local women’s leaders even more in 2003. Here are some of the things we have done:

  • “We identified our focus to be “Women Equipping Women.”
  • “Representatives of the WMLT attended most attended annual conference meetings. We set up a resource table and began contacting women’s leaders.
  • “We established our own website, ubwomen.org, for information, resources, and an email system for contacting individuals.
  • “We set up an internet bulletin board for swapping ideas, and have had a very successful response of women writing in with questions and ideas.
  • “We distributed our first Women’s Ministry Newsletter to each church and to our email contact list. It is a resource for fresh ideas and encouragement.
  • “We have called or written each UB church, attempting to identify a women’s contact in each of the UB churches nationwide.
  • “The WMLT members completed training in the Sonlife Strategy and Advanced 1 for Women’s Ministry leaders. We plan to begin teaching this biblical approach at our July conference and then locally for women’s groups.
  • “We established networks with women’s ministry leaders in other denominations to share ideas and strategies
  • “We are now planning for the National Women’s Conference, to be held July 25-27, 2003, at Huntington College in Huntington, Ind. The theme is, “Women Equipping Women: His Plan, His Way, His Glory.”
  • “We have also started to plan for the International UB Conference in 2005.

“We do ask again for your financial support and prayer in that effort. We ask that UB women support the ministry by giving $20.03 in 2003. These funds will be used to provide training, sponsor future conferences, and increase our resources to be Women Equipping Women in the United Brethren Church, nationwide. Send to: WMLT, 302 Lake St., Huntington, Ind. 46750.”

26 Feb

February 26, 2003 |

At Pleasant Hill UB (Greencastle, Pa.), the junior church and Good News Club decided to support Child Evangelism Fellowship as their mission project for September through December. Each week the Good News children were encouraged to support the project through their offerings. The junior church and Sunday school children received donations for memorizing Bible verses.

The children turned in their money at the end of November. It came to $757. A check for that amount was presented, on Mission Sunday in December, to Lois Anderson of CEF.

26 Feb

February 26, 2003 |

Marshalee Brown, a UB from Jamaica Conference, has arrived in Ethiopia to begin her missionary service there. An eight-hour flight to London, where she stayed for a few days, then a ten-hour flight to Addis Abada, Ethiopia (which a stop-over in Alexandria, Greece). She arrived at 1 am on a Tuesday morning.

“On the aircraft to Ethiopia, it finally hit me hard that I was going away for a long time to a foreign country. That was when the tears started to pour. I had to command my eyes to stop their raining and my heart to be glad in expectancy of what God has for me in my new home. I repeated some of the many promises God has made to me–that he will be with me, and his joy will be my strength. I arrived in Ethiopia 1am Tuesday morning. I cried myself to sleep because I felt so lonely. This time it was very difficult to command my eyes and heart to do anything, I just gave them free reign to do as they will…but eventually I slept and it was a sweet sleep, I did not get up until 10:30 the next morning!”

Marshalee will spend six months attending language school in Addis. She also spend a week and a half visiting Mekele, which is where she will be working.” I was able to reconnect with some Ethiopian friends from my last visit and I was able to find my way around a bit, so I do not feel totally foreign and out of sorts.”

She adds, “From my window I can hear reggae music blasting round the corner. I have been to three different places today and they were all playing Bob Marley music. So in a way, not everything is strange. Actually, if I do not speak the language, I pass as an Ethiopian.”

26 Feb

February 26, 2003 |

Good Shepherd UB (Huntington, Ind.) has a new missions team under the direction of Matt and Eva Webb. All seven of them attended the Perspectives class held at Huntington College this winter, and they have developed a great vision for getting the church more missions-oriented. A team will to go Haiti this spring, and another will go to our Laurel Mission in Kentucky in July. The new team includes one college student and two high school students.

One of Good Shepherd’s worship teams will hold a praise and worship concert the evening of March 2. A photo and poster were put up all over the community, inviting people to come. Proceeds will help with building improvements.

The church renovated the stage and sound booth areas of the sanctuary. One parishioner, who was laid off from his construction work this winter, did the work. The congregation gave his family a “pounding” in appreciation, and bought him a nailgun as a thank-you for his month of hard work.

26 Feb

February 26, 2003 |

Emma Hyer, R.N., the first UB missionary nurse in Sierra Leone, passed away February 26. She served at the clinic/dispensary at Danville from 1936-1942, and 1952-1955. Miss Hyer came from the UB church in Coleta, Ill. The first UB missionary doctor, Leslie Huntley, had been serving at Danville since 1934 without trained help, so her arrival was a welcome relief.