10 Aug On This Day in UB History: August 10 (Jennifer Blandin)

In earlier times, most of the longest-tenured United Brethren missionaries served in Sierra Leone. Today, the top three can be found in Asia. Two of them minister in restricted access countries, which means we can’t talk about them on the internet. The third is Jennifer Blandin.

On August 10, 1996, Jennifer Blandin left the States to become a missionary in Macau. She has now served there for 21 years. She originally planned to go to Macau in October 1995, but a benign cyst and hairline fracture were found in a knee. Surgery and therapy delayed her departure for nearly a year.

Over the years, Jennifer has done some of everything as a member of the Macau team–teaching, preaching, discipling, pastoring, and team-leading. In 2011, Jennifer took an extended education leave to complete her masters degree from Winebrenner Theological Seminary in Findlay, Ohio.

Jennifer is from the Main Street UB church in Walbridge, Ohio. She accepted Christ into her heart at a young age and was baptized in her early teens. She went to Macau for a month as a Huntington University student.

Jennifer was able to attend the US National Conference this summer, and helped Pastor Jim Bolich conduct one of the workshops. She also attended the General Conference meeting, and assisted Pastor Karis Vong in representing the work in Macau. She will return to Macau in September.

09 Aug On This Day in UB History: August 9 (the Bakers)

DeWitt and Evelyn Baker

In 1944, with World War II raging, five United Brethren missionaries headed for Sierra Leone. We’ve followed their journey–leaving from Indiana (April 9), their six-week stay in Brazil (April 20), and their journey on to Sierra Leone (June 9).

During several of those weeks in Natale, Brazil, as they waited for an airplane to become available to take them across the Atlantic to Africa, they were joined by DeWitt Baker, whom some of them when he was a student at Huntington College. Baker was now a naval aviator stationed in Brazil, patrolling the Atlantic in search of German submarines.

One of those missionaries was Lloyd Eby. He was impressed by Baker. Several months later, he sent Baker a letter. After leaving the military, would he be interested in going to Sierra Leone to start a secondary school?

Baker’s reply was that God hadn’t called him to become a missionary. Besides, he wasn’t a United Brethren member. However, Baker said, if the Lord made a call plain, he would consider it.

Baker was demobilized in 1945 and became a teacher, and then a principal, in Michigan. In 1948, after Lloyd Eby had returned to the States, he and George Fleming, the General Secretary of Missions, visited the Bakers to present the needs in Sierra Leone. DeWitt, thinking he should prepare for missionary service just in case the Lord should someday call, wrote his Masters thesis at the University of Michigan on, “The History of Education in Sierra Leone.” By the time he received his degree in 1949, he and Evelyn knew the Lord wanted them in Africa.

They left for Sierra Leone on August 9, 1949, along with their two sons, Ronald and Norman, ages three and 18 months respectively, to begin their first three-year term. After stops in the Azores, Portugal, Senegal and Gambia, they arrived in Freetown and then traveled overland to their new home in Mattru. DeWitt became Business Manager and Secretary of Education, while Evelyn stepped in temporarily as matron of Minnie Mull Girls’ School.

Their cottage in Mattru overlooked the Jong River. The palm leaf roof leaked badly, but they put metal sheets over the beds and furniture to keep things dry. Soon after arriving, DeWitt snapped a picture of a boy outside wearing a Huntington College T-shirt.

Missionary life was incredibly varied. DeWitt Baker did it all. Bookkeeping. Preaching. Construction. Getting new and returning missionaries through customs. Meeting with government officials. Designing buildings. Transporting vehicle-less missionaries and nationals. Meeting with villagers to discuss opening new churches and schools. Repairing vehicles. Visiting primary schools. Dedicating new schools. Completing governmental paperwork. Writing letters and articles for denominational publications. And much more. Always something new.

We’ll talk more about DeWitt Baker on August 15.

08 Aug On This Day in UB History: August 8 (Oneta Sewell Thone)

Oneta Sewell Thone

Oneta Sewell Thone, RN, passed away on August 8, 1979, after an illness of several months. She was a member of the UB church in Jerry City, Ohio.

Oneta served three terms as a missionary nurse in Sierra Leone. She arrived there in 1944, in the midst of World War II, and ran the Gbangbaia dispensary for three years with the help of a small national staff.

She returned to Sierra Leone for a second term 1949-1952, during which she was instrumental in opening a dispensary at Mattru–the beginnings of Mattru Hospital. She was soon joined by another RN, Juanita Smith, a United Brethren preacher’s kid from Illinois whose sister, Leora Ackerman, was then serving as a UB missionary in Honduras.

Oneta and Juanita held daily clinics at Mattru and in surrounding villages. Recognizing that a full-fledged hospital would require a lot of nurses, they started a nursing school in 1950 with three students, all of them graduates of our Minnie Mull School for Girls in Bonthe. After two years of training, all three girls transferred to a hospital in Freetown to obtain their midwifery certification. Meanwhile, other Minnie Mull students enrolled.

Oneta Sewell concluded her second term in 1952. She returned for one year, 1965-1966, in response to a special appeal). She spent 15 years working at a clinic in Kansas run by Dr. Leslie Huntley, who had served as the UB doctor at Gbangbaia prior to Oneta’s arrival. Then she moved back to Ohio, got married to Walter Thone in 1973, and spent four years, 1971-1975, as president of the Sandusky Branch of the Women’s Missionary Association.

07 Aug On This Day in UB History: August 7 (Bishop John Coons)

Bishop John Coons

Bishop John Coons died of stomach cancer on August 7, 1869, at age 71. He was our 12th bishop, serving 1841-1845. Poor health probably kept him from being re-elected. However, he continued as an active minister until about age 70.

Coons was born near Martinsburg, Va., on October 25, 1797. When he was about ten years old, his family joined the westward migration, settling in southern Ohio. He became a Christian in 1821 through the ministry of Jacob Antrim, a United Brethren minister who had come from Pennsylvania.

As was common back then, Coons began preaching soon after his conversion. In 1822, he was licensed as a minister in Miami Conference, which then consisted of all United Brethren work west of the Allegheny mountains. He began serving a circuit of churches, and in 1826 was ordained by bishops Christian Newcomer and Henry Kumler, Sr.

According to biographer Henry Adams Thompson, Coons had very little education, and couldn’t even read until after he became a Christian. However, he was said to be a quick learner with an inquiring mind and a strong memory.

Coons spent most of his adult life pastoring churches, either as an itinerant with a large circuit of churches, or as what they called a “stationed” pastor, serving a congregation in one location. Although he was said to have “delicate” health, virility didn’t seem to be an issue. He had eight children by his first wife, whom he married in 1821 and who passed away in 1840. He then married a widow, and by her had seven more children.

Coons was described as about six feet tall, a neat dresser, a commanding but not particularly great preacher, tender-hearted, polite, dignified, and beyond reproach. “Not a single charge of guilt against his Christian life is recorded to blot his memory,” wrote Thompson.

Thompson described Coons as “free from any disposition to succeed if it brought injustice to others, and never uttering a word intentionally to injure the Christian life or character of any. He seemingly guarded with as much care the good name of his brethren as he did his own.”

Coons didn’t leave any particular mark on the church, but was one of those ministers–of whom there were many throughout our history–who served long, served faithfully, served capably, and influenced the spiritual lives of hundreds of people.

07 Aug On This Day in UB History: August 7 (Pauline O’Sullivan)

On August 7, 1964, Pauline O’Sullivan began a three-year term serving as a missionary in Sierra Leone. She was probably the first missionary to come from one of our mission fields–in her case, Jamaica. Her uncle, Rev. James O’Sullivan, a Jamaican, founded the UB mission work in Jamaica.

Pauline graduated from Huntington College in 1962, and became the first United Brethren missionary assigned to the teaching staff at the Kabala Rupp school for missionary children. The Missionary Church founded the school in 1956, but the United Brethren church and several other mission organizations became joint sponsors.

The first UB students were Ron Baker and David and Steve Burkett, all of whom became students in 1956. During Pauline O’Sullivan’s tenure, UB students included Doug and Darlene Cox, Annette and Joyce Baker, Sharon Birdsall, and others.

06 Aug On This Day in UB History: August 6 (Vicki Snider)

In 1988, Stan and Vicki Snider were UB missionaries living in Mattru, Sierra Leone. On July 6, they rejoiced as Vicki gave birth to a baby girl, Cathryn. But during the week of August 1, Vicki fell ill with fever. The hospital staff kept a very close watch on her. Then, on August 6, Vicki suddenly slipped into a coma.

The next day, a Sunday, Vicki was transported to Freetown, and on Monday a chartered Lear Jet air ambulance flew her to the Netherlands, where she was admitted to the respected Harbour Hospital and Institute for Tropical Medicine in Rotterdam. Just eleven weeks before, UB missionary Patti Stone had died there. Now, the same medical staff who treated Patti now cared for Vicki.

The initial diagnosis was Fulminant Hepatitis A, the same illness that killed Patti. Vicki’s liver was not functioning properly, and doctors feared she wouldn’t survive.

Meanwhile, Christians across the US and Canada prayed for Vicki. Within a few days, reports came of slight improvement. By Tuesday, August 16, Vicki had been moved out of the Intensive Care Unit to her own private room. It was mostly uphill from there. Stan, Vicki, and newborn Cathryn spent five weeks in Rotterdam. On September 11, 1988, they flew back to their home in Toronto.

Stan returned to Sierra Leone in November 1988 to assist with some mechanical problems and stayed for six weeks. The entire family returned to Sierra Leone on March 21, 1989.

Bishop Jerry Datema reported that during the 1989-1993 quadrennium, UB people gave $150,00 to help pay the medical and emergency evacuation costs for Patti Stone and Vicki Snider.