Jacob Stover, a long-time minister in Pennsylvania and Mid-Atlantic conferences, passed away Thursday morning, February 24, at 11:15 a.m. There will be no public viewing and service. Instead, the family has chosen to have only a private memorial service. However, this service is open to Rev. Stover's ministerial colleagues.

On March 31, five persons will travel to Cuiaba, Brazil, to assist endorsed UB missionaries Wes and Jean Bell (right) with a Spiritual Emphasis Retreat for students at the mission school where the Bells serve. Donna and Jason Hollopeter, Isa Rivera, Diane Sayles, and Nancy Shearer will help teach and mentor students of all age groups. The group will spend time not only with the Bells, but with fellow Wycliffe missionaries Dave and Becky Spencer, and will discuss ways future ministry groups could assist these missionaries.

Dan Wust, endorsed missionary with the UB church, worked in partnership with Global Ministries in December 2005 doing leadership training with Nicaraguan pastors and lay leaders. He taught inductive Bible study, and its application to preaching and teaching.

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. Read more.

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.

Roger and Marilyn Reeck are UB partial support missionaries serving with Wycliffe in La Ceiba, Honduras. On February 7, Roger left for Guinea Bissau, a small West African nation, where he will spend the next five weeks teaching translation principles to national translators. He will teach in Portuguese, a language he has been working hard at mastering. He has been watching Portuguese movies, listening to Portuguese radio, and reading the Portuguese Bible for several hours a day. He taught in Brazi last year using the Portuguese language, but the Portuguese spoken in Guinea Bissau is slightly different from what is spoken in Brazil.

David and Melissa Kline are UB missionaries in Macau. Melissa sent this report dated January 17.

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.

Continue reading "Macau Update from David and Melissa Kline" »

Carlson and Naomi Becker, UB missionaries in Macau, sent the following as part of their January update letter.

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.

On Christmas Eve, this girl invited her father to go to an Evangelical Outreach Program with her, and because of the change he had seen in her, he went. They gave an altar call and the father went foreword to accept Christ. We were so thrilled that we practically walked on air after hearing the news. We were blessed to be a minute part of it and to see the joy in the young girl's face.

Continue reading "Macau News from the Beckers" »

Gethsemane UB church in Jackson, Mich., has changed its name. The church is now called Pathway Community Church.

Several new internet-related features are available for the United Brethren Church.

• Bishop Ron Ramsey now has his own blog. It's called, appropriated, The bishopBlog. He'll use it to post whatever is on his mind--tidbits of vision, instruction, experience, and admonition for the United Brethren constituency. Check in often. You're free to leave comments with the individual postings. (All comments are moderated, which means they won't appear until approved by a moderator.)
• The cluster leaders have been appointed, and they came from across the country for their first training session January 25-26. They'll be interacting with each other on their own blog, called ClusterCoach, sharing ideas, updates, etc. You are free to eavesdrop on their discussions, and you can even leave comments (again, all comments are moderated).
• A new online calendar of UB Events is now available. It lists the dates of denominational meetings, missions trips, seminars, and more. If you are a Mac user and have iCal, you can subscribe to the calendar.

Jana Hoobler has been in the States on furlough from Macau since August 2005. She tells about finishing her Master's degree this December, her parents' 50th anniversary, and things she has noticed different about the United States since her last furlough. She is now preparing to return to Macau.

Continue reading "Update from Jana Hoobler" »

Lester Smith, pastor of the Hillsdale UB church (Hillsdale, Mich)., reports, "We have hired a modern-day Aquila and Priscilla team: Phill (yes, he spells it with two l's) and Michele (hers is one l) Vigil. Both are preacher's kids and have degrees with experience in various forms of ministry. They applied for our one fulltime position in youth and worship as a couple.

"Although our church has hired husband and wife teams before, such as Scott and Tanya Hardaway, as well a my wife (executive secretary) and I, it has never been for the same position. The Vigils will work in the area of both youth and music. In their last church in California, one had the title of Youth and Music Minister and the other was Music and Youth Minister."

Traci Slager, director of Anchor Community Church's Life Unlimited Youth Center (Fort Wayne, Ind.), is the mother of a baby boy. Nathanael was born Saturday morning, January 28, to she and Rob. The baby had some initial health problems which required a stay in ICU. However, Nathanael was able to come home from the hospital February 1.