The two-year anniversary of Living Stone Church is this month. It's incredible to see how many people God has gathered into the congregation and the ways people are growing spiritually. All of our services are bilingual, which has its challenges, but I sometimes wonder if a "monolingual" worship service would seem boring to me now!

One disappointment this year was that, after several years of struggles and evaluation, the decision was made to close Living Word Church. Church planting always involves some risk, but it’s painful to have something close that you’ve invested in. It’s been a lesson in trusting God to continue working in the lives of many children and teens who were touched through our ministry there for many years.

At the same time, we’ve seen the Macau United Brethren Association mature and reach a point where they don’t need as much missionary involvement. For me, this is an exciting time of seeing many of our original dreams for Macau accomplished. This reality also started challenging me to think a few years ago about what will be next for me.
Through a series of events and conversations, God began moving my heart toward teaching in mainland China. I was involved in teaching across the border for my first eight or so years in Macau. Eventually, we didn’t have enough staff to continue, so we stopped. However, I’ve kept in relationship with several of the teachers and administrators we worked with and have felt drawn back to working with them.

Our Macau team held vision-casting meetings in January, and the vision God brought us includes working with teachers across the border. I’ll continue my focus in Macau until my next furlough, and upon my return will switch my focus to teaching in China. I’m very excited about what God’s accomplished in Macau and what He has for me in the future.

Many...actually, most...of the details still need to be worked out over the next year or so of transition for our team to new roles, but for me it’s a fun time of moving from one ministry I love to another opportunity I love. In the meantime, I’m working on learning Mandarin and looking forward to participating in a teacher training camp in Zhuhai this July.

Are you a Facebook member? If so, you might be interested in joining one of the Facebook groups related to Huntington University. Just log-in and do a search for one of these group names. You might even be able to connect with some long-lost friends and classmates.

• Huntington University Supporters. Currently has 247 members.
• Huntington College Alumni. Has 178 members.
• Huntington University Supporters. Has 103 members.

Darrel Bosworth (right, with his wife, Barbara), senior pastor of Kilpatrick UB church (Woodland, Mich.), was ordained on February 10 by Bishop Ron Ramsey at the church.

Here are some recent news items from Coleta UB in Coleta, Ill.

• In early December, 24 youth and adults attended a Casting Crowns concert. Amazingly, though the tickets were purchased by three different people, each buying eight tickets, everyone got to sit together.
• The church adopted a family through the county health department to bless for Christmas. they sent clothes, toys, food, and cash. Upon delivering the gifts, they learned that the family was in the midst of a tragedy, with the mother dying just days before Christmas.
• The December 23 service was an "open mic" time, with several persons sharing poems, songs, stories, and scripture.
• The church members are reading Change Your Church for Good, by Brad Powell, whom several members heard speak in May 2007 at the US National Conference.

Robert Schubert retired as pastor of Center Hill UB (Mount Carroll, Ill.) at the end of December 2007. Floyd West has been appointed as interim pastor for January through April 2008.

Peggy Richardson, whose husband John Richardson pastored UB churches for many years, has passed away. The funeral will be Monday, February 11, in Van Wert, Ohio. Cowans Funeral Home in Van Wert is in charge of the arrangements.

Thomas Thelen resigned as youth pastor of Kilpatrick UB (Woodland, Mich.), effective January 31, 2008.

James Nixon resigned as youth pastor of Element Church (Blissfield, Mich.), effective January 31, 2008.

The UB church in Milltown, South Dakota, has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The church received the designation last summer through the efforts of several board members.

The National Register is designed "to recognize properties which contribute to the prehistoric and historic development of our localities, states, and nation."

"We are the only church left in the area," says Darlene Juhnke, a member of the church, "and the only United Brethren in Christ Church in South Dakota."

Another board member is Theresa Schutt, whose great-great-grandfather, Asa Brink, pastored the church in the 1880s. The congregation actually began in 1878, and the white frame building was erected in 1880. Milltown UB was among the churches which stuck with Bishop Milton Wright when our group split off from the main body of the United Brethren denomination.

From 1977-1999, the church was served by student pastors from North American Baptist Seminary in Sioux Falls, S. D. From 1999-2006, a minister from a Baptist church in Parkston also filled the Milltown pulpit. Since 2006, the small congregation has not had anyone to conduct services, and the members have been scattered among other area churches.

Milltown was a stagecoach route until 1865, and was a bustling small town. But now, the population is less than 10. The nearest town is Parkston, with 1700 residents.

Huntington University's new student residence (right) will bear a name from the past: Livingston Hall. The Board of Trustees agreed on that name during their January 26 meeting.

The original Livingston Hall developed from a home built in 1897 by President Charles H. Kiracofe and later sold to theology professor Samuel L. Livingston. The house was converted to a women's residence in 1918 and later underwent two significant expansions and renovations. After additional student residences were built in the 1980s, Livingston Hall was converted to faculty offices.

The building was demolished in 1988 to make room for RichLyn Library. The new Livingston Hall iwll house 150 undergraduates, and is scheduled for occupancy next fall.