Jay Michaud of Pleasant Valley UB (Lake Odessa, Mich.) sent this item: "It may be of interest to some in the United Brethren church, and the former Michigan Conference in particular, that Betty Neeb of Clarksville, Mich., passed away on Monday, March 24. She was the wife of the late UB minister Max Ovenshire of Michigan Conference, and she was a member of Pleasant Valley UB church. Her funeral is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, March 27, at Pleasant Valley, 9975 Thompson Rd., Lake Odessa, Mich. 48849 (corner of M-50 and Bell Road). You may want to contact the church for more details and an obituary: (616) 693-2265."

L-r: The Bible quiz teams from Blue Rock UB (Waynesboro, Pa.), and Fountain UB (Keyser, W. Va.).

L-r: The Bible quiz teams from Salem UB and Mount Pleasant UB, both in Chambersburg, Pa.

You don't hear much about Bible quizzing anymore, but it's still going on. Every year, church teams in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia compete.

Here are photos of the four senior teams competing this year in the former Mid-Atlantic Conference. The team from Fountain UB won the January quiz, and Salem won in February.

David Dickson has been hired as Youth Pastor at Colwood UB (Caro, Mich.).

The ordinations of Courtney Morgan (left, kneeling) and Addasa Morgan (far right). Bishop Ron Ramsey (second from left in the left-hand photo) participated in both ordinations.

Jamaica National Conference held its annual meeting over the past weekend. Bishop Ron Ramsay preached on Sunday morning, and over 75 persons responded to the call to offer themselves to evangelize. Former Jamaica superintendent Rev. Lloyd Spencer preached in the Sunday evening service, challenging people to give toward the support of church extension.

Other highlights of the conference included:

• Bishop Winston Smith was re-elected as Bishop for another four years.
• Pastor Barrington Johnson, a young pastor coming out of the Saint Johns Road church, was received into the conference.
• Two persons were ordained: Courtney Morgan and Addasa Morgan (no relationship). Courtney, a graduate of Jamaica Bible College, came out of the ministry of the Washington Gardens UB church. Addasa Morgan is the first female to be ordained in Jamaica Conference. She is from the York Town UB church.
• Rev. Isaac Nugent, Rev. Lebert Thompson, and Rev. Owen Gordon were elected as superintendents.
• Twenty-two pastors were stationed among the 29 churches and preaching points, with several laypersons commissioned as workers in church extension.

Rev. Owen Gordon, president of Jamaica Bible College, writes, "It was a great Conference with some 2000 people attending the Sunday worship."

Roger and Marilyn Reeck, UB endorsed missionaries serving with Wycliffe in Honduras, sent an email report on February 25. It included these tidbits:

• In January a construction group from Minnesota arrived. They put roofs on houses for two pastors and helped their daughter, Chrysti, and her husband, Rigo, add a large porch to their house to be used for Bible studies.
• Marilyn and office helper Alina are finishing a video for a presentation that they will make at a conference in Bogota, Colombia, March 2-7. The main Garifuna leader, Bernardiino Amaya, will also attend. This conference is Wycliffe’s first Latin American Scripture Use Conference. "We feel honored to be attending," they write. "We know that we will learn so much from all the talks and from others who doing the same job that we are doing."
• Roger and Marilyn have been invited to a missions conference at a church in Pennsylvania March 5-9. They will return to Honduras the end of March.
• They leave for Africa May 15--August 15.
• Roger will teach in Brazil during the month of October.

Anna Geivett, a UB endorsed missionary serving with Food for the Hungry in Peru, learned on Tuesday, March 4, that her father had passed away. She wrote on March 5:

"Yesterday I began my flight back to Lima, just to catch a return flight to Indiana that afternoon. In the midst of my travels, my sister called to let me know that my dad passed away yesterday morning. Today I will be traveling from Indiana to Michigan where we will have his funeral. All of this has come so suddenly and I feel less than prepared to handle this but then again, who is ever prepared for such an occurrence?

"Please be praying for my family and I as we make the arrangements and work through this painful time. I am so grateful to God for His perfect timing and for allowing me to be here with my family. I don't know when I'll be returning to Peru, but probably sometime next week."

Donelle Raab was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor on her spinal column in early January, and began radiation treatments. Yesterday, March 5, she underwent thyroid surgery. Her husband, Dick, sent this report:

"The doctor said that it would take 2.5-3 hours, but at the end of the 2.5 hours, a nurse came out to tell me it was more involved than what he had thought. At the end of four hours, he was done and came out to talk to me. He said that the tumor was attached in a different way and that it also was around the right nerve to the voice box. He said that he had to work around that situation and so it took longer to do the surgery. When finished, he tested both of the nerves to the voice box and they both responded well. Praise the Lord! She will probably be in the Hospital (Butterworth) until Friday and will then come home to recoup."

Dick is battling cancer, too. He went for a CT of his lungs yesterday. “The doctor said that if the cancer in my left thigh (sarcoma) had spread, it would first go to the lungs. I am praying that they will be okay. Surgery is scheduled for March 21. He will take the tumor, some of the muscle, and some lymph nodes. I will probably need radiation plus physical therapy before I am up and running again. Then May 2 has been set for the surgery on my neck to take care of the pinched nerve.

"I will be so glad to have these surgeries and then hopefully begin to feel better by not having the pain and numbness that has been a part of everyday since December 11.”

Dick and Donnelle served 42 years in the pastoral ministry, retiring in January 2007 from their last pastorate, Richfield Road UB church in Flint, Mich. Donelle holds a Specialized Ministries license, and until the end of 2007 was a member of the denominational Women's Ministry Team. They now live in at 1914 Jack Pine Court, Dorr, MI 49323.

Mary Diamond, the wife of former UB minister Elmer Diamond, passed away February 23.

Ted Doolittle was named senior pastor of Calvary Community UB church in Bridgeport, Mich., effective February 24. He previously pastored the Oak Harbor and Findlay First UB churches in Ohio. Most recently, he has been associate pastor of Zion UB in Wayne, Ohio.