wfn.org | Newsline - Church of the Brethren news update

[COBNews@aol.com]

Date: Aug. 31, 2001
Contact: Walt Wiltschek
V: 847/742-5100 F: 847/742-6103
E-MAIL: CoBNews@AOL.Com

NEWS
 1) Dominican Republic volunteers near one year of service.
 2) Buzz of activity begins for Decade to Overcome Violence
 3) Another Nigerian leader comes to study at Bethany.
 4) Global Food Crisis Fund sends $90,000 to Africa.
 5) BVS Unit 244, 245 volunteers head to project assignments.
 6) Workcamp season concludes after a far-ranging summer.
 7) Youth Spiritual Growth Camp takes place at Camp Mack.
 8) Brethren presence back on National Farm Workers Ministry board.
 9) New Church of the Brethren Haitian project is born in Orlando. 

****************************************************************

 1) Nearly a year has passed since a team of English teachers
working through Brethren Revival Fellowship/Brethren Volunteer
Service arrived in the Dominican Republic. Sept. 14 will officially
mark the first anniversary of the Brethren Mission House project.

The four teachers--Denise Negley, Kenda Negley, Jewel Sheeler, and
Daniel Greenawalt, under the supervision of teacher coordinator
Sally Jo Caracheo--travel through the Church of the Brethren
conference to 16 of the congregations, offering English language
classes each week. The volunteers travel up to five hours one way
to reach their furthest destinations.

At the one-year evaluation, Caracheo said "The students in the
classes were overwhelmingly positive regarding the classes, their
teachers, and the progress they were making in learning English.
The pastors all wanted the classes to continue in their churches
and felt that the classes and the American teachers were providing
positive benefits to their church, including international
friendships and making their churches more known in the local
community."

Caracheo also surveyed responses from the National Board of the
Dominican churches, which also saw great benefits coming from the
program and expressed the desire to have the project continue for
at least the next five or six years.

Greenawalt, meanwhile, notes that his Dominican friendships are
having a great impact on his life. "For example, something I note
in most of them is a bright and cheerful attitude toward life,
despite the humbling conditions under which they live," he says. "I
am often invited to visit and fellowship with them and feel very
welcome and accepted in their presence. I am understanding better
than ever the saying, `It's not what you have in your life that
matters, but who you have in your life.` "

Providing a stable home base for the five volunteers in the city of
Azua are houseparents Earl and Barb Eby and their sons, Chris and
Bryan. 

"It has been a great joy to see this capable group of mission
volunteers interacting with the Dominican Brethren this past year,"
says Becky Crouse, who serves as the General Board's mission
co-coordinator in the Dominican Republic along with her husband,
Jerry. "God has truly blessed us through this mission effort by
building the church as we share the journey of life and faith
together."

(Caracheo will be concluding her year of service as teacher
coordinator Sept. 30 and be returning to the United States. Anyone
interested in the teacher coordinator position is asked to contact
the BVS office at 800-323-8039.)

 2) Events related to the Church of the Brethren's involvement in
the Decade to Overcome Violence are moving forward.

Brethren delegates voted to join the emphasis at the 2000 Annual
Conference, and the Decade was officially "launched" within the
denomination at this year's Conference in Baltimore. Now, a meeting
of contact people representing each of the denomination's 23
districts, called "DOV 23," will take place Nov. 30-Dec. 1 at the
New Windsor (Md.) Conference Center. Many in the group held an
initial gathering at Annual Conference last month.

In addition, a section on the Decade to Overcome Violence was added
to the denomination's www.brethren.org website this week, at
www.brethren.org/dov/. Brethren Volunteer Service worker Laura
Kreider, serving as program specialist for the Decade in the Church
of the Brethren Washington Office, developed the new pages.

Efforts are also under way to encourage congregational commitment
to the Decade; a resource packet for participating congregations is
being prepared for this fall.

The Decade is a worldwide Christian initiative that came out of the
World Council of Churches, calling for a focus on peacemaking to
begin the 21st century. The General Board has offered to jointly
host, with the US office of the World Council of Churches, an
idea-sharing gathering for denominational peace staff at the Church
of the Brethren General Offices in Elgin, Ill. The General Board's
Brethren Witness office and On Earth Peace are coordinating the
denomination's involvement in the Decade.

Brethren Witness also debuted a web page on conscientious objection
this week, at www.brethren.org/genbd/witness/CO.htm.

 3) Just months after Patrick Bugu's graduation from Bethany
Theological Seminary in Richmond, Ind., another Nigerian church
leader has arrived in the US to begin studies there.

The Rev. Mbode Ndirmbita, part of the Ekklesiyar Yan'uwa a Nigeria
(Church of the Brethren in Nigeria), landed in the US Aug. 23. He
spent a few days of briefing and adjustment in Elgin, Ill., before
traveling to the seminary. Merv Keeney, director of the General
Board's Global Mission Partnerships office, says that Mbode enjoyed
his first hamburger and first football game during these initial
days in America.  

Mbode's presence comes as part of a continuing cooperative effort
between Global Mission Partnerships and Bethany to bring Nigerian
church leaders for training in the US. Mbode has served as a
pastor, teacher at Kulp Bible College, and administrative secretary
at the EYN church headquarters. He has also served as the Nigerian
coordinator--working with US coordinator Jeff Mummau--for the
annual Nigeria workcamps.

 
 4) Two major grants from the General Board's Global Food Crisis
Fund are sending a combined $90,000 to needs in Africa.

The first grant, for $40,000, will support a Sudan Council of
Churches appeal that comes in response to the food crisis in
western Sudan. The funds will assist some of the 3 million people
affected by drought and war.

The second allocation will send $50,000 toward a Church World
Service project in the west African nation of Gambia. The funds
will help facilitate the planting and use of moringa trees, whose
nutritious vegetation can be used to combat childhood malnutrition.
Other parts of the tree are useful in traditional medicines, rope
making, tanning hides, and plant disease prevention. The funds will
be sent in two installments. 

Twelve grants have now been made from the Global Food Crisis Fund
this year. 

 5) Brethren Volunteer Service/Brethren Revival Fellowship (BRF)
Unit 245 took place Aug. 19-29 at Roxbury Holiness Camp in Roxbury,
Pa. Five volunteers attended, including four members of the Church
of the Brethren: Jesse and Martha Copenhaver of the White Oak
congregation, Manheim, Pa.; Valerie Nell of the Upper Conewago
congregation, East Berlin, Pa.; and Tawnya Rotz of the Upton (Pa.)
Church of the Brethren. Also participating for a second year of
service is Pertrevian Toledo of Cuba, N.M., from the Dunkard
Brethren Church.

The orientation was led by Lowell and Clara Witmer of Greencastle,
Pa. Guest leadership was provided by Harold Martin on "Brethren
History"; Kenneth Leininger on "The Role of a Servant and
Evangelism"; Samuel Cassel on "Peace and Nonresistance"; Ken Nell
on "Communication and Relationships"; and James Myer on "BRF Goals
and Values and Personal Theology." The volunteers also participated
in work days with Christian Aid Ministries and at the Water Street
Mission.

All five volunteers will complete their year of service in
Lewiston, Maine. Nell will assist with a Christian home school
program; Rotz and Toledo will serve full-time at Good Shepherd Food
Bank; and the Copenhavers will serve as house parents with
part-time work at the food bank.

Assignments have also been finalized for the large Unit 244 that
held orientation at the New Windsor (Md.) Conference Center in
July. They are as follows:

Nebi Knieper, Interfaith Conference of Metro Washington (D.C.);
Janosch Lumme, San Antonio (Texas) Catholic Worker House; Eli
Bainbridge, Gould Farm, Monterrey, Mass.; Scott McDearmon, Bread
and Roses, Olympia, Wash.; John Adams, Mediation Network of
Northern Ireland, Belfast; Genelle Wine, Casa de Esperanza de los
Ninos, Houston; Steve Dodge, Kana Soup Kitchen, Dortmund, Germany;
Rachel Flores, Casa de Esperanza de los Ninos, Houston; David
Young, National Youth Conference coordinator, Elgin, Ill.; Martin
Salzer, Brethren Woods, Keezletown, Va.; Alexis Nano, Bering Omega
Community Services, Houston.

Angie Stene, Church of the Brethren Washington (D.C.) Office; Zeke
Miranda, ASONOG, Honduras; Meagan Harlow, Mechanic Grove Group Day
Care Center, Quarryville, Pa.; Jeff McAvoy, Trees for Life,
Wichita, Kan.; Lew Longenecker, Interfaith Conference of
Metropolitan Washington (D.C.); Julia Hapke, Bread and Roses,
Olympia, Wash.; Nicole Oetama, San Antonio (Texas) Catholic Worker
House; Becky Ullom, National Youth Conference coordinator, Elgin,
Ill.; Anna Kallenberger, Tri-City Homeless Coalition, Fremont,
Calif.; Diemut Hoersch, San Antonio (Texas) Catholic Worker House;
Laura Kreider, Decade to Overcome Violence/Church of the Brethren
Washington (D.C.) Office; Tina Alwine, Friendship Day Care,
Hutchinson, Kan.

 6) More than 500 youth and advisors from coast to coast
participated in 19 workcamps offered by the General Board's
Youth/Young Adult office in 12 states and five countries this
summer.

Senior high youth traveled as far west as Oregon and as far south
as Mexico and the Carribean as they walked "the road less
traveled," this year's workcamp theme.

A wide variety of experiences were available to workcamp
participants. Young adults in the Taize workcamp spent a week
living alongside monks in the French countryside and worshiping
with fellow Christians from across Europe and around the world. At
Camp Myrtlewood in Oregon, senior high youth worked in stream beds
to replace vegetation and curb erosion.

Youth in the Pine Ridge workcamp learned about Native American
culture while doing home improvements on a reservation. Workcampers
explored urban issues of poverty and homelessness in Chicago;
Washington D.C.; Harrisburg, Pa.; Indianapolis; and Baltimore,
while workcamps in Mendenhall, Miss.; Americus Ga.; Keyser W.Va.;
and Crossnore, N.C., provided a perspective on rural life. Those in
St. Croix, US Virgin Islands; Puerto Rico; Renosa, Mexico; and the
Dominican Republic gave participants a chance for cross-cultural
interactions.  

Due to National Youth Conference, next summer will have an
abbreviated workcamp schedule. Dates and locations will be
available this fall at the workcamps web page,
www.brethren.org/genbd/yya/workcamps, and through information sent
to congregations.

 7) Fifteen people gathered at Camp Mack in Milford, Ind., July
29-Aug. 3 for this year's Youth Spiritual Growth Camp. Paul Grout,
Rex Miller, Chris Douglas, and Joseph Helfrich gave leadership
throughout the week as youth explored deepening their relationship
with God.

The week was structured to include time for physical exercise
beginning at 6 a.m., prayers of thanksgiving, and sessions on
topics such as "Life in Jesus," and "Being Alive."  Each day
included time for solitude, prayer, and journaling in the woods, as
well as singing and worshiping together. One morning was spent at
the Quiet Place, walking the labrinyth and praying. A campfire and
talent night, water balloons, and free time rounded out the week.

Whether building prayer benches for kneeling, spending time in
solitude in the woods, or singing jubilantly together, youth
expressed their yearning for "another way of living."

 8) Dorinda Heilman of Walbridge, Ohio, has begun serving as Church
of the Brethren representative on the board of the National Farm
Workers Ministry (NFWM). NFWM is an ecumenical organization that
advocates for the cause of low-wage farm workers across the nation.

While the denomination has a long history of involvement with NFWM,
there has not been a Church of the Brethren representative on its
board for several years.

"The board was so delighted to have a member of our denomination
represented once again," Heilman says. "The sense of connection
with them, and their desire to re-establish our relationship almost
overwhelmed me."

Heilman attended her first meeting with the board in June. Her
appointment is made through the General Board's Brethren Witness
office.

 9) On Sunday, Aug. 26, the Orlando (Fla.) Haitian Project was
officially born. A dedication celebration for their new meeting
place was held at the Sadler Elementary School on West Oak Ridge
Road in Orlando.

About 150 people were present for the worship service, including a
large contingent from the Miami Haitian Church of the Brethren,
district executive minister Martha Beach and other district
visitors, General Board representative Merle Crouse, and Carol
Yeazell of the General Board's Area 3 Congregational Life Team.
Nine new family groups were also present.

The previous day, five men in their 20s and 30s had been baptized
at the Camp Ithiel pool in nearby Gotha. Thus, when all the members
of the Orlando group stood up on Sunday morning, they totaled 21.
Three people made commitments to Jesus Christ during the service,
and an infant daughter was dedicated.

An abundance of music, scripture, sharing by guests, and preaching
quickly filled up three hours. At the close of worship, all joined
in a Creole meal.

The project's leadership is made up of several families who
migrated to Orlando from Miami, where they were involved with the
Miami Haitian church. They began a monthly Bible study under the
guidance of Miami pastor Ludovic St. Fleur, who drove the
eight-hour round trip.

 11) Brethren bits: Other brief news notes from around the
denomination and elsewhere.

 

Newsline is produced by Walt Wiltschek, manager of news services
for the Church of the Brethren General Board, on the first, third,
and fifth Friday of each month. Newsline stories may be reprinted
provided that Newsline is cited as the source. Becky Baile Crouse,
Sue Grubb, Carol Yeazell, and David Radcliff contributed to this
report.

To receive Newsline by e-mail or fax, call 800 323-8039, ext. 263,
or write CoBNews@AOL.Com. Newsline is available at www.brethren.org
and is archived with an index at http://www.wfn.org. Also see Photo
Journal at www.brethren.org/pjournal/index.htm for photo coverage
of recent events.