BMH Editor's Blog

Isaac Eye Surgery Complete; Awaiting Biopsy Results

Posted by Terry White on November 29, 2008  |  No Comments

Many have been praying for the eye surgery of five-year-old Isaac Ogden. Here is a post-surgery update from the blog of Isaac’s mom, Sarah Weekley Ogden:

We are back from Cincinnati. Isaac’s surgery went well. The surgery was on Tuesday morning and we left the hospital on Wednesday afternoon. The doctors said everything went really well but the recovery has been kind of slow.

We are still going to have to wait on the biopsy results which could take up to two weeks. We are really praying that it will not be cancer; the doctor said that he thinks that it might not be, but he’s not sure exactly what was wrong with the eye.

Right now Isaac has a gauze patch over his eye and it looks like someone punched him, it’s all black and blue. We are supposed to change the patch twice a day and it’s been horrible, but today Isaac and Josh did it all by themselves.

Isaac has been on Tylenol every four hours since the surgery but today he has not had any and he seems to be doing really great. Our doctor said that it should be getting better and today was really good. We are going to see Dr. Grossnickle here in town [Warsaw, IN] on Monday and then we will have to go back to Cincy in January to get the glass eye fitted.

Once again I have to say that Isaac is the most amazing child. He has been so brave through all of this. He went through so much and he never even asked us why all of this was happening to him, he just seemed to accept it and was so brave about it all.

Please keep us in your prayers. The next month is still going to be really hard and we still have to find out about the biopsy. We are so thankful for everyone that has called and sent e-mails and letters. We are thankful that our little family is together and we have grown so close to each other through all of this.

Isaac is our hero and our families and friends are our support team. Thanks again for praying for us we appreciate it so much. God bless.

A Perfect View of the Sebring Christmas Parade

Posted by Terry White on November 28, 2008  |  No Comments

From the online version of Tampa Tribune:

Leslie Brewer, of Sebring, watches the annual Christmas Parade from the Grace Brethren Church room above the Sebring Circle.(Kathy Waters/Highlands Today file photo). The downtown building, which is several miles from the church’s main campus, is used for housing and as an educational base for the Great Commission Bible Institute which the church sponsors. Dr. Randy Smith is pastor of the Sebring, Florida, church.

Billy Sunday Home, Museum Future in Question

Posted by Terry White on November 27, 2008  |  1 Comment

From today’s Warsaw (IN) Times-Union:

Winona Discusses Billy Sunday Visitors’ Center, Museum

Jennifer Peryam
Times-Union Staff Writer

WINONA LAKE – Winona Lake Town Council Tuesday heard the Billy Sunday Visitors’ Center and Museum may close due to deficits.

The council Tuesday approved a proposal that the town, in cooperation with Grace College and the Village at Winona and other potential individuals and entities, investigate transitioning the Billy Sunday Home and Museum into a visitors’ center.

Winona Lake Clerk-Treasurer Retha Hicks said the Village at Winona will be suspending operations of the facility Dec. 31 unless a break-even financial structure can be achieved.

Hicks said current deficits of the center are $60,000 per year and income is approximately $10,000 per year, while expenses of labor, utilities, repair and maintenance and cost of goods is approximately $70,000 per year.

The proposal would seek to have Winona Lake, Grace schools and the Village at Winona combine financial resources and employ Museumcroft as an independent contractor to manage the Billy Sunday facility as well as the Museum of Winona History in the Westminster.

The facility would serve as the gateway to Winona Lake and would be responsible for all visitor interaction.

Bill Firstenberger, current curator of the museum, is the owner of Museumcroft.

As a centralized dispenser of information, the facility would maintain a calendar of all events happening in Winona Lake and would be able to direct the visitor to the appropriate place.

This would include, but not be limited to, summer park events, classes and facilities, town events, services, college events, village events, local school and church events and maintenance projects inside the town.

Brent Wilcoxson, managing director for the Village at Winona, said the center has 7,000 to 8,000 visitors a year and local elementary school students visit the center. He said bus loads of people from Chicago also visit the center.

“The museum has limited marketing ability, but the Billy Sunday home is in the top 1 percent of art and craft bungalows in the United States,” Wilcoxson said.

Built in 1911, the Billy Sunday Home was restored according to Interior Department guidelines in 2000.

The visitor’s center contains two offices of approximately 200 square feet each, a 20-seat video viewing room, women’s and men’s restrooms with 13 total fixtures and mechanical space. The remainder of the structure is dedicated to exhibit space related to Billy Sunday and his work.

The buildings and grounds are owned by Grace. Currently, the Village at Winona provides all repairs and maintenance for the facilities including lawn/landscaping and snow plowing. The Village at Winona operates the facility.

“I think we are sorely lacking a visitors center. I can see it being a gateway, but I am a details person and I want numbers and to be able to put things together and I don’t have enough information yet,” said council member Sue Gooding.

She said she would like to see meetings between the town and the college to discuss the proposal.

Gooding suggested there be a time extension to coordinate meetings between the town and Grace College to discuss the issue.

Town Council member Jim Lancaster said there could be fundraising opportunities to keep the center open.

“There are a lot of opportunities, but we need to have a good, solid plan,” Gooding said.

Councilman Terry Howie agreed there is a need for for the visitors’ center.

“I agree we need a visitors center, our budgets are set for next year, and we will have to look to see where we can find money and whether we can legally do what the proposal might be,” said Howie.

Hicks said the funds would come out of the cash balance and the funds are there to help alleviate the deficit.

Cedar Rapids Celebrates 60 Years This Sunday

Posted by Terry White on November 27, 2008  |  No Comments

The Grace Brethren church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (Gary Austin, pastor)is celebrating
60 years of ministry this coming Sunday, November 30, 2008! Special guest is former pastor Gary Kochheiser. He will be sharing his experiences in the Holy Land during Sunday School and then preaching during the morning service. The theme for the day is Give Thanks to the Lord!

Greetings will be read during the morning worship service, and after the morning service, there will be a “light lunch.” After that, there will be a time for reading of greetings, showing of pictures (a presentation that Steve Ciha has put together), and eating dessert. Arnold Kriegbaum was the founding pastor of the Cedar Rapids church.

Deadline Approaches, More than $138,000 Raised

Posted by Liz Cutler Gates on November 25, 2008  |  No Comments

News Update – Je’Rod Cherry will be interviewed on the Jim Rome Show around 1:30 p.m. (EST) today (November 25). It can be heard in the Cleveland area on WKNR, 850AM, but can be heard around the country on a variety of stations or online at http://www.jimrome.com/home.html.

More than $138,000 has been raised for needy children around the world as the days wind down to the deadline to participate in the raffle to win Je’Rod Cherry’s Super Bowl ring. (Deadline to enter at http://www.netraffle.org/ is 9 a.m., Thursday, November 27.) Je’Rod was moved to give up the ring, which was won in the New England Patriot’s win over St. Louis in Super Bowl XXXVI, following a presentation last July at Momentum East, the annual Grace Brethren youth conference. Among the organizations that will benefit are Asia’s Hope and Feed My Starving Children along with charities in the Boston and Cleveland areas. (At right are Je’Rod and his wife, Samua, who are members of Grace Church, a Grace Brethren church in Macedonia, Ohio, Jason Haymaker, pastor.)

Below is a story that appeared yesterday (November 24) on the NFL website. More stories about the effort can be found at http://fgbcworld.com/.

For this former Patriot, charity has a (very) nice ring to it

Je’Rod Cherry sat through the slide show transfixed by the haunting images on the screen.

One by one, the eyes of so much pain and sorrow from a world away seemed to peer right into his very soul. Through photographs and narration, he took in horrifying stories of a little boy, on his deathbed, with a vulture literally circling in the background; of families trying to survive on two dollars per month; of children forced into sexual slavery.

He knew he had to do something. The problem was abject poverty in places like Africa, Cambodia, and Thailand. The obvious solution was money.

Cherry’s first instinct: write a check.

Then another idea came along.

To read the rest of the story, click here.

Isaac Ogden Eye Surgery Tomorrow

Posted by Terry White on November 24, 2008  |  No Comments

Isaac Ogden is going in for surgery on his eye tomorrow, November 25, at 8:30 a.m. Please pray for the doctors, for the family and for little Isaac. See blog entry of November 19 for background.

Grace Wind Ensemble Concert Saturday, Dec. 13

Posted by Terry White on November 24, 2008  |  No Comments

The Grace College Wind Ensemble, conducted by Martin Becker, will present “Sounds of the Season,” on Saturday, December 13, at 7:30 p.m. at Rodeheaver Auditorium in Winona Lake, Indiana.

The concert will feature many Christmas favorites including “Sleigh Ride” and a swinging arrangement of “Good ‘Swing’ Wenceslas,” plus an audience sing-a-long to Leroy Anderson’s medley, “A Christmas Festival.” The 50+ member ensemble includes Grace students, community members, and professional musicians.

The concert is free and open to the public.

Grace Grad Thankful for Extra Years of Life

Posted by Terry White on November 22, 2008  |  1 Comment

The following guest column, by Grace Theological Seminary M.Div. graduate Patrick Harris (pictured), appeared in this morning’s Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette newspaper. To see the original, click here.

God’s endless grace leads to greed

The Rev. Patrick J. Harris, Bethel Church

’Tis the season to be thankful! Too bad we need a season for it but better one than none. I have just voted in my seventh presidential election since I was supposed to be dead. A “no small thing” for which I am very thankful. I have loved both my lives. No, I do not believe in reincarnation, but I do believe in God, in Jesus my Savior and in God’s healing touch.

I had just finished my fourth semester at Grace Seminary. I fondly remark that it was the Hebrew class that almost killed me. I will be eternally grateful for what I learned that semester because little did I know that several days after the class ended, I would be told that I had fourth-stage, inoperable cancer that had spread throughout my body and produced a softball-size tumor in my chest. Treatments would be started to delay the inevitable long enough for me to get my affairs in order and to help my wife prepare for something one cannot truly prepare for.

Seventeen days after receiving the news of the cancer I required emergency heart surgery on a Saturday night. My wife was told that if I survived the surgery I would probably not survive the infection that would surely come as a result of the chemo and its reduction of my white blood cells. Once again, God’s grace and God’s people were everywhere. To say we were and are thankful seems so inadequate – and yet we were and are.

My wife, Katie, had given birth two months before to our third precious daughter. At the age of 27, she faced an almost certain future with three daughters and no husband. She did know and believe, however, that she had a God who loved her and who had said previously that he would never leave her or forsake her.

How one of the best years of one’s life could be the year they were facing almost certain death makes no sense whatsoever unless it is processed through the lens of faith, with the field of vision focused on the one and only faithful God who created the world and yet still cares about sparrows, flowers and us. To say we are thankful for God’s grace is an understatement.

I don’t fancy myself a greedy person but I fear I am. In spite of the odds, I prayed that God would allow me to live long enough for my 2-month-old daughter to know me. This, of course, would require much more time than the doctors were allowing me, but then one seldom prays for what is available, probable or at hand! Obviously, since I am writing this column, God answered those prayers.

The greed I refer to became more evident as time passed. I found myself praying that God would allow me to see my daughters trust Jesus as savior, graduate and then get married. I then found myself praying for God to allow me to see our first grandchild – and then another and another. … Five grandchildren later, the greedy person that I am, I am now praying that God will allow me to live long enough for all of them to know me, and Jesus, and then … ?

When will it all end! It will end when God says so! I have loved both my lives. The second has been better because I live each day now more thankful than ever before. Seven elections and 25 Thanksgivings later, I can only say “Thank you, God! It has been and is a great life. But, God, I was wondering if maybe I could just … !”

The Rev. Patrick J. Harris is pastor of Bethel Church in Bluffton.

McKee Courts Lives Only in Memories and Photos

Posted by Terry White on November 20, 2008  |  2 Comments

Grace College alumnus Robert Spahr (class of 1964) has sent along a couple of historic photos of Winona Lake, Indiana, as the town looked about 50 years ago. McKee Courts, shown here, was a motel located in the center of the island, which served as a men’s dorm. Those who lived there will remember the huge ruts and potholes in the driveway, as well as the moisture and mold problems in the motel itself, especially during the winter.

McKee Courts was razed a number of years ago, and the area is now just a grassy field. In the early 60s, Grace College men lived at McKee, women lived at the Westminster, and all students ate their meals in the dining room of the Westminster Hotel. Alpha Hall, which became the women’s dorm and dining area, was built and occupied in 1964.

Posted by Terry White on November 20, 2008  |  No Comments

The Eskimo Inn was a favorite restaurant and a gathering-place for ice cream and coffee after the evening sessions of national conference held each summer in Winona Lake. It stood on Park Avenue, across from the Administration Building, where there is now a parking lot adjacent to the new post office building.

Health Update on Coach Lloyd Woolman

Posted by Terry White on November 20, 2008  |  No Comments

Former Grace College coach and former Grace Brethren pastor Lloyd Woolman recently moved back from Washington State to Grace Village Retirement Center in Winona Lake, Indiana. Almost immediately he faced some serious health issues. His son, Gary Woolman, lives in Fort Wayne and is visiting his father regularly. In response to some blog comments from an earlier post, Gary passes along this information. The mailing address for Grace Village is 337 Grace Village Drive, Winona Lake, IN 46590

This is wonderful to read these comments. I wanted to pass on some updates on my father. He fell in his apartment at Grace Village less than a week after moving into independent living. The diagnosis was a series of mini strokes.

He is currently in the health care wing of Grace Village. I visited him yesterday and he whispered the following that on a scale of 1-10, 10 being perfect, he is “1/2 of 1″. His grip is strong and he does recognize me and he remembered Chet Kammerer visiting him as well as Ron Henry and Jim Kessler. But he is confused as to the day of the week and doesn’t remember the physical or speech therapy sessions he has each morning. Please pray for him.

I read to him Carlene’s blog and that brought a BIG smile to his face. I plan on reading these to him when I visit him. He is in room 199 of Grace Village Health Care facility. It’s very small but I know he would appreciate cards and letters. He needs to be picked up in spirits!

Thanks in advance to any who read this and respond to my plea.

Women’s Retreat Looks at Temperaments, Celebrates "Hermanas"

Posted by Liz Cutler Gates on November 20, 2008  |  No Comments

The annual Southern California/Arizona district women’s retreat was held last weekend at Calvary Chapel Conference Grounds and Bible College, undeterred by the California wildfires. Here’s a summary of the report from Sharon MacMillan that appears on the Women of Grace site. To read her complete report, click here.

Only in Southern California can you have 95 degree weather on a bright November day—unless you live in Italy. The Calvary Chapel Conference Grounds and Bible College was the setting for this year’s So Cal/Arizona district women’s retreat November 14-16. After seeing the towering palms dancing gracefully in the breeze (hot Santa Ana winds of 50 miles per hour in some places) amidst the host of mineral pools and streams, it is not hard to understand why this place is so treasured as a retreat center. The book Streams in the Desert comes to mind.

“Different by Design” with Dr. Myra Perrine proved to be a stimulating topic. With nine categories of temperaments from which to choose, we were able to understand our unique design that complements others in the body of Christ. Understanding the “types” of temperaments can help us to work with our own giftings and understand our counterparts who may not approach things the way we do.

Ticket Sales Shoot Past $100,000

Posted by Liz Cutler Gates on November 20, 2008  |  No Comments

As the Thanksgiving Day deadline approaches to buy raffle tickets for Je’Rod Cherry’s 2001 Super Bowl Ring, funds raised are totaling more than $100,000. Je’Rod was at Momentum, the annual Grace Brethren youth conference, when students and staff were challenged to give sacrificially to help feed starving children. He felt moved to sell his ring, one of three he received while playing for the New England Patriots, with the proceeds to go toward Asia’s Hope, Feed My Starving Children, and other charities in the Boston area, where he played, and in northern Ohio, where he now lives.

The story below, appeared in today’s San Jose Mercury News.

See more about Je’Rod’s story at FGBC World.

Cal alum tackles world hunger

By John Ryan
Mercury News
In the unofficial Big Game alumni salute, we have a runaway winner.

Je’Rod Cherry, the former Cal safety from Berkeley High who spent nine years in the NFL, is holding an online raffle. The prize: the Super Bowl ring he won as a member of the 2001 New England Patriots. The cost to you: $2 per ticket, minimum of five tickets.

The goal: end world hunger. All proceeds will go toward helping the charity Asia’s Hope build an orphanage. Whatever is left will be spent, internationally and in the United States, on similar projects.

“The ring itself is the first one I won, it’s the most precious one to me, it’s the one I care most about,” Cherry said by phone Wednesday from his home in Macedonia, Ohio. “It was definitely hard. The night I made the announcement, I was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I just did that.’

“That ring will do so much to give kids around our country and the world to give kids a chance.”

The night he made the announcement in June, Cherry — now a 35-year-old financial advisor for Merrill Lynch — was at the Momentum Youth Conference, a religious convention aimed at teens. The kids had raised about $80,000 and were $20,000 short of their goal. One of the conference organizers challenged Cherry to put his ring toward the cause.

Cherry had just seen a presentation on hunger.

“The whole premise of the conference was what can you do to help others beyond your immediate family,” Cherry said. “In the course of the night we saw some pictures of a child that was basically bent over in the process of dying, while a vulture was waiting in the background for him to die so he could eat him.”

At the conference (the video is posted at www.buildmomentum.org), Cherry recalled his childhood, always knowing what he didn’t have and feeling less worthy because of it. Now he and his wife, Samua, provide for four children.

And, with your help, many others.

Cherry said he has raised $107,000 so far. The entry deadline is 6 a.m. Nov. 27 — Thanksgiving Day — with the drawing later that day. Buy tickets at www.celebritiesforcharity.org.

Pray for Little Isaac’s Eye Operation

Posted by Terry White on November 19, 2008  |  2 Comments

Please be in prayer for an upcoming operation on Isaac Ogden (pictured). Isaac is five years old, and lives in the Southtown area of Winona Lake/Warsaw, Indiana. His maternal grandfather is Randy Weekley, pastor of the Grace Brethren Church in Pinellas Park, Florida, and his paternal grandparents are Ron and Becky Ogden of Winona Lake (Don Ogden is great-grandfather). Here is a bit of Isaac’s story, as taken by permission from a blogpost by his mother, Sarah Weekley Ogden:

We are back from our appointment in Ohio. We did not receive the good news that we were anticipating. We went to a tumor specialist in Cincinnati and he does not think that Isaac has Coats Disease but thinks that it is Retinoblastoma which is an eye cancer.

The masses in his eye are for sure tumors. The doctors believe that it is all contained inside the eye; nothing is spreading into the eye stem or into the brain so we are very thankful for that but we are going to have to have the eye removed.

So the next step is to have the surgery soon so that the cancer is out of his body. After that they will do a biopsy of the eye to see what really is going on. They have told us that since everything looks like it’s all inside the eye, we probably will not have to do any chemotherapy, but that it is a possibility.

We do not know when the surgery is going to be yet, but the doctors do feel that there is a sense of urgency so it will be within the next week or so.

Isaac is an amazing little boy. He has been so brave through all of this but he is smart and he is aware of what is going on. The healing time after the surgery is going to be hard and it takes six weeks to get the glass eye so that will be a difficult time but we know that the Lord will see us through.

Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Vision Ohio Debuts New Website

Posted by admin on November 19, 2008  |  No Comments

Vision Ohio, a cooperative church-planting venture that seeks to plant 250 Grace Brethren churches in Ohio over the next ten years, has established a new website.

On the site, individual information and prayer requests are available for nine specific locations where church-plants are currently underway. Officers of Vision Ohio, which has been granted provisional status by the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches as a regional, cooperating agency, includes the following staff people: Tony Webb – Director; Ron Boehm – VisionOhio Senior Missionary; Chery Boehm – Mentor-Coach to Women; Nathan Wells – Vision Ohio Missionary–Northeast Ohio; Dr. Terry Hofecker – Training Coordinator; Martin Guerena – Assessment Coordinator.

The new website is http://www.visionohio.org.

Missionary Communications in the Internet Age

Posted by Terry White on November 19, 2008  |  No Comments

Remember when missionary communications used to come mainly by a print newsletter once every other month or so?

Those days have long passed with the advent of e-mail and the Internet, and now another age is upon us. Attenders at the Winona Lake (IN) Grace Brethren Church (Bruce Barlow, lead pastor) can have instant communication from their sent missionaries Jay and Deb Hocking, who are at the Chateau St. Albain in southern France.

A digital picture frame (pictured) is in the lobby of the church’s building, and Jay updates it regularly through wireless technology from the Chateau in France. He’s able to upload photos, captions, PowerPoint slides, and other information, and can also control when the photos are live and when they “rest.”

The church is looking at adapting similar technology for its other supported missionaries so that a “live photo wall” will have constantly-updated information and photos from many of the missionaries the church supports around the world.

For updates and photos from the Hockings, check their blog at www.jaborah.com

Good Guy of the Week

Posted by Liz Cutler Gates on November 17, 2008  |  No Comments

SI.com has recognized Je’Rod Cherry as the “Good Guy of the Week.” Je’Rod, you’ll recall, is a member of Grace Church, a Grace Brethren church in Macedonia, Ohio. He was at Momentum, the annual Brethren youth conference, when he felt moved to give up his prized Super Bowl ring to help feed starving children around the world. To read more about his story, click here.

Dadje Samuel Reports on Evangelist Training

Posted by Terry White on November 17, 2008  |  No Comments

Dadje Samuel (left in photo), a Grace Brethren Chadian evangelist and evangelist trainer, sends a report on a recent training he conducted. With him are Joseph (in bicycle) and Pascal. Veteran missionary Larry DeArmey and Grace Brethren International Missions board member Keith Shearer will travel to Chad in January for three weeks to teach in Samuel’s school, to speak at the national conference of Grace Brethren churches, and to teach at the Bible Institute in Chad.

Dadje Samuel’s report continues:

I thank you for your prayers on behalf of the ministry in Chad. God answers your prayers every day. From October 20 to October 25, I led a seminar for 10 pastors who are now finishing a Bible School program taught in the local dialect. I taught them how churches must remove animism and tradition from culture. The reason for this teaching is that our churches do not understand the difference and this is an illness that is killing churches today.

Thanks be to God that eight out of the ten asked forgiveness of God and committed themselves to bring a new dynamic to their churches.

From October 24 until November 4 we trained 21 leaders and 16 of them asked forgiveness of God. Among them was a paralyzed man who is also a church-planter. The other leaders collected money and we added to it in order to buy him a three-wheeled bicycle (see photo). Joseph is now committed to doing evangelism.

Pray for my wife who is, along with her team, training 18 ladies at Yola in Nigeria. Twelve ladies will have received their diploma. My wife is teaching in a large Brethren church that has 120 believers attending.

I am on a break, waiting for my wife to return, and then I will travel to Cameroon from the 13th to the 24th of November with the professor Bereou Samuel. This will be the fourth on-site training summer school training session for these leaders. Among these leaders are 11 who are involved in church-planting. Pray for my family and for me.

I want to say thank you to you for your support which permits the training of leaders in Africa. I do not merit this support but you are doing it for God. May His name be praised through Jesus.

Your brother and friend in Christ,

Dadje Samuel

Cleveland Honors Mission With Resolution

Posted by Terry White on November 17, 2008  |  No Comments

Village Grace Mission Center, a Grace Brethren Cleveland, Ohio-based ministry founded and directed by Richard and Reida Bartley (pictured), was honored this past Veterans Day with a resolution of appreciation from the City of Cleveland. The resolution was presented during a Village praise and worship service by Slavic Village councilman Tony Brancatelli.

The resolution cites the mission, saying it “fulfills its mission through the provision of children’s programs and resources designed to help children, youth and their families achieve stability and self-sufficiency.” Particularly noted is the Christmas Gift Treasure Box Program the mission conducts each year for needy children in the inner city of Cleveland to receive toys and school supplies through area churches and schools. Since the program’s inception, the resolution notes, more than a half-million dollars in donations, gifts, and toys have been given.

The resolution goes on to say, “The Center has kept, and will continue to keep, the Mission Statement of the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches and to personally assist, inspire, and equip urban families to become interdependent, productive community members.” The ministry is also committed, the resolution continues, “to leading people into a personal and fulfilling relationship with Christ and remains faithful to the whole person, the family, permanent change, and partnership with the community.”

Remarking on the presentation, which occurred with about 65 adults present for the praise and worship service, Richard Bartley said, “We were totally blown away. . . Reida and I have never taken a salary from Village Grace and we try not to be boastful about the things that we do. We live by the words, ‘To God, Goes The Glory’. It still hasn’t sunk in yet that a city the size of Cleveland would take the time to honor us for the work that God has called us to do with your help.”

He continued, “As I looked out in the sanctuary, I saw friends that have supported Village Grace financially, prayerfully and with their time. We realize that the work of Village Grace could not be accomplished without faithful friends like you! Please continue to support Village Grace. And remember that all monies raised go to support the programs for the families of Slavic Village!”

Raised in Cleveland and a graduate of the Cleveland public school system, Richard is a ten-year Navy veteran and a retired teacher from the same school that he graduated from. As a veteran teacher and coach in the Cleveland public schools, God put him into a position to be a guiding light for the youth at Aviation High and Max Hayes Vocational High School.

God has also used Bartley’s interest in motorcycles to lead him into becoming one of the founding fathers of the Christian Motorcyclists Association Cleveland Chapter. Being the president of the group for five years allowed Richard to share the gospel with different groups of motorcycle enthusiasts all over the city, state and country. He received his Masters in Ministry from Grace Theological Seminary in the summer of 2000.

Reida was raised in Alabama and has worked for many years in the insurance industry. Most recently Reida worked for the Nordonia School System with special needs children. She has been the secretary of the Christian Motorcyclists Association Cleveland Chapter for five years and rides her own motorcycle. The Bartleys have been married for 24 years and have four children and nine grandchildren.

Richard was raised in the Slavic Village area and still has family there. The Lord has given this couple a vision to start a Mission Center in Cleveland for compassion ministries that will lead to church planting. They have put their faith and trust in the Lord and will do whatever is asked of them. Richard and Reida Bartley founded the Village Grace Mission Center in 1996.

In 1999 the offices moved out of their garage and into a storefront at 6602 Lansing Avenue. The ministry started to flourish with the implementation of children`s programs. The S.E.A.L. Team program started and youth groups from around the state were brought into the Mission Center to help with service projects within the Slavic Village area.

In August of 2004, the Mission Center was blessed with donations that allowed them to purchase a church and house at 3561 Independence Road. This purchase has given Village Grace a permanent home to continue God`s work in the Slavic Village area.

More information is available at http://www.villagegrace.org.

Virginia College Launches Brethren History Exhibit

Posted by Terry White on November 15, 2008  |  No Comments

An exhibit of Brethren history is opening at a Church of the Brethren college in Virginia. Here is an excerpt–to read the entire article, click here.

BRIDGEWATER – For the next nine months, visitors to Bridgewater College may see the history of the Church of the Brethren unfold before their eyes. Dale Harter, curator of the Reuel B. Pritchett Museum at Bridgewater College, holds a Saur Bible from the Brethren exhibit. The Saurs were early Brethren printers who competed with Benjamin Franklin’s Press. (Photo by Thomas J. Turney)

An exhibit, titled “A Journey from Schwarzenau to Bridgewater: Celebrating 300 Years of Brethren History, 1708-2008,” will showcase the church’s story. The display features artifacts from present and past Church of the Brethren members who lived in and outside the Shenandoah Valley.

The display, located at the Reuel B. Pritchett Museum in Cole Hall at Bridgewater College, opened Monday and will remain at the museum until May, said Dale F. Harter, archivist at Bridgewater College and curator for the museum.