Update: News of People, Places and Events

Church announces ministerial ordinations

PASADENA—Church Administration announced the following ministerial ordinations:

James Simpson III, Amarillo, Texas.

Jose Vargas Manzano, Legaspi City, Philippines

Mark Louis Bannier, Macomb, Illinois.

Donald Eugene Auxier, Terre Haute, Indiana.

Congregations join WCG

Lorenzo Arroyo, district superintendent, announced that the Howell, New Jersey, congregation of the Spanish-speaking Evangelical Churches of God (ECG), pastored by Alejandro Alcantara, has joined the WCG.

In Corona, California, the Open Bible Fellowship, which had been meeting with the Corona WCG, voted to join the WCG, and their pastor, John “Buddy” Suitor, is now the pastor of the combined churches. The congregation has taken the name Corona Bible Fellowship. This change took place Aug. 1.

John Stonecypher takes
second in preaching competition

John Stonecypher

ST. PAUL, Minnesota—John Stonecypher, pastor of the Mason City and Des Moines, Iowa, churches, was awarded second place in the Omark Preaching Scholarship at Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, May 6. Mr. Stonecypher is a part-time student at Bethel.

Competition for this award was open to all Bethel students who submitted a written manuscript of a sermon. A faculty committee reviewed their manuscripts, narrowing the field to six. The six finalists were asked to submit a videotape of their sermon. The top three were given scholarships and then presented their sermons before a live audience at Bethel’s chapel service.

Mr. Stonecypher has also been active in giving presentations in preaching clinics conducted in his WCG region. He was a member of the final Ambassador University graduating class of 1997. Doug Johannsen.

Glen Weber speaks at
Kiwanis luncheon

PULLMAN, Washington—Glen Weber, pastor of Spirit of Grace Fellowship (Spokane), Living Grace Christian Fellowship (Coeur d’Alene) and the Kennewick WCG congregation, was invited to speak at the annual Kiwanis community luncheon April 17.

The yearly event is designed to bring the community together. Business, religious and government leaders came to learn how the community can grow together and become stronger.

Frank Farrow, a WCG member, is past president of the Pullman Kiwanis and arranged to have Mr. Weber invited. Numerous club members are professors or otherwise affiliated with Washington State University in Pullman.

Mr. Weber spoke on “The Strength of the Faith Community.” He gave several examples of how religious organizations have made a difference when government or other organizations cannot, for example bringing in disaster relief when catastrophes strike.

Mr. Weber serves to bring churches and religious groups together in the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene area, and helps head up a ministerial association that brings together the ministers of 400 churches for weekly prayer and to mobilize them for community service. Val Limburg.

Terri Hamilton wins
tabletop game fiction award

WICHITA, Kansas—Terri Hamilton won the best game-related fiction, short-form, for “Enemy Healer,” from The Official Collector’s Guide to Mage Knight, Volumes 1 & 2.

The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design announced the awards for gaming excellence June 28. Voting was open to the public as well as members of the academy. All awards are for games released in 2002.

Comments on Ambassador College
of Christian Ministry

PASADENA—We received the following comments from students enrolled in Ambassador College of Christian Ministry.

 I am very appreciative that we are able to take this program. It should make me a better Christian and better prepare me for lay ministry.

C.S.
Omaha, Nebraska

 I’m excited to hear about these new courses. They will profit the whole church.

E.G.
Lake Kiowa, Texas

 It’s great to be back in a WCG-sponsored academic setting!

1990 Pasadena Ambassador grad

 I’d like to pass along how much I’m enjoying the Spiritual Formation class. I used some of the material this Sunday when I stood in for our pastor who was out of town (I delivered a sermon on “Spiritual Formation: The Life of a Disciple.”)  I went out today and bought a number of books on prayer and intend to make that a focus of my walk with Christ. This is excellent material!

Thanks again! This is the best thing the church has offered since Ambassador closed its doors.

C.K.
Van Wert, Ohio

Buford church receives
plaque from community

BUFORD, Georgia—Jan and Bill Stallings presented the Buford Church Fellowship with a plaque May 18 originally awarded to the community on completion of all requirements of the Community Oriented Police Service (COPS) program. The Stallings and the rest of the community wished to show their appreciation to the church for allowing them to conduct their meetings in the church’s reception hall and for the church’s participation in the program.  

COPS provides neighborhoods with information and programs to reduce crime and increase safety and awareness within neighborhoods and communities.

The program here started one year ago and since then we have seen an 85 percent drop in crime.

Heaven’s Light of Day
leads worship, produces CD

 
HEAVEN’S LIGHT OF DAY—
From left: Serge Volpe, Lynn Hewitt-Volpe,
Michele Moseley, and
Debb Coleman [Photo by Al Crino].

 WHITE PLAINS, New York—During the past year, Heaven’s Light of Day has continued to facilitate praise and worship at churches both in and outside of the WCG, Christian coffeehouses and at the festival in Lake George, New York.

Serge Volpe and Lenny Underwood, along with Heaven’s Light of Day, announced the release of their premier CD, “Joy Everlasting,” at the 2001 Northeast regional conference. The CD is being used during worship services in WCG congregations in states across the country including Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico, where Carn Catherwood has introduced the CD during discussions on praise and worship.

“Joy Everlasting” is a professionally recorded collection of the original songs of Mr. Volpe, presented by an interdenominational choir and soloists from the greater New York City area. “Joy Everlasting” is currently receiving radio air play in Connecticut and New York and has met with positive and enthusiastic reviews in the Christian community. 

Mr. Volpe has been writing and arranging music for more than 25 years and his big band, Brighter Moments, performed at numerous New York City venues including Avery Fisher Hall, the Blue Note and Birdland, as well as at area colleges. He has arranged for or accompanied various artists including Eartha Kitt, Slide Hampton, Jimmy Owens and James Spalding. He has been a minister of music for more than 15 years in churches in Manhattan, Westchester and Queens. 

With songs representing the music genres of Gospel, R&B, Jazz and West African, plus powerful prayer ballads, “Joy Everlasting” offers “something for everyone.”  The song “Jesus Take Me, I’m Yours” is a consistent favorite.

   Heaven’s Light of Day currently consists of longtime New York WCG members Mr. Volpe and his wife, Lynne Hewitt-Volpe; Michele Talison Moseley; Debb Coleman; and Robert Juengst. Joel Moseley and Phil Scodary are the group’s sound engineers for live performances.

   For more information about the “Joy Everlasting” CD, contact Light of Day Enterprises, c/o Debb Coleman, 360 Westchester Ave., L19, Port Chester, New York, 10573, or go on-line at Heavens lightofday.com. Heaven’s Light of Day is also available for live performances.

Grace Family members
celebrate America’s freedom

DALLAS, Texas—Ten adults and youths from Grace Family Church attended Celebrate Freedom, an all-day concert and picnic that took place June 26 at Southfork Ranch near Plano, Texas.

The event was sponsored by Christian radio station KCBI and featured patriotic songs by Sandy Patti as well as performances by many other Christian artists such as Third Day, Zoegirl, Jars of Clay, Avalon and Mark Schultz.

An exhibit included a piece of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Members of the various music groups signed autographs.

Fireworks that evening were synchronized to patriotic songs sung by Sandy Patti.

At Grace Family Church’s June 29 service, Pastor Lynn Hebert spoke about America’s founding by God-fearing people who championed not only political freedom but also religious freedom. “This nation was founded on Christian principles,” Mr. Hebert said. “America was founded on freedom to worship the true God.” Frank Lewandowski.

Bill Winn becomes
ministerial intern in Fayetteville

FAYETTEVILLE, North Carolina—Bill Winn has joined the WCG pastoral ministry as a ministerial intern in Fayetteville. Bill attended Ambassador University in Big Sandy for two years and then spent time in the Northwest involved in sales before coming back to North Carolina in 1997. He married his  wife, Davina, in Greenville that year.

In July, Bill and Davina moved to Fayetteville with their baby daughter, Faith. In addition to serving as an intern with The Carpenter’s House (the WCG congregation in Fayetteville), they also serve as campus coordinators with the Fayetteville area Youth for Christ chapter.

Pastor General Joseph Tkach commented on ministerial interns: “Ministerial interns are graduate seminary students who typically serve between six months and two years in a local congregation. This facilitates training for these young adults who wish to eventually move into pastoral ministry.

“Interns report directly to a pastor or district superintendent,” Dr. Tkach said, “and there may also be some indirect supervision provided by Church Administration due to geographic or mission goals. The internship is a practical and educational apprenticeship operating within the local congregation.”

Lufkin church has new name and location

LUFKIN CONGREGATION—Members
gather outside their new meeting location.

LUFKIN, Texas—Nestled among oak trees along the bank of a creek on Highway 69 about one-half   mile north of Lufkin, you will find the new home of Good News Christian Fellowship (WCG). 

For the past 30 years, we met in the Lufkin Nobles Club. Since the congregation is smaller, we needed a smaller, less expensive place to meet. After much prayer, searching and patience, and a lot of hard work on the part of co-pastor Kenn Allbright, God has blessed us with a nice facility consisting of two buildings. One houses the sanctuary, and the other a kitchen, dining room, three bathrooms and three classrooms.

At the entrance we have a sign identifying us as Good News Christian Fellowship (WCG), with church functions, dates and times and the names of our two co-pastors, Mr. Allbright and Walter Deptula.

We conducted our first meeting in this new location Sunday, Aug. 3.  Andy Quattlebaum presented the history of the Lufkin church. Mr. Allbright gave a talk on getting new people. Afterward we enjoyed snacks in the fellowship hall. All of this for half the price of the other hall. Andy Quattlebaum.

New York City members
comment on blackout experiences

NEW YORK, New York—The Aug. 14 blackout affected WCG members in the New York City area. The WN received the following comments:

Franklin K. Howard, pastor of 24-7 Community Church, Newark, New Jersey

On the day of the blackout, I was unable to get to my home in New Jersey from New York, where I am employed. I walked 30 blocks from West 14th Street to 40th Street, where my main office is located. The streets and sidewalks were filled with people trying to get home. I stayed overnight at my main office, where I slept in a chair near a fellow employee  who snored most of the night. Sleeping in a chair is not easy, but thanks to God I was inside and able to contact my family. The next morning I made it home without any problems.

Roslyn Vereen, member of the 24-7 Community Church

I  ride in a vanpool to work with a number of co-workers each day. A few of us wanted to take a day off  to go on a trip just to have some fun. We picked Aug. 14 as a good day to go to Great Adventure, an amusement park in Jackson, New Jersey. Six women were among the nine passengers who left that morning about 9:15 a.m.

Before we left, I prayed for a safe journey and for God’s protection. I thanked God for the opportunity to get together as co-workers and bond together as friends.

At Great Adventure, we planned to break for lunch around 1:30 p.m., but one of the women wanted to ride the Batman roller-coaster. She waited in line for about 2¹/2 hours  and the ride lasted less than five minutes. Because of this we were at least two hours late breaking for lunch. We had to exit the park to eat our lunch because we could not take food into the park.

We were in the van eating when the blackout occurred. We noticed that all of the rides had stopped with people still on them. We realized that God had protected us from danger by having to wait those two extra hours.

Tom and Mary Griffin, members in Brooklyn, New York

On Aug. 14, I (Mary) was talking with an attorney in my office when suddenly the lights flickered and went out.

I tried to call my husband, Tom, but couldn’t get through on the phones. A few of the attorneys had laptop computers that were still working with battery backup, so we checked the news sources. It was already being reported that the outage was as far west as Cleveland, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan, and up into Canada. My first thought was terrorism. Tom finally got through to me on the phone. My office building is connected to Grand Central Station, so we decided to meet at the big clock in the middle of the station. 

I walked over to Grand Central, but everyone was being evacuated from there (I didn’t like the sound of that), so I walked outside and decided to wait on 42nd Street, with tens of thousands of people in the hot, sticky weather. My husband walked down from 104th Street, which is two or three miles away.

We started the walk home to Brooklyn down Park Avenue, along with hundreds of thousands of others. At one point we stopped for frozen yogurt, splitting a pint, which was at the cut rate price of $4.50. We sat on the median strip on Park Avenue for a fine-dining experience.

We got to the Brooklyn Bridge, which was thronged with people. We walked in what is normally a lane for cars, but had been turned into a pedestrian walkway.

We were both starting to feel the effects of walking such a long distance. I had taken a flashlight from an emergency kit that we were given at work, and that basically lighted our way home, a total of about nine miles for me and 12 miles for Tom. 

The closer we got to home, the darker it was, and eerily quiet. The only sounds to be heard were an occasional radio, and cars on the street. Many civilians were out directing traffic at major intersections, and calm and peace reigned on our entire walk home. 

We were among the lucky ones in that our power came on at 4:30 the next morning. As the mayor told us to do, we took a “snow day” that day and stayed home. Not much choice, since the subways weren’t running. 

I must say I am proud of New York City and the way they handled this crisis. I think we have grown since 9/11. It truly is the greatest city in the world.

Dillon church conducts
community service event

DILLON, South Carolina—The Dillon church conducted its first community service event Aug 2.

Members set up a stand in front of a store, where we offered free soft drinks, cookies and lollipops for the children. Several people were in the parking lot offering to return shopping carts for customers. This was a tax-free weekend for those buying school supplies, so more people were shopping than normal, which meant more exposure for the church. The members wore T-shirts with their church logo on them so they would be recognizable.

Our goal was to “serve the community by exemplifying Jesus’ love through service to others.” Our purpose was to “share the love of Jesus by sacrificing what we have to give to others.”

Many people stopped by to get refreshments, and many had a hard time understanding why we weren’t taking donations. One of our older members, Dan Michael, who walks with a cane, helped to return carts and picked up trash in the parking lot. David Mioduski.

Pastors and mission leaders
discuss HIV and AIDS in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—The National Conference of Protestant Churches brought together 250 pastors and leaders of missions July 14 to 18 under the leadership of World Relief to discuss the problem of HIV-AIDS, according to Pastor Joseph Franklin.

The conference stressed chastity before marriage and fidelity within marriage.

All 250 leaders signed a resolution to preach more often on those points and to mobilize our churches to get involved in this campaign against HIV-AIDS by three sets of actions: prevention, advocacy and accompaniment (care for those infected).

World Relief, an international organization, is working in Haiti to educate the population on this topic. The WCG in Haiti cooperates in this endeavor. The church invited World Relief personnel to its meeting hall for a lecture on HIV and AIDS. Seventy-five people attended.  Joseph Franklin.

Newark, New Jersey, has block party
to reach community

NEWARK, New Jersey—The Newark congregation organized a block party June 21 to increase their outreach and awareness of the congregation in the community.

“In a community where many say bad kids live, God blessed the block party tremendously,” said Pastor Frank Howard.

In attendance were more than 125 people, 80 percent of whom were children and teens. The event took place indoors and included free food, games, gifts, popcorn, cotton candy (all donated), music and three-on-three basketball. Most of all, the gospel was spread in the form of books, booklets, storytelling, praise dancing and by example.

Members fellowshipped and prayed with the residents and handed out magazines, booklets received from Curtis May, director of the Office of Reconciliation Ministries, Christian literature and a brochure about the congregation.

The feedback from parents, security guards, the employee on the premises and WCG church members was positive. A week before the event members went about introducing themselves and passing out flyers.

Copyright © Grace Communion International, 2003