CAR POOLING TO WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA

This weekend William Peterson and I shared a trip to Western Pennsylvania. Will had an appointment with Lonnie Wibberding, the new director of the Community Ministry and Church Plant in Carnegie, just adjacent to Pittsburgh proper, and I was to speak at the Greensburg Church, at the East Suburban Church and then meet with the East Suburban Church Board Sabbath afternoon.

Lonnie Wibberding is in place in Carnegie and has succeeded Andrew Clark as the director of the project. William Peterson met with Lonnie Friday afternoon to go over the current status and future plans. I worked on some pressing Conference business during that time.

In the evening, William and I drove up to the Pittsburgh Church as Pastor Dennis Austin had told me that a lay-led ShareHim meeting was being conduct. We arrived in time to hear Kathy Shea present the evening ShareHim evangelistic meeting, which was on the time prophecy for the 2,300 day forecast of when Christ would begin His final ministry before His second coming. I am very proud of the effort that Kathy was making in presenting the word of God that evening. Her husband, Jack, was to present the message the next evening.

Sabbath morning William joined Lonnie Wibberding for the worship service in Carnegie and I presented the morning message at Greensburg. Brandon Yorty is the lay pastor there and has been faithfully leading out in this church.

Then I drove over to the East Suburban Church and presented the morning worship message there. 52 were in attendance this last Sabbath, which is evidence of the growing attendance in this church. Donald Lewis, lay pastor, has been diligently working and leading out and has several baptisms this year, with at least another one planned before the end of the year. After Church, I met with the Church Board and shared the vision for the Church Board to make the mission to reach the lost the focus of every activity of the Church. We discussed the possibility of East Suburban hosting a PA Conference Youth Challenge student Literature Evangelist Team and a COOL camp summer day camp team in order to better reach their community. There seemed to be strong interest in the possibility.

Friday night I received word that Eugene “Jeep” Moyer of the Shermansdale church had been stricken with a massive stroke and was in the Hershey Medical Center. On our way home, William and I stopped by the Hershey Medical Center in an effort to visit with Jeep, who has been a literature evangelist in the Pennsylvania Conference and was recently a member of the Conference Executive Committee. The Hershey Medical Center could not find him in their records and kindly connected us with several hospitals in the Harrisburg area. When we could not locate him that way either, we later contacted Rudy Marschner, the Head Elder of the Shermansdale Church and were sadly informed the Jeep had passed away at 1:40 p.m. Sabbath afternoon.

With a pang of sadness, we sorrowed the loss of another faithful member and former worker in the Pennsylvania Conference, and yet we by faith look forward to the soon return of Jesus and the promise that one day Jesus will restore all the sin has snatched away.

EVERETT GRAND OPENING

EVERETT SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH GRAND OPENING

On Sabbath, October 16, the Everett Church Family celebrated the Grand Opening of their new church facility. This is the 4th Arise and Build Church in the Pennsylvania Conference, and the 3rd Arise and Build church constructed in Western Pennsylvania.

The church has a wide and spacious church sanctuary/auditorium, with plenty of lighting and a wide and very functional platform area. The baptistery is off to the right of the platform.

Elder Ron Christman, Conference Treasurer and Elder William Peterson, Assistant to the President for Mission and the Arise and Build Coordinator for the Pennsylvania Conference accompanied me for the great day. Elder Christman taught the Sabbath School lesson and I shared the worship hour message, entitled, “Why Build a Church?”

The service had many special features, complete with a history of the congregation delivered by Rowena Rick. Jessica Link, a student from Blue Mountain Academy and her mother Christy Link provided one of the special music numbers. The Blue Mountain Academy Brass quintet gave several musical numbers.
The local Church children gave a couple of special music numbers for the worship service, and of course, everyone thought theirs was probably the best part!

Fomrer pastors Don Ehrlich and Vince Dolan were also able to attend and take part in the morning service.

Vince Dolan (on left with Larry Fisher) was the pastor when the land was purchased and the plans drawn up for the new church.

In the afternoon, Jessica Link and Levi Collins shared an overview of the Pennsylvania Conference Youth ShareHim mission trip, showing pictures of the group’s experience in Guatemala from this last July. Both Jessica and Levi are presently conducting a ShareHim meeting in Pennsylvania.

The Men’s Quartet from the Williamsport Church composed of the Fulmer brothers, the son of the former pastor Vince Dolan and Ken Yonkin provided an afternoon concert.

The church is very tastefully decorated throughout. Especially delightful is the large life size mural of Jesus teaching from the fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee that is all across one wall in the Junior Sabbath School room.

This church has an excellent design and floor plan and is a credit to the Adventist faith. It makes a very attractive appearance to the community.


Pastor Bob Snyder and his church family planned a wonderful Grand Opening. What a reaon to praise God for all the miracles in the property purchase, funding and building of this church!

TRASH AND TREASURES

PRESIDENT’S BLOG

Trash and Treasures

September 19-21 the Pennsylvania Pastor’s were provided a time for spiritual reflection, Bible meditation and personal prayer. Those who chose to come together for the optional Spiritual Retreat gathered at Laurel Lake Camp on the Sunday evening following the Fall Camp Meeting.


The philosophy for a quiet, gently guided retreat such as this comes from the statement in Ministry of Healing which says:

We must individually hear Him speaking to the heart. When every other voice is hushed, and in quietness we wait before Him, the silence of the soul makes more distinct the voice of God. He bids us, "Be still, and know that I am God." This is the effectual preparation for all labor for God. Amidst the hurrying throng, and the strain of life's intense activities, he who is thus refreshed, will be surrounded with an atmosphere of light and peace. He will receive a new endowment of both physical and mental strength. His life will breathe out a fragrance, and will reveal a divine power that will reach men's hearts.--The Ministry of Healing, p. 58.

A chapter from Psalms was focused on. Reading was provided with a book authored by Ben Patterson, and a personal copy of Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, both of which were given to the participants. Journaling and private prayer time were encouraged and structured into the day. What a treasure to listen to God in His word and in prayer!

Comments from those participating were:

• Thank you for this opportunity to come apart from the busyness of ministry. I greatly appreciate this retreat.
• This time, program, is absolutely essential to a pastor’s spiritual health. I am so glad you are committed to this program.
• It provoked deep thoughtful reflection. I shall plan to return.
• I needed this spiritual retreat in an absolute way. Not that I was getting overburdened or stressed by working, but to recalibrate my spirit to this important things in the spiritual life.

During Monday afternoon’s open time, I walked along the road from the main entrance of Laurel Lake Camp to the road leading to Hemlock Lake. Troy Haagenson accompanied me and together, we picked up all the trash we could find alongside each side of the road. Later Mike Bernard came by with the LLC utility vehicle and we transported the trash bags back to the dumpster behind the LLC Lodge building.

As Christians who believe that Christ created this world and gave us stewardship of it, and that He is coming soon to bring us to a re-created perfect world, it is our privilege to care for and clean up the waste and destructive practices that mar and harm God’s creation.

Life Lessons from a Leader

The Church leader thought he was defending the essential Adventist faith. After all, he had become a Conference President at a young age when Brinkerhoff and Snook had led a major apostasy from the Adventist faith in Iowa. He vigorously worked with evangelistic fervor and kept the Conference together following their defection. 2 years after being elected Conference President, he was given a ministerial license and 4 months later he was ordained.

During the 1860s and 1870s George I. Butler became one of the foremost Adventist defenders and a supporter of the ministry of Ellen White. From 1872 to 1874 he served as General Conference President while James White was recovering his health. Then he was elected General Conference President again, serving from 1880 to 1888.

While GC President, the first time he was active in raising funds for Battle Creek College (now Andrews University) and the Pacific Press Publishing in Oakland, California. During his second term as GC President he led the Church through the D.M. Canright apostasy.
He also disagreed with Jones and Wagoner on the understanding of Righteousness by faith and the role of the law in Galatians.

“By the time of the famous 1888 General Conference Session Butler called for those who were sympathetic to him to "stand by the old landmarks" or to not give up traditional theological positions. This called forth a strong rebuke from Ellen G. White.”
Following the 1888 General Conference Session, Butler’s health collapsed and with his wife moved to Florida, where he purchased property to raise citrus fruit and recuperate.

In 1901 his wife died and he was elected President of the Florida Conference. The following year, with the encouragement of Ellen White, he was elected President of the Southern Union and the Southern Publishing Association. In 1908 he retired and passed to his rest in 1918, buried in the city cemetery of Bowling Green, Florida.

What his life may teach us, is that we may be energetically and earnestly defending the faith, and still have things to learn. While Butler was calling upon the delegates to the 1888 General Conference Session to “stand by the old landmarks” it was difficult for him to realize that there was still more to learn and more growth spiritually that was needed.

When you have had to defend the Biblical positions of the Adventist faith from the Marion party, Snook and Brinkerhoff, D.M. Canright and others, it is easy to get entrenched and see that any idea different from what you held at the beginning of your ministry must be wrong and you must vigorously resist it.

The concern however, is that God may have additional light and growth for us as a people, as Ellen White has said He does. And when it comes, we may be afraid it is another attempt at apostasy. We may even describe it to our supporters as Satan’s last day deception and announce that the church is being led to its ruin if followed. Every additional spiritual understanding or practice that God may allow to come to our attention before Jesus comes, may not necessarily be a last day deception or apostasy, just because it is not the traditional practice or does not look like we are “standing by the old landmarks.” This does mean, however, that we should, “test all things, hold fast to that which is true.” And it means, as Ellen White has said, that we should carefully consider new light, since, “we have many things to learn and many things to unlearn.”

A second thing his life teaches us, is that even when a leader makes a mistake, and firmly resists the direction God wants to lead His church, that leader is still not beyond usefulness to God when the leader displays a humble and willing spirit for service. What a gracious outcome in Butler’s life, when, under the encouragement of Ellen White, he was asked to serve as the Southern Union President.

Jeanne and I had the privilege, while on our vacation in central Florida to look up the gravesite of George I. Butler. We attended Church in Avon Park, FL, where I grew up, and then drove the 25 miles over to Bowling Green, FL.

After searching the cemetery in this small town, we located his gravesite.


Not far from the cemetery, is the general area where Butlers farm, “Twin Magnolias” was located. And even to this day, citrus is grown in that vicinity.

I am thankful for the life lessons these early leaders in our church teach us. And I chose to be faithful to the Adventist calling, just as they endeavored to be.

MISSION REPORT - 9

MISSION REPORT 9

Guatemala is a beautiful country. They are rightly proud of the fact that this country is one of the top producers of produce, fruit, sugar cane and food items in all of Central America.





Most of the people here, unless they are lower upper class and above, depend upon wood fires for cooking their entire meals.


While the country is lush with growth and is in no danger of deforestation, you frequently see people colleting or cutting wood and they carrying it, tying it to the back of a bike or motorcycle, or filling a truck bed with it to take home. Most common, they have tied it into a bundle and are carrying it. Any tree or sapling that falls or is cut down, is quickly cut into manageable lengths by someone with a machete and hauled home. Imagine that you needed to cut wood every day just to cook your meal!


Many of them wash their family laundry in open water of rivers or running water alongside the roadway. Often you will see a lady walking along with a large basket or round plastic tub on her head, which may contain cleaned laundry, tortillas, or items purchased from the store and being brought home.

Labor is very plentiful and cheap here. We saw no highway machinery to cut down the weeds and lush growth along the roadway. Instead, there will be a group of men with machetes (no mowers or weed-wackers) cutting the grass and undergrowth from the edge of the pavement, through the ditch and up the bank a little ways. Quite a few other things that we might think of at home would be accomplished with machinery, are done here with manual labor. While we might think this is unfortunate or perhaps even backward, in actual fact, it gives a large population of unskilled labor ways to earn a basic living and provide for their families. It does let me know in a vivid way, why so many people “south of the border” are very eager to get “north of the border.”

While the people here may seem unsophisticated and simple by US standards, they are very devout and eager to serve the Lord. The church members are warm and accepting, generous and genuinely interested in your welfare and those of the others in the church.

Our Adventist pastors here in Guatemala typically have 17-19 churches and church plants. The elder of the church serves in the capacity of a lay pastor, as the district pastor is only at 1 church on any given Sabbath. The members all take up the spiritual work of the church and are very inclusive of all taking part, especially having the teenagers hold integral parts in the church. In my church, young men and women in their teens, lead the music every night, assist with the baptism as a deacon, totally run the PA and computer generated graphics, etc. Although the pastor is only in 1 church per Sabbath, every Sabbath afternoon, all the leaders of the local church (elders, lay pastors) meet with the Pastor for a leadership meeting, to bring reports of the church, the attendance, and what mission projects the church is engaged in. The Pastor then shares leadership principles and mentors his leaders, and also shares a spiritual message (sermon) for them. Because each church and member takes up the work of mission, none of these churches feel deprived or “under-served.” All play a part and all appreciate each other. All expect God to work through them, not just through the Pastor.

When that spirit permeates a church, God can bless and do great things.
It is worthy of your and my contemplation to consider and then act on, "just what God might lead us in our churches to do differently for the sake of mission and for more dependence upon God’s power and His work through all of us, rather than a dependence upon our own 'traditional' way of doing things, or our expectations according to human values."

MISSION REPORT - 8

MISSION REPORT 8

By the time you read this, our young adults from Pennsylvania have presented the topic of baptism, the millennium, hell fire, why so many denominations, and the remnant church. I am so proud of our Pennsylvania young adults who are taking part. Several have shared with me of their spiritual growth.

A couple are quietly and seriously thinking about being re-baptized, either while we are here, or when they return home. God is at work.
Once the PA Young Adults return home, many of them want to hold a two week meeting just like they did here before returning to college or academy at the end of the summer. Please keep them in your prayers as they endeavor to do that, and if you are in a location where they may be seeking to conduct a 2 week meeting, please give them your full support and invite folks to attend.

One of our young adults was assigned to a church about an hour’s drive from where we are staying. On the first night the church members let her know they weren’t too sure about having a female preacher. Also, they did not have any guests attending, just members. After about 3 messages, the church members started to warm up to her, and now, they are extremely supportive and affirming. Although our PA young adult didn’t have any guests attending her meetings, she kept right on preaching with energy and perseverance. Now into the second week, non-member guests have started to come and attend, and even a former member has come and answered the call for baptism.

We found out this week, that this church family did not know they were having an evangelistic meeting until the day before the meetings started (which is very unusual for the Share Him locations), so it appears that after they got used to the young lady speaker from PA and began to appreciate her giving the messages, they began inviting folks from the community!

MISSION REPORT - 7

MISSION REPORT 7

At this point in our time in Guatemala, our young adults have preached for a week and a half. Now we are giving appeals from the front every night for people to accept Christ, accept the Sabbath and accept Baptism. We have covered most of the “testing truths” so we are giving an appeal every night until the end.

The Churches hear do not use “Decision cards” like most evangelists in the United States do. At the conclusion of the message, we begin the invitation and we invite people to raise their hands, to stand and to come forward. It is very common for the Guatemalian pastors to spend 20-30 minutes in making an appeal. Also, it is common for the elders and the deaconesses to come alongside of specific guests and quietly and gently urge them to respond to the appeal, come forward, give their heart to Christ and make a decision for baptism. In the United States, our culture would be very distressed at what would seem to us to be major pressure put on us if we were a guest at a meeting. However here, that is not a negative factor. In fact, last night, I gave an 8-10 minute appeal before the baptism of 4 people.

Then the pastor gave an appeal from the baptistery after the baptism, which went for 40 minutes! During that appeal, I left the platform and came down into the pews/benches where a young man was being invited forward by one of the deaconesses, but he was hesitant. I motioned to him, held out my hand. He took it, and then we walked to the front. After that, I saw the spouse of one the deaconesses who is a member, but has some sinful lifestyle issues, and I walked back to where he was sitting and held out my hand, he stood up, took it, and we walked to the front, where I put my hand on his shoulder and on the shoulder of the young man who I had just led up to the front. Then a woman in her mid to late twenties was in the back and an Elder had been speaking with her. The pastor had continued his appeal while about 12-18 people including 3 young adult couples came forward. So during his appeal, as he looked toward this twenty-something woman, he said to me in his halting English, “Pastor Ray, I need your help.” By then I knew what he meant, so I walked to the back of the church, held out my hand to “Brenda” as I later learned her name was, and she came over and we walked to the front.
Maybe in the United States we would not use those actions as to those in our culture, they might seem too intense. But it made me think, “Do I care for souls so much, that I am willing to move out of my comfort zone, and do whatever it takes, to lead someone to give their life to Christ and make a commitment to live completely for Christ in the middle of this ‘Great Controversy’ zone as the final events on planet earth wind down?” Is a person’s salvation worth my moving close to them and reaching out to their heart, without fear that they might reject the invitation – just taking the risk and trusting the Holy Spirit to speak through, over and around me?

What are we doing, how are we praying, for souls in the United States?