I would appreciate your prayers for my children this week. We learned yesterday that our friend, Betty Elliott, suffered a sudden stroke and passed away. Betty was a member of Silver Street UMC where I served for 16 years. Betty and her husband, Dave, were very special to us as they became like grandparents to our children. They have been there for them for every occasion and her loss will be greatly felt. A side note for our older Old Bethel people - she is the sister of former Pastor Gene Crawford who …

Okay, I need input on something. Last Monday, I presented an opportunity to the Administrative Council. We have been approached by a small African-American congregation of 20-25 persons who are seeking to relocate to the east side. Their pastor is a guidance counselor for Warren Central named J.P. Smith who is nearing retirement. His congregation currently meets in a school at Kessler and Keystone. They would like to meet in our building on Sunday mornings and hold Sunday School at 9:00 am and worship at …

Dear Congregation, I didn't think I would get this opportunity but we have Wifi in our compound where we are staying in Reynosa, Mexico. Hard to believe when you consider the poverty we are in the midst of. We look out from the mission and you see shacks made of plywood with tin roofs, fences made of lain together wood pallets. Some use corrugated egg cartons for roofs, there are no sewers and the roads are dirt or should I say mostly mud. Fortunately, the ground is so hard that even though you are …

I am writing this the day before I leave for Reynosa. When you receive this I will be nearing the end of a week of Mission work in this Mexican border town. This time tomorrow I will be aboard a plane with about 15 other Old Bethelites headed to a different country and from I hear a very different world. It may be just across the border from McAllen, Texas, but it is apparently a very different place. I was chatting with a couple members of the Indiana Conference Latino Task Force that met at Old Bethel …

A highlight for me came last Saturday. I got a call from my daughter, Saisha, who is a freshman at UINDY. She and her friends were looking for a basketball because they wanted to go to the recreational gym and play some ball but none of them had a basketball. So they thought of me. They invited me to play, if I brought my ball of course. So I showed up and had one of those priceless moments with your daughter and her friends. We played some 3 on 3 and I got to know her friends a little better. We had …