With the Lord
– Wanita Faith Ogden
– Angie Garber
– Jamie Lynn Fahning
Pastoral News and Changes
The Nightingale Sang (for the 49ers)
Whitcomb Book on ’50 Most Influential’ List
Seal Beach Church Provides Heart Units
With the Lord
Wanita Faith Ogden, 79, of Winona Lake, Indiana, died October 18, 2006, in Kosciusko Community Hospital,
Warsaw, Indiana. A native of Ithaca, Michigan, she was married to retired Grace College music department chair Donald E. Ogden, who survives. She was a bookkeeper/accountant and teller at Grace Brethren Investment Foundation, Winona Lake, for 36 years, and was a member of Winona Lake Grace Brethren Church.
Survivors include a son, Ronald (and wife, Rebecca Bryant) Ogden, Warsaw; two daughters, Mrs. James “Jim” (Kathleen) Jenkins, Jacksonville, Fla., and Diane Bollman, Indianapolis; seven grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, and five sisters. Services were held at the Winona Lake (IN) Grace Brethren Church with the Revs. Bruce Barlow and Russell Ogden officiating.
Angie Garber, 94, a legendary figure in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches for her 47 years of service at the Navajo Mission in New Mexico and a twin of Mrs. Earle (Alice) Peer, went to be with the Lord Saturday, October 14 in Westerville, Ohio. (See separate article this issue.)
Jamie Lynn Fahning, 35, died at her residence in Prior Lake, Minnesota, on October 28, 2006. A resident of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, much of her life, Jamie worked at a number of jobs in childcare, retail sales of cosmetics and beauty supplies, and as a veterinarian’s surgical assistant. As a child, she traveled for several years–including the nation’s bicentennial year of 1976–with her mother and Miriam and Maria Pacheco of Winona Lake, Indiana, giving mother-daughter concerts in a number of Grace Brethren churches.
She is survived by her parents, Terry and Sharon White of Winona Lake, Indiana; by a brother, Jonathan Andrew White, of Winona Lake, Indiana; by her two sons Todd Fahning, 16, and Chad Fahning, 12, of Jordan, Minnesota; and by her maternal grandparents, Andrew and Mary Jane Auxt of Hagerstown, Maryland. She was preceded in death by her paternal grandparents, Elzie and Helen White of Kittanning, Pennsylvania. A memorial service was held in Prior Lake, Minnesota, on November 2.
Pastoral News and Changes
Roger Tickle (Mt. Vernon GBC) was unanimously recommended for ordination and Shawn Kaeser (Marysville GBC) for licensure at their North Central Ohio District exams on September 14. An ordination service and reception affirmed Roger Tickle at the Mt.Vernon, Ohio, Grace Brethren Church on October 28. Walt Malick gave the message and joined Al Hockley, Todd Scoles, and Gene Witzky in a prayer of dedication. The church has made provision for Roger to pastor full-time beginning in 2007.
Paul Hutchinson, formerly manager of the Herald Bookstore in Winona Lake, Indiana, is now the pastor of Living Water Community Church, the Grace Brethren church in Greencastle, PA.
Grady Pennell is the new pastor of Eagle River Grace Brethren Church in Eagle River, Alaska. Pennell is currently a navy chaplain stationed in Okinawa and anticipates beginning at Eagle River in February. Grady is a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary and has a doctorate from Fuller Seminary.
Lawrence (Larry) M. Weber was called by the Waynesboro (PA) Grace Brethren Church to serve as pastor at a congregational meeting on October 8, 2006. He had been the interim pastor since July, 2006. Larry and Nancy Weber have been married since January 19, 2003, after their marriages of 42 and 25 years respectively ended with the death of their spouses. The Webers reside near Hagerstown, MD.
Dale Harris is the new pastor at the Brookville, Ohio, Grace Brethren Church. The church also named Dan Grabill pastor emeritus after his having served as interim pastor.
Don Smith has announced his resignation after a lengthy and faithful ministry at Cornerstone Grace Brethren Church in Ontario, Ohio.
Dr. David Plasterhas accepted a call to pastor the Grace Brethren Church of Columbus, Ohio. He will succeed longtime Columbus pastor Jim Custer.
Plaster became a believer in Christ at the age of eight at the Grace Brethren Church of Canton, Ohio. After completing studies at the University of Lyon, France, and Grace College, he entered Grace Theological Seminary in 1971. At that time he became the part-time pastor of a small independent church in Indiana.
After receiving the M.Div. he and his wife Ginny moved to Armagh, Pennsylvania, where he began the Valley Grace Brethren Church. In 1979 he returned to Warsaw, Indiana, to serve as senior pastor of Community Grace Brethren Church.
In 1984 he joined the faculty of Grace Theological Seminary full-time and began work on a Th.D. in Systematic Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary. He has served as Academic Dean of the Seminary (1988-1991) and Vice President for Academic Affairs for both the college and seminary since 1991.
Plaster is the author of two significant books in Grace Brethren history and doctrine. Ordinances: What Are They? is used by many Grace Brethren churches, and his history of the Fellowship, Finding Our Focus, which updates an earlier work by Dr. Homer Kent, Sr., is the signal work in this area. Both are available from BMH books.
Pastor Jim Laird of the Grace Brethren Church of Martinsburg, PA, has announced that he will be concluding his ministry at the Martinsburg church.
Brian Reifsnider has been called by the Daystar Church in Union City, Ohio, as Interim Pastor until such time as their Lead Pastor position can be filled. Reifsnider and his wife Janie are members of Greenville Grace in Greenville, Ohio, where Brian currently serves in the Greenville church as a lay elder, and works full-time as a Human Resources professional.
Whitcomb Book on ’50 Most Influential’ List
The Genesis Flood, a book co-authored in 1961 by the late Henry M. Morris and John C. Whitcomb, who was then on the faculty of Grace Theological Seminary, has been named by Christianity Today as one of the 50 most influential books that have shaped the evangelical movement.
In the October, 2006 fiftieth anniversary issue of the magazine, the editors say, “People and movements can be defined by the books they read and remember. These are the books that have shaped evangelicalism as we see it today. . . books that over the last 50 years have altered the way American evangelicals pray, gather, talk, and reach out–not books that merely entertained.”
The 525-page paperback is available from www.bmhbooks.com (click “Whitcomb Books” tab) for $15 retail. The ISBN number is 0875523382.
The Nightingale Sang (for the 49ers)
Matt Nightingale, a 1994 graduate of Grace College and former Grace employee, sang the National Anthem for the San Francisco 49ers/Seattle Seahawks game Sunday, November 19. A father of four, Matt is a licensed minister in the Evangelical Covenant Church and the Pastor of Music and Creative Arts at Peninsula Covenant Church in Redwood City, California. He was originally from the Osceola, IN, Grace Brethren Church and his wife was from the Simi Valley, CA, church. For more information, visit www.mattnightingale.com.
Seal Beach Church Provides Heart Units
Jeff Kirkpatrick (right), chief of police for the City of Seal Beach, California, and Pastor Don Shoemaker (left), chaplain for the police department, stand beside 14 Automatic External Defibrillator units that will be carried in police cars or located throughout the city in public places.
The AED’s were purchased mostly from $17,000 raised by Grace Community Church’s “Michele’s Fund,” named after Michele Fishback, Director of Women’s Ministries at the church, who died in March after her body rejected a heart transplant.