The Latest News from Around the Fellowship:

Katrina First Responders Dave Guiles (left), Jay Bell (right) and Dan O’Deens (center) are now assessing steps necessary to have the Fellowship better positioned for coordinated response to national disasters. A detailed first-person report from Dan O’Deens follows.[...]

Carmen Franchino, of the Peninsula Grace Brethren Church in Soldotna, Alaska, has called to our attention the following article on an outstanding young Christian athlete from the Peninsula church. The article appeared in the Clarion newspaper on Tuesday (Clarion photo). Pfaffe leads SoHi football By JEFF HELMINIAK Peninsula Clarion Faith and singing have always come before football for Soldotna senior […][...]

Pastor Ivanildo Trindade, Associate Pastor of Outreach Ministries from the Wooster, Ohio, Grace Brethren Church (Robert Fetterhoff, pastor), sent this report with the accompanying photos: A CUP OF WATER — IN JESUS’ NAME If you are a newspaper manager and you see five semi trucks pulling out of a church parking lot, what do you do? Well, you turn around […][...]

The Osceola, Indiana, Grace Brethren Church is excited to announce that we are calling Pastor Greg Serafino (pictured) as our next Senior Pastor. Pastor Serafino has been a church member and leader of the church for over 20 years. Prior to his calling as Senior Pastor, Pastor Serafino served as Assistant Pastor and Interim Pastor of the Church. Pastor Serafino […][...]

The following news note appeared in this morning’s Akron (OH) Beacon-Journal: Akron woman helps `Operation Adoption’ Belinda Barton, 46, has lived in Akron for more than 30 years, but travels to Gulfport, Miss., often to visit family. So she’s donating her time to assist “Operation Adoption,” which will deliver two truckloads of supplies to Gulfport in the next week. Barton […][...]

Kathy Allison of Grace Brethren North American Missions today distributed the following update from the Grace Brethren First Response Team in Shreveport, Louisiana. Jim Robinson (left), Clive Craigen (center) and Kurt Miller were some of the members of the Grace Brethren First Response Team who left from various parts of the U.S. this past weekend, heading for Northwest Louisiana, to […][...]

Dan Thornton (pictured), pastor of Peninsula Grace Brethren Church in Soldotna, Alaska, and board chair of the Brethren Missionary Herald Co., keeps an interesting blog on Xanga.com. His current entry is about a recent moose-hunting trip. Here’s a sample: Wind had died down so we moved early to the Moose Creek Trail. The cabin has long since burnt down leaving […][...]

Dan O’Deens, shown here conducting training in Shreveport, Louisiana, is the “point person” for a first-responders team to the Katrina tragedy from the FGBC. O’Deens is pastor of the Grace Brethren church in Parkesburg, PA. Kathleen Allison, communications director for GBNAM, has sent this report on the First Responders team: This past weekend, our First Responders Team, a group of […][...]

Brethren Missionary Herald Co. has outfitted the FGBC Katrina relief team going to Shreveport, Louisiana, with several hundred copies of the popular BMH tract “Life’s Most Important Question.” The tract, which is available in NIV, KJV and Spanish versions, has now sold more than four million copies and is highly-respected for its clear, concise presentation of the Gospel message. For […][...]

The following article appears in today’s Kittanning, PA, Daily Leader-Times newspaper: WEST KITTANNING, PA — Meet McGruff the CrimeDog, watch a magician and a juggler, go on a buggy ride, or climb a rock wall. All this and more is part of Community Spirit and Drug Awareness Day Saturday from 3 to 8 p.m. at Grace Hall, Grace Brethren Church, […][...]

Pastor Jim Brown from Goshen, Indiana (foreground left, with chainsaw), is leading a team of men from his church helping with Katrina cleanup in Mobile, Alabama. Here is his Thursday-morning report: We had another great day serving here in Mobile, Alabama. We were dispatched to Gulf Dale subdivision and Bayou-LaBartre. I’ve never seen such devastation in my life. Homes were […][...]

Light in the Darkness: Studies in the Gospel of John, the second volume in The Kent Collection, has just been released by BMH Books of Winona Lake, IN. The collection, which includes the re-issued commentaries on 15 New Testament books by former Grace College and Seminary president Homer A. Kent, Jr., is upgrading and re-editing Kent’s commentaries into a color-coordinated […][...]

Grace Brethren are Oldest Twins Alice Garber Peer and Angie Garber (right) Twins Days in Twinsburg, OH, is the world’s largest annual gathering of twins. Every August since 1976, twins from around the world descend on this small town about 30 miles south of Cleveland for a weekend of socializing, celebration, and fun. Twins Days this year took place August […][...]

Ten Years Ago – September, 1995 Among the new churches received into the Fellowship at the National Conference in San Diego were ValleyLife GBC, Peoria, Arizona (Ed Waken, pastor), Brethren Bible Church, Hemet, California (William Kitchell), and Iglesia Evangelica de los Hermanos, Yakima, Washington (Abner Solano). Twenty-five Years Ago – September, 1980 The Pleasant Grove GBC in North English, Iowa, […][...]

Dr. Keith Shearer, pastor of the New Beginnings Grace Brethren Church of Myerstown, PA, and incoming moderator of the Fellowship, delivered the Moderator’s Address Wednesday night of the Equip05 conference in the Rodeheaver Auditorium in Winona Lake, IN. Dr. Keith Shearer, pastor of New Beginnings Grace Brethren Church of Myerstown, PA, is the moderator of the Fellowship of Grace Brethren […][...]

Todd Proctor and his band led the enthusiastic praise and worship for many of the main sessions of BNYC, held in the Jeremiah Auditorium on the campus of Cedarville University in Ohio. (Jenna Hollinger photo) Steve Galegor, Jr. (burgundy shirt) manned his display Tuesday afternoon at the City Fair to explain his ministry to Albanians in New York City to […][...]

Events of general interest among Grace Brethren Churches. Details and registration information are available from sponsoring organizations or through www.fgbc.org. Sept. 16-17 – Sibs Weekend (visit days for brothers/sisters), Grace College Sept. 18 – Mid-Atlantic District CE Celebration, Hagerstown, MD (CEN) Sept. 19 – Northern Atlantic District CE Celebration, Smoketown, PA (CEN) Oct. 7-9 – Evangelists[...]

By Liz Cutler Gates Crusader Football’s roots are in a challenge issued during a Sunday morning sermon. It has grown into a region-wide program which now involves nearly 300 families and includes a football team, cheerleaders, and a marching band. But Crusader Football is more than sacking opponents, rooting for a team, and leading the fight song. It’s about encouraging […][...]

National organization Open Houses were held Tuesday afternoon of Equip05, immediately after classes ended for the day. The Open House at Brethren Missionary Herald Co. hosted approximately 100 people for an autograph party that featured BMH Books authors Robert Cover and Viki Rife, Jesse Deloe, Dr. Homer Kent, Jr., and Dr. John Davis. When FGBC moderator John Teevan suggested several […][...]

Ed Lewis Ed Lewis, Howard Mayes, and Robert Wagner were honored by the Association of Grace Brethren Ministers (AGBM) at the recent Equip05 national conference for Excellence in Ministry (Lewis), Lifetime Achievement (Mayes), and Pastor of the Year (Wagner). Pastor Bud Olszewski, a board member for CE National, presented the tribute for Lewis, who was unable to attend the meeting […][...]