The Corbin Herald June 2016

Reflections from Pastor Jacob —

What the General Conference Means for Us! During the course of the 2016 General Confer-ence of the United Methodist Conference in Portland, OR; I had the opportunity to partici-pate in the 30th Anniversary of the Disciple Bi-ble Study. I am thankful to the Institute of Disci-pleship at Southwestern College for making the travel arrangements for me to fly to Portland. Indeed it was very significant to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Discipleship Bible Study at the General Conference because many churches in the UMC have used Disciple Bible Study for many years. There were many great testimonies of the impact in many churches. Off course, as for me I have always seen the Disciple Bible Study as an important tool for discipleship in our churches and for strengthening small groups. I am looking forward to see our differ-ent small groups adopt the Disciple Bible Study, especially that now that a new online program Disciple Fast Track has been developed. As far as the General Conference is concerned, I find it worthwhile to share with you all a letter issued by the Council of Bishops after the Gen-eral Conference. This is a pastoral letter which I found to be very helpful. I feel that the Bishops did well to use this letter to provide leadership that is so much needed at a time such as this. For us here as a local church it will be important for us to be in conversation and in prayer about our church. Many have questions about the di-rection that the church is taking. But I think we are all stakeholders to this conversation. We are not passive recipients but we are active and contribute to the conversation and prayer in our own way. God is surely speaking to us, even at this point in time. Are we allowing God to speak to our lives?

Here now is the letter from the Council of Bish-ops: Reviving a tradition that is more than a century old, the United Methodist Council of Bishops sent this letter today to the people of The United Methodist Church following the 2016 General Conference, held in Portland, Oregon, May 10-20. The letter reads as follows: “To the people of The United Methodist Church: The Council of Bishops brings you greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who has called us to be servant leaders of the church. In 1812, Bishop Francis Asbury, Bishop William McKendree and General Conference Secretary Daniel Hitt sent the first letter to churches following General Conference. This letter seeks to revive that tradition. Many bish-ops will also be communicating individually in their own areas. Hundreds of lay and clergy delegates from around the world gathered in Portland, Oregon, along with bishops and pastors, church mem-bers and staff, volunteers and visitors, to en-gage in Christian conferencing, to make deci-sions for our church’s future, to affirm our global connection, to worship and to celebrate God’s faithfulness. We celebrated the success of our Imagine No Malaria initiative, which seeks to raise $75 million in the fight against malaria, a disease that takes the life of a child in Africa every two minutes. We celebrated our ecumenical partner-

ships as we move into full Communion with the Uniting Church in Sweden and toward full Communion with the Moravian church. We celebrated our heritage: the 250th anniversary of our oldest church, John Street United Methodist Church, the 200th anniversary of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the 150th anniversary of United Methodist Women, the 25th anniversary of Africa Uni-versity and others. We continued in our acts of repentance with a presentation from the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes about the Methodist involvement in the 1864 Sand Creek massacre. We shared in the

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consecration of deaconesses and home mis-sioners and the commissioning of missionaries. We moved toward a global Book of Discipline and global Social Principles. We voted to add five new bishops in Africa after 2020, and ap-proved a churchwide study on our ecclesiology. The Episcopal address set the tone for the event, focusing on humility and lifting up our ac-complishments. We heard from our laity an invi-tation to members to be more involved in making disciples and getting involved in ministries to bring the love of Christ to others. We heard our young people say they “are engaged in Christ’s journey with energy and love.” We also heard them say clearly that they do not want a divided church and urged us to “be in unity even if we do not have unanimity.” They give us hope for our future. The body had difficult and challenging work before it as we acknowledged our differences over human sexuality. Amidst those differences, the delegates affirmed they want their bishops to lead and we found ourselves with an opportunity for a holy moment. We spoke candidly about what divides us and what our church might look like in the future if we dared to consider new possibilities. We offered a way forward, postpon-ing decisions about sexuality matters and com-mitting to having a different kind of global con-versation that allows all voices to be heard. Our differences do not keep us from being the body of Christ. They do not keep us from doing good in the world. They do not keep us from making a difference – and so we set forth bold new goals: to make a million new disciples of Jesus Christ; to engage 3 million new people to make a difference in the world; to transform 400 communities for vital abundant living; to reach a million children with lifesaving health interventions; and to double the number of vital congregations. Most importantly, we affirmed our commit-ment to stay united. We proved that we are more than debates and divisions, more than rules and resolutions. We stood together as the body of Christ. As we reflect on our time in Port-land, our prayer is for unity in the church for the advancement of our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. As John Wesley reminded us, “Best of all, God is with us.” Signed on behalf of the Council of Bishops, Bishop Bruce R. Ough, president of the Council”

CONGRATULATIONS: Clay Ginn received his second Masters Degree of Divinity this Saturday at Luther-Rice College and seminary in Atlanta, Georgia. His first Masters was in Business Technology from a school in Ste-phenville, Texas. All of these were done on line. Dave and Peggy Ginn are Clay’s parents. They were unable to attend the ceremony. Graveside Services for Carl Stiles were held April 22 at the Corzine Cemetery. Carl died fol-lowing a brief illness.

GENERAL CONFERENCE Jacob is at the Gen-eral Conference with Bishop Nhiwatiwa's wife, Greater Nhi-watiwa and dele-gates from Zim-babwe

BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES

http://www.corbinumc.com is the website. Take some time to check it out.

Corbin UMC has a page on Facebook.

Pinterest? Look for the Corbin UMC page. Twitter: @corbinumc Come and Worship!

June

2 Mary Jane Appel

2 Chris Hollis

5 Roger & Carla Rains **

12 Joey Whiteley

20 Barbara Knowles

20 Brent Rice

JULY

1 Gary & Clara Ginn **

Gary & Toni Wolff **

Mark & Melinda Neal **

Summer is travel time

Editor's note: the following is from the Rev. Hollie Tapley, Disaster Response coor-

dinator for the Great Plains Conference. If you are heading out on a mission trip or vacation, The Center for Disease Control

has some information to share on the Zika virus to take note of.

Zika is spread to people primarily through the bite of an infected Aedes spe-cies mosquito. The most common symp-

toms are fever, rash, joint pain and con-junctivitis (red eyes). The illness is usually

mild with symptoms lasting for several days to a week after being bitten by an in-fected mosquito.

If your destination is to any of the fol-lowing places, go to the Center for Disease

Control Zika website for detailed informa-tion: Mexico, The Caribbean, Central Amer-

ica, The Pacific Islands and South America. Two great phone apps to have from the CDC are TravWell and Can I Eat This?

Enjoy your summer adventures!

General Conference Pastor Jacob attended 3 days of General Conference in Portland Oregon with

United Methodists from all around the world. During these days, the 30th Anni-

versary gathering of the Disciple Bible Study was held. Jacob spoke for a few minutes about how the study impacted

him. The Disciple Bible Study Series was authored by Rev. Richard Wilke and his

wife Julia Wilke.

Jacob with Dr. Steve Wilke at the 30th Anniver-sary Celebration of the Disciple Bible Study on 19 May 2016

Services for David Hollis were held on May 7 at Corbin.

Norman Furhmann passed away after a winter of poor health. Services were

held on May 9 at the church.

UMW Women met at the church on May 11 for a brief meal and business meeting.

Then they removed all items from the kitchen cabinets , boxed the items and

moved to a room to be stored until the kitchen cabinets are painted.

Painting is being done by John

Mathews.

Fellowship for May is Julia

Strnad, Suzie Yunker, Angie Baker, Lois Akers,

Sharolyn Mathews. June Fellowship is Jo Roitman, Betty

Frazier, Amy Shoffner and Marsha Bar-nes.

“We influence the world by the good words and

deeds we say and do. As you express your faith

thru word and deed, do people see JESUS in you?”

Pastor Jacob

CHABADZA NEWS—-

Prior to the Mission Journey, the Corbin UMC Administrative Board approved money to be given for truck repairs to the Old Mutare Mission Hospital. After the Team visited the hospital, money from our church was wired to the hospital. The $5000 sent was

from money that was left to the church from Olive Smith Estate. This has recently been received from the Hospital Administrator: About the Land-

cruiser we have managed to have it repaired by another reputable garage in Mutare which had reasonable price. May I ask your permission to allow me to use the change of $1 500 to repair the other ambulance Nissan Caravan which is off the road. that

way it leaves the hospital with enough vehicles both ambulatory and service duties. This leaves this hospital with three ambulances, one new ambulance which we re-

ceived from Ministry of health under the government of Zimbabwe (Ford ranger) last year 2015. The other two ambulances were donated (UMC) organisations. I am go-ing to send you our outreach schedule which we are going to resume on May

12 2016. This means that our team comprising of the doctor, nurse and the adminis-trator shall be visiting all six clinics under our supervision.

We are seeing the work of God and our people in the community are appreciating what we are doing because of you.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS:

June 1-4 — Annual Conference, Topeka. Marilyn will be representing Corbin UMC July 6— NOW, Adm Board 6—7pm

August 7—10am Morning Worship at the County Fair

Advent Bible Study every Wednesday Evening 7pm—Caldwell UMC

Special guest speaker on May 29 was Rev Austern

Chepiri. He is the Project Director of all UMC pro-jects in Zimbabwe East

Conference. His message was “Share God’s Love”.

Greeters: Gary and Clara

Ginn Acolytes: Shingai Maforo,

T K Maforo, Trey Strnad, Jace Baker, Conner Atkins

and Kennedee Ginn Scripture Reader: Bryan

Taber Healthy Snacks: Amy

Shoffner, Lois Akers