Young adults are invited to attend Young Adult Conference 2018. YAC will be held at Camp Brethren Woods (near Keezletown, Va.) on May 25-27, and is planned specifically to enrich the faith journeys of those aged 18-35. This year’s theme is “Teach with Your Life,” based on 1 Timothy 4:11-16.
This year’s Advent devotional booklet published by Brethren Press is titled “The Magnificent Story” and written by James H. Lehman. The Brethren Press devotional series is published twice a year, in anticipation of the Advent and Lenten seasons. The pocket sized paperback booklet is suitable for individual devotions as well as for congregations to give to their members, and costs $3.50 for regular print, or $6.95 for large print.
NEWS
1) Brethren staff take part in Churches for Middle East Peace delegation meeting with Palestinian president
2) Food distributions in Nigeria continue during ‘lean period’
3) Soybean Value Chain initiative advances in Nigeria
PERSONNEL
4) Debbie Eisenbise concludes work with Congregational Life Ministries
UPCOMING EVENTS
5) Young Adult Conference 2018 will ‘Teach with Your Life’
6) Sixth Brethren World Assembly is set for August in Indiana
RESOURCES
7) ‘The Magnificent Story’ is the 2017 Advent devotional from Brethren Press
8) Brethren bits: Remembrances, personnel, jobs, NYC speakers, Congressional Briefing on Nigeria, BVS Christmas card list, PowerHouse regional youth conference, and more
Debbie Eisenbise’s work with the Church of the Brethren’s Congregational Life Ministries has concluded, as of Wednesday, Nov. 8. She had worked for about two and a half years as director of Intergenerational Ministries.
In this issue: Remembrances, personnel notes, job openings, NYC speaker announcements, Congressional Briefing on Nigeria, BVS Christmas card list, PowerHouse regional youth conference, and more news by, for, and about Brethren.
The Soybean Value Chain initiative is led by a steering committee of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) with the goal to increase awareness of soybeans as a commercial crop and develop a soybean value chain that will provide sustainable economic benefits to farmers and farming communities.
Plans are being finalized for the Sixth Brethren World Assembly, to be held Aug. 9-12, 2018, in Winona Lake, Ind. This gathering happens every five years for Brethren groups descended from Alexander Mack in 1708, and is sponsored by the Brethren Encyclopedia Project, Inc.
The months from July until late October are called the “lean period” in Nigeria because food from last year’s harvest is almost gone, and the new crop is not yet ready. The Boko Haram insurgency has compounded this problem with a decreased ability to even plant crops. Statistics from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Nigeria) states that 8.5 million people in the area are still in need of humanitarian assistance.
A Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) delegation that included two Church of the Brethren staff members–Nathan Hosler, director of the Office of Public Witness, and Roy Winter, associate executive director of Global Mission and Service and Brethren Disaster Ministries–has met with Palestinian President Abbas on the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.
Newsline Special: A statement from the Executive Committee of the Mission and Ministry Board