1) Developments at the Brethren Academy offer opportunities for students
2) Emergency Disaster Fund grants help begin new disaster rebuilding site in Detroit
3) Old meets new as Bermudian meets Bittersweet
4) Global Women’s Project Steering Committee meets in Virginia
5) Brethren bits
In this issue: Heifer International posts seagoing cowboy video stories, Ken Medema’s song for Children’s Disaster Services is available online, new church starts are announced by Illinois/Wisconsin District, Shenandoah District is again a collection depot for CWS kits, lots of college news, and more.
At the Brethren Academy for Ministerial Leadership, women and men are equipped for leadership in the church through four training programs: Training in Ministry (TRIM), Education for a Shared Ministry (EFSM), Seminario Biblico Anabautista Hispano (SeBAH-CoB), and district-based Academy Certified Training Systems (ACTS). The academy also offers continuing education opportunities for those who have completed seminary degrees or ministry training programs.
Harrisonburg, Va., was the site for the March Global Women’s Project Steering Committee meeting. Members enjoyed the warmth of the valley of Virginia both in weather and welcome.
When the founders of Bermudian Church of the Brethren in East Berlin, Pa., stood on their hill and looked over the river where baptisms occurred, they must have felt like they were on holy ground. As pastor Larry Dentler says, “We have been here since before America was America.”
Brethren Disaster Ministries has directed recent grants from the Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) to begin a new rebuilding project site following flooding in Detroit, Mich.; to continue an ongoing rebuilding project site in Colorado; and to help support the work of Brethren volunteers at an ecumenical Disaster Recovery Support Initiative (DRSI) in South Carolina.
Here is information about some of the special events and prayer vigils planned to commemorate this anniversary, including a first-ever memorial event at the school in Chibok for the parents and families that will integrate both Christian and Muslim faiths:
1) Still no definitive answers: What Brethren should know on this second anniversary of the Chibok abductions
2) Special events, vigils mark second anniversary of Chibok abductions
3) ‘Long Journey Home’ video updates Brethren about the Nigeria Crisis Response
4) Fellowship tour to Nigeria is planned for August
5) United Nations notes sharp increase in use of child suicide bombers
6) Live your life in the hand of God: An interview with Rebecca Dali
On April 14, 2014, 276 schoolgirls were abducted from a secondary school in Chibok, in northeast Nigeria. Since the night the girls were taken some 56 have escaped and one reportedly was executed in a vicious stoning incident. That leaves 219 of the girls unaccounted for and, at last report, no one has any concrete information concerning their whereabouts.
The Global Mission and Service office has released a new DVD which updates the Church of the Brethren about the Nigeria Crisis Response for 2016. The video called “The Long Journey Home” outlines what has been accomplished with funds raised by the church and mission partners during 2015, and provides a blueprint for the church’s support of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) for 2016.