Local Church Updates

• Staff Members Get Wilderness First Aid Training
• Arizonans Enjoy Night at the Ball Game
• Members' Home Spared in Wildfire
• Five Baptized in Georgia
• Dallas Holds Young Adults' Weekend
• Teen Receives Citizenship Award
• Church Members' Efforts Secure Scholarship for UCG Teen

Staff Members Get Wilderness First Aid Training

Twelve ministers and other adults completed a Wilderness First Aid (WFA) course following the annual General Conference of Elders at Cincinnati. The 16-hour course covered basic skills needed to deal with emergencies and other health situations in the wilderness and other back-country settings.

The focus of training was on response and assessment, musculoskeletal injuries, environmental emergencies, survival skills, soft tissue injuries and medical emergencies.

Those certified in this Wilderness First Aid skills course included staff members from the United Youth Camp program (Gary Black, Howard Davis, Frank Dunkle, Cody Kitts, Scott Lord and Nathan Willoughby); the Challenger II young adults program (Jon Pinelli and Paul Luecke); and ministers who serve in international areas (Tim Waddle, David Baker, Joel Meeker and Tom Clark).

For the camp program, WFA certification is required of staff members who conduct challenge-type activities. For Challenger II and ministers who travel internationally, this information is very helpful in knowing what to do when medical emergencies arise anywhere medical services are not readily available.

The course included both class time and "hands-on" time, where teams practiced dealing with emergency scenarios that were set up by the instructor. The course was taught by SOLO (Stonehearth Open Learning Opportunities), an organization that specializes in training and certifying various levels of medical skill sets.

—Paul Luecke

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Arizonans Enjoy Night at the Ball Game

The Phoenix, Arizona, Northwest congregation along with members from Phoenix East got together for the third time to enjoy a Major League Baseball game on June 17. All of the brethren enjoyed sitting in the same section watching the game, fellowshipping and cheering on their hometown Arizona Diamondbacks.

This year's numbers were not as robust as last year's due to scheduling difficulties; but all in all, the 35 attendees who made it to this year's game enjoyed the cool confines of the air-conditioned ballpark and camaraderie.

—Dan McGee

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Members' Home Spared in Wildfire

Fred and Angelina Jaques and their children, Erica, Caleb and Levi, attend in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Angelina Jaques reported:

Our property in Edgewood, New Mexico, consists of five acres of open dry desert brush—very dry at this time of year, with extreme fire danger. On June 11, 4½ acres of our property were consumed by fire. The half acre that was not burned up is where our house is located.

We are very grateful to God for protecting our home that day. The firemen supposed that our home would be burned up, and so they did nothing to try and save it. Instead, they said that they had decided to concentrate on the fire not spreading throughout the whole countryside because of the high winds that were in excess of 50 miles an hour.

It was amazing to walk around our property afterward and discover all the ways our house should have burned up. The fire had crept up to the back and sides of our house and went around it. It even burned up part of the front yard. A shed in the front was burned to the ground, but our dogs, puppies, cats, home, vehicles and we ourselves were all spared, by the grace of God.

Our neighbor's house, where the fire started, was burned to the ground. In all, there were about 15 to 20 acres that burned up that day, and it all seems centered around our house!

—Angelina Jaques

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Five Baptized in Georgia

On April 13 a wonderful event took place at the home of Tom and Bonny Riner, deacon and deaconess in the Macon, Georgia, congregation. Five individuals were baptized prior to Passover by pastor Ken Martin.

Three were from the Columbus, Georgia, congregation: Terra Nelson, Megan Gable and Jadah Blankenship; and two were from the Macon congregation: William Wildman and Mark Huff.

Family and friends attended the event, and snacks were provided for the fellowship period that followed.

—Ken Martin

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Dallas Holds Young Adults' Weekend

We have grown up in a world of iPods, computers, Blu-ray and Wii. We access information and communicate quicker than ever before in history. However, as communication has progressed, it also has become easier to blur the lines between what it means to be male and female. "Men and Women: Be the Best You Can Be" was the theme this year at the Dallas Young Adults' Weekend, Feb. 16 and 17. The focus was on defining the differences between men and women, and how this plays into our roles in marriage and as servants for God.

The Dallas Young Adults' Weekend, held at the Quality Inn, was host to over 100 young adults, guest speakers Clyde and Dee Kilough, Ken and Kathy Giese, Gary and Kim Petty, Britt and Donna Taylor and local pastor Doug Horchak and his wife, Tanya. Seminars were centered around the God-given differences between men and women and how vitally important it is to learn and appreciate our respective strengths.

On the Sabbath Mr. and Mrs. Giese gave a session to the women about modesty and purity, while Mr. and Mrs. Kilough spoke about what it means to be a true man. In his sermon titled "You Think Funny," Mr. Kilough pointed out the differences between how men and women think. That evening, the young adults enjoyed a costume dance and contest.

On Sunday morning, seminars for the men and women focused on defining what men and women want (and need) as mates and as partners in God's Church. The weekend came to a conclusion during brunch on Sunday with concluding comments by Mr. Kilough, accompanied by a Q&A session with all of the guest pastors and their wives.

—Rebecca Horchak

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Teen Receives Citizenship Award

Justin Matthew Wildman received the Citizenship Award from his high school in Jones County, Georgia, for good leadership, character and integrity. Justin is 15 and the son of Bill and Ida Wildman. He attends the United Church of God in Macon, Georgia, with his family.

—Ken Martin

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Church Members' Efforts Secure Scholarship for UCG Teen

When Kayleen Hannaway, a 2008 high school graduate in the Salem, Oregon, congregation, learned she had been accepted at Vanderbilt University, she was very excited. Her parents were too, until they saw the $54,000-a-year price tag. They told Kayleen to work for scholarships. One she applied for online was the Zinch.com scholarship that offered $20,000.

Early in the spring, Kayleen received an e-mail from Zinch.com informing her that they had selected her as a finalist from 150,000 applications. Zinch then asked the 200 finalists to vie for online votes to win the scholarship. Neither Kayleen nor her parents were thrilled with the twist the competition took to online voting. But since the odds had improved immensely from 150,000 to 200 and Kayleen had already put in time and effort, she endured.

The online voting was a hybrid of American Idol voting and March Madness basketball bracketing. Each week, Kayleen was pitted against another applicant and was expected to solicit votes online. That is difficult for someone not keen about door-to-door sales, school candy drives or other solicitation. Not to mention that Kayleen lives in a town with a population of 4,530 people.

Kayleen also knew her biography, which featured her religious viewpoint, would now be seen by many others as she tried to earn more votes. As time progressed, religion came to the fore in many discussions.

One week, with 14 minutes to go before the voting ended, Kayleen went to her old middle school. The office personnel used the intercom to ask if everyone who was in the building who had not voted for Kayleen would meet in the computer lab to vote. Students in the middle school jazz band were in school early that morning and rushed to the library to vote. Kayleen won that morning by a slim margin thanks to her previous band teacher who escorted her jazz novices to the computer lab in time.

As the weeks passed, it was obvious that networking would need to escalate, so e-mails were sent to radio, TV and other media sources. A television station in Eugene reminded viewers almost daily to vote for the local contestant. The local radio station encouraged their morning commuters to vote at work.

Kayleen's aunt, Kit Mohr, a professor at the University of North Texas, sought help from students. A cousin at the University of Wisconsin plastered his Facebook and MySpace pages with links and prompts. Other family members in Colorado, Indiana, Maryland and Florida contacted everyone in their business and personal address books who, in turn, did the same.

Local Church members began to learn about the scholarship opportunity and contacted other Church members for help. As Kayleen advanced through the brackets, information was placed on the Elders' Forum, and Victor Kubik put a link on his Web site. Even amidst the Spring Holy Days, the scurry and creativity brought success, and on April 23, Kayleen was named the Sweet Diggity Dawg $20K Scholarship winner.

Kayleen wishes to thank the many Church members who endured to support one of their own in this unconventional opportunity.

"Thank you for all who were generous enough to give their time to help me. I know it was an annoyance for some, while for others it was exciting and energizing. Of course, I could not have won without the willingness of others to take time and send the information to their contacts that I did not know. I definitely do not know 7,400 people," Kayleen said.

After winning, Kayleen had a number of radio, newspaper and TV interviews. She tried to emphasize in the interviews that her Church family had been a major pipeline of support and diligence.

—Kayleen, Kimberly, David and Holly Hannaway

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