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A MESSAGE FROM OUR PRESIDENT

     This message might well be entitled "mid-Summer miscellany". First, to report on our May Mission Society Board meeting. We heard an update from Michael Tesh, who is now back in the orphanage in Kenya. The first phase has been completed and the initial group of 13 youngsters are now in residence. Future plans call for doubling the capacity. (Michael is operating under YWAM). Later we listened as Phil Raford from Friedberg Church told us of his plans to commit two years of his life to be discipled by Anne and Rob Thiessen in Mexico. The Board voted to provide some of his support for the next two years.

            The Board decided to award Honorary Life Memberships in the Mission Society to twenty three individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the spreading of the Gospel. This brings the number of Life Members to 802. The Total membership of the Society, including this latest addtion, is 2938. The Board also voted to raise the annual membership dues for an individual to $ 25. This will now include a subscription to Onward. Senior dues, for those 60 and older, will be $ 20. Life Membership is $ 200.  Onward may still be subscribed to separately, particularly applicable to our brothers and sisters overseas, at $10 per year. Br. Al Gambill was elected to complete the unexpired term of Sr. Barbara Carter, who felt it necessary to resign for personal reasons.

   The Mission Residence has been fully occupied these last six weeks, and will be throughout July. Br.Steve Marx and family are with us now and we are expecting the Thiessens and the Propsoms shortly. Our plan is to have an open-house in September to showcase the handiwork of Sr. Emily Fernbach and the volunteers who worked so hard to refurbish the downstairs apartment.

   I just received word that the Women's Conference planned for Riga, Latvia in July has been canceled.  Please pray for Sr. Ilona Grante and Br. Gundars Ceipe as they lead the work in this budding outpost of the Moravian Church. Also please pray for Sr.Salme Reier in Estonia, recovering from a stroke, as she attempts to hold things together while they await the appointment of a pastor by the Continental Province.

   I look forward to reporting on summer mission trips as I receive the good news. I do know that the Mission Camps at Laurel Ridge has been a resounding success according to the feedback from Brs. Joel Landreth at Friedberg and John Rights at New Philadelphia.

   Two things in closing: Pray for a speedy recovery of Br. George Chiddie who had a heart valve replaced June 27th and prayerfully consider service to the Lord by serving on the Mission Society Board. Synod is coming up in April 2006 and it's not too early to put your name in the pot for election. Talk with your pastor.                   

God is so good!

Jack Geis

BLUEFIELDS COLEGIO FRIEND

     CLARION - Clarion Area graduate Charles Baschnagel, a 2005 graduate of Williams College Mass, had a chance to pass his love of basketball on to a group of needy children in Nicaragua June 13-26.

     The basketball camp was set up by former Williams College Athletic Director Bob Peck. Peck takes a group of medical students from Williams to Nicaragua every year for an eye-glass clinic and this year brought Baschnagel and Williams' freshman Chris Rose along to teach a basketball camp.

     The camp was on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua in Bluefields, a more primitive section of the nation. The Pacific side of Nicaragua , where Baschnagel and Rose flew into, is more modern while the Atlantic Coast is still ravaged by poverty.

     Baschnagel and Rose ran the camp at the Moravian school in Bluefields and were helped by a former member of the Nicaraguan national team, Kurt Brautigam.

     Before leaving for the basketball camp Baschnagel collected shoes from his Williams College teammates and basketball and T-shirts from Clarion University of Pennsylvania head coach Ron Righter and his father, who runs the Fun with Fundamentals basketball camp. There was a slight language barrier, Baschnagel said. They speak like a Creole English. The culture on the T.V. is all of the American culture sub-titled. I was a little thrown back by that. I was expecting some of the T.V. shows to be produced down there. They understood us very well but it was very hard to understand them. They basically chopped off the last half of every word.

     Basketball is still a developing sport in the country and the skill level is still very raw. Baschnagel and Rose had to start from scratch teaching basic fundamentals to each camper. The complete story can be found at: http://www2.theclarionnews.com/Sports/42714.shtml

(Thanks to Br. Al Reynolds for supplying this eyewitness account of how others see us.)