January 8, 1999

Editon

Centennial celebration was homecoming for missionaries

    For 38 years the Rev. Esther Robinson has wanted to have memories of the place she was born. Last November, the pastor of Cutler Ridge United Methodist Church in Miami had the chance to visit her birthplace, Mayori, Cuba, and start building those memories as part of the 100th anniversary celebration of Methodist missionaries arriving in Cuba.
    Robinson and her family fled Cuba in 1960 because of the persecution of religious leaders during the revolution led by Fidel Castro. She was very young then and has not been back to Cuba in the 38 years since.   Full Story

Member visits, studies Russian churches

      John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, said, “I look upon the world as my parish.” Jody Moxley, the Florida Conference’s representative to the denomination’s General Council on Ministries (GCOM), considers the world her classroom as part of GCOM’s project to study what is happening in United Methodist churches around the globe.
     Moxley and two members from other conferences traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia, last October to visit four United Methodist congregations and their pastors. Full Story

Fire destroys building, not the church
      “I am the church; you are the church; we are the church together…”
      That hymn has become the theme song for DeLeon Springs United Methodist Church, says member Gail Hubler. But in the two days since a Dec. 18 fire destroyed the 85-year-old New England style, wood church, those words have taken on even greater significance.
Full Story

Snow falls near Miami
Jonathan Upleger, son of the Rev. Gary Upleger, stands ready to hurl the season’s first snowball during Hollywood Hills United Methodist Church’s 8th Annual SnowFest Dec. 5.    Full Story

Opportunities

Church Development offers “FACE II”

February 7 is day to honor retired pastors

Institute explores new millennium

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