Category: Stay Connected

James White is the father of Troy White, GCI elder, and father-in-law of Connie White, Donations Processor in the Home Office, Charlotte, NC. We join them in their grief and in their hope of resurrection.

The following is the obituary shared with Update from his family.

James “Jim” White, beloved husband, father, and friend, passed away peacefully on July 5, 2022, in Roanoke, VA, at the age of 88. Jim was born in Lynchburg, VA, on August 2, 1933.

He was a proud graduate of Lucy Addison High School. After graduation, he was drafted into the United States Army and served in the Korean War. While in the Army, Jim honed his skills as a trumpet player and performed in the traveling military band. After leaving the Army, he played in a jazz band called The Corvettes, entertaining folks in towns and cities all over southwest Virginia.

He believed in hard work and maintained multiple jobs simultaneously throughout his working career. Jim enjoyed working for General Electric as a machinist/lathe operator for over 25 years. He was an entrepreneur who started his own grading, excavating, and demolition business called J.H. White, Inc., in 1972. He retired 46 years later at the young age of 85.

Jim was a devout Christian, a faithful member of Grace Communion International where he served in various roles. He loved the Lord, his church family, and discussing biblical subjects with everyone.

Jim was preceded in death by his loving wife of many years, Anna Louise White. Jim is lovingly remembered by his four children, Patrice White, Joyce White, Ricky (Brenda) White, and Troy (Connie) White; four grandchildren, Lamont White, Damon White, Andrew White, and Jonathan White; along with four great-grandchildren and many nieces, nephews, and extended family.

Honorable, kind, giving, easy-going, friendly, personable. These are words everyone uses to describe Jim White.

Don Miller passed away on June 25, just shy of his 90th birthday. Don was employed by GCI in the U.S. and Canada, and he worked at Ambassador College in various business-related capacities throughout the 1970s to 1990s. He retired in Canada and was involved in hospice work and refurbishing properties. He is survived by his wife of 24 years, his daughter Sue Berger of Longview, Texas, and his son Gary Miller of San Diego, California.

Cards may be sent to:
Sue Berger
218 Joan Lane
Longview, TX 75605

Hello Girlfriends!

I am happy to announce our 2022 fall retreat at the St. Bernard Abbey Retreat and Conference Center in Cullman. So many of us have gone through difficult times over the past few years. Sometimes the “cares of this world” can choke out our faith focus. Faith friends are so important, and these retreats have made it possible to renew friendships as well as make new friends.

For many years now we have enjoyed this great retreat center, which has a beautiful conference room where we have our general sessions, and the bedrooms are adjacent to the meeting area. The bedrooms accommodate two people (twin beds) and each has a private bathroom.

The dates are October 7-9, 2022. Registration begins Friday afternoon, October 7 at 3:00 p.m. Snacks will be available, but you will be on your own for dinner that evening. A Cracker Barrel and other restaurants are nearby. This evening is free for getting checked in and relaxing. If you will be arriving after 10 p.m., please let us know ahead of time if possible. My cell phone is (205) 540-1515.

Our theme for the weekend will be Salvation Joy! There are so many wonderful passages of Scripture that speak about this special joy that we can have, even when we are going through tough times. Our happiness fluctuates so often, depending on our physical circumstances. But salvation joy can be a constant. The apostle Paul wrote so much about this kind of joy in the book of Philippians, at a time when he was a prisoner. The word “joy” in its various forms occurs repeatedly in this epistle.

Speakers this year include Gerrie Bayley, Becki Brown, Barbara Dahlgren, Ruth Miller, and Sondra Peters. Ann Hartmann will be our guest singer again this year! You can go to Ann’s website (annhartmann.com) to learn more about Ann’s music and ministry. Mary Jo Leaver will be presenting her Music to the Eyes, which includes music, sign language and lyrical dance – beautiful and inspiring!

Dress is casual for the entire weekend. Bring comfy shoes, as you might enjoy a bit of walking. We have a long-standing tradition of great fun playing games on Friday and Saturday evenings, so bring your “play clothes” or pajamas for this! Bring your favorite board games, and label them, please! The retreat center supplies our bed linens, towels and washcloths. You might want to bring your own water bottles, if you enjoy having bottled water. We do have access to a kitchen and a refrigerator, so we are able to enjoy snacks throughout the weekend. The meals that will be provided are Saturday breakfast, lunch and dinner and Sunday breakfast (total of four meals). This year we are planning to have all of our meals at the retreat center again. Being able to eat “in house” is very convenient, and everyone seemed to enjoy the leisurely meal times.

We plan to conclude the retreat by noon on Sunday so that those who need to get on the road will have the full afternoon for travel. For those who want to stick around and visit a bit, we can have prolonged “goodbyes” in the retreat center.

We hope you will help spread the word to others who might enjoy the weekend. If you have questions or need more information, contact me at 205-663-7979 (home), 205-540-1515 (cell), or email ruth.miller@gci.org.

Please fill out the registration form, include payment, and return it to me by August 30. Late registrations will be accepted if space is still available. I’m looking forward to sharing this weekend with you in October!

With love,
Ruth Miller

Grace Communion Cleveland hosted its first neighborhood engagement in the afternoon on June 26 after Sunday services. Our congregation meets in a classroom at Coventry P.E.A.C.E. Campus, which is a former elementary school that now houses non-profit groups and artists. The Playground Pop-up, as we called it, was held in the community park that is part of this campus, where families often bring their children to the large playground with grassy hills on weekends.

There was a rubber ducky-pull game for kids to win prizes, face painting, sidewalk chalk drawing, a balloon artist, corn hole games and a physical education teacher to engage kids in organized activities. Juice boxes, water and an assortment of chips were the snacks for the afternoon. Four $50 gas cards were given away to adults in a drawing midway through the event.

Although thunderstorms were in the forecast all week for that Sunday, we forged ahead with our plans, praying for God’s intervention with the weather. The rain held off until 3:45 p.m., fifteen minutes before the end of the event. Even then, it was just a gentle brief rain. We were amazed, pleased, and praising God that all went so well for our first outreach and look forward to August when we will have a picnic and school supply giveaway.

By Pat Shiels
Love Avenue Champion, Cleveland, OH, US

Editor’s Note: This is a wonderful example of a congregation paying close attention to the rhythms of their neighborhood. They discerned a need and were compelled by love to risk trying something new. Thank you for sharing your story!

It was a simple plan—a hot breakfast prior to our church service for the neighborhood the first Sunday of each month. First, we advertised in the newsletter of the senior center where we meet for church, and we put up flyers in a nearby apartment community. We learned that both places provide meals during the week, but no meals are served on Sunday.

Next, one member, Princess Yeager, gave our bulletin board at the center a fresh, new look. We spruced up the worship hall with new silk plants. It may have been a simple plan, but it was a lot of work for organizer Zebbie Cox. For that first Sunday of March, we decorated and laid out a table of juices, hot beverages, biscuits with sausage, breakfast casseroles, and muffins—everything you could possibly want for breakfast. This was in addition to the usual work for each Sunday: setting up chairs, sound system, and the tricky job of setting up cameras for a live recording of the sermon.

Our March breakfast was set for 10:00 a.m. with the church service at 10:30. We didn’t know what to expect, but we had high hopes for a big hungry crowd. That was not the case. We had a few family members attend, but they were simply being supportive. It was the same in April–disappointing and discouraging, to say the least. We talked about pulling the advertisements and discontinuing the breakfast. Two ladies, Sue Williams and Shirley Barton, were keen on continuing the breakfast, though.

We’re so glad they were, because for our May breakfast, we had four guests! You might not think that’s a big turnout, but when the average attendance on Sunday is fourteen, that’s almost a 30% increase. The irony is, two of the guests had already eaten, so they didn’t come for the breakfast.

We will continue the monthly breakfast but will scale back a little bit on the amount of food we provide. We continue to pray that God will lead others to visit our little congregation for nourishment of one kind or another.

By Sondra Peters
Pastoral Team Member, Clarksville, TN, US

The following is the obituary shared with Update from Norva’s family.

A beloved wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, aunt, and friend, Norva Lee Kelly passed away at her home in Duarte, CA on June 11, 2022, at the age of 86. She left behind her husband Ronald Kelly, her children Ronda Perry, Kara Zebrowski, Randel Kelly, Shari Campa and Michelle Suckling, her son-in-laws Marty Perry, Dan Zebrowski, Jorg Kelly, John Campa, and Bruce Suckling, along with her sisters, Natalie and Kaye and her brothers Jack, Dennis and Ray. She was blessed with ten grandchildren, two grandchildren by affection, six great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren. She extended her family to include those not just related by blood but those that she loved as her own.

Born in Yellville, Arkansas, Norva was the daughter of Norvel & Alvah Pyle. While the family may not have had an abundance of money, they had an abundance of love, laughter, and joy. She always drew fondly on her Arkansas roots, for it is there she learned to love family, traditions, and most importantly, Jesus. Throughout the years she resided in Yakima, WA; Pasadena, CA; Sacramento, CA; Oakland, CA; Longmont, CO; and Big Sandy, TX. It was in college in Pasadena, CA that she met and married Ronald Kelly. They were wed on August 28, 1960, and were blessed with sixty-two years together, with the last thirty-six years spent in Duarte, CA.

If you knew Norva, you loved her. She loved God, her husband, and her family above all else. She inherited her cooking skills from her mother and spent countless hours in the kitchen making meals, first for her growing family and eventually adding friends who became family, spouses, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren around the dinner table. Friday night dinners became sacred gatherings. She enjoyed many years of traveling the world with Ron, supported his love of landscape photography, and even indulged him occasionally by posing for a picture. She cherished her friendships and was always the first to reach out to others when they were hurting in any way. She was one of the godliest women you could ever meet, and a prayer warrior who loved sharing scripture in a tender-hearted way with those who mattered most in her life. Being a grandmother and great-grandmother was a role she cherished. She embodied love in a multitude of ways — she was a baby whisperer, a reader of countless children’s books, a supporter of academics and the arts, a shoulder to cry on, and the one to call to celebrate any achievement. She was our angel on earth.

Cards may be sent to:

Below is a prayer update for Pastor Santiago Lange in Stuttgart, Germany. In April, we asked for prayer for his diagnosis of advanced colon cancer.

Dear Friends,

I am writing to you after receiving my fifth Chemo/Anti-body treatment on June 28. After the sixth treatment on July 12, there will be a CT scan to help determine the effectiveness of the therapy. And the next therapy steps will be determined with my oncologist on July 25.

The chemo/anti-body therapies pack a heavy punch, with side effects like skin rashes with water blisters, mouth sores and dryness, pain, weight loss, and weakness. I am glad to be able to share that my [pressure] wounds continue to heal nicely. After some losses I have been able to gain weight, but I would joyfully welcome another 13-16 kg.

I am every day deeply thankful for your partnering support as our family goes through this health crisis. I pray that the Lord may bless your kindness a hundredfold.

Every blessing,
Santiago

Notes may be sent to:
Santiago Lange
Birkenweg 13
55490 Gemünden
Germany

santiago.lange@gci.org

Kelly Meade and Andrew Rakestraw were married on Saturday, May 21, 2022. They had a beautiful, small wedding in the backyard of Kelly’s parent’s home in Fort Mill, South Carolina, with Anthony Mullins officiating. Kelly’s brother, Chris, in South Korea, Andrew’s brother, Matthew, in Washington, DC, and a few other guests joined the wedding from zoom.

Shortly before the wedding, Kelly graduated Summa Cum Laude from Montreat College with a major in Psychology and Human Services. Andrew graduated Summa Cum Laude from Florida State University with a double major in Political Science and Public Relations. They will make their home in Tallahassee, Florida.

Congratulations, Kelly and Andrew, on your graduations and wedding! As you begin your life together, we share in your joy and hold you in our prayers.

Briana’s proud parents are Robin and Pastor Tommie Grant, of GC Ladson, South Carolina, U.S.

Let us share in the excitement and joy of Briana Denise Grant’s accomplishment! On Saturday, May 28, 2022, she received her high school diploma from Summerville High School. The ceremony was held at the North Charleston Coliseum in Charleston, S.C. Briana earned two academic award letters and a silver medal for her grades above 90.

Briana aspires to become a nurse and passionately desires to enroll in ministerial college. According to her mother, Briana has an unrelenting devotion to Christ, a passion for learning more about our Lord, while living out his purpose for her life.

Briana, you are a lovely image-bearer of our loving God. Your desire to share the good news of Jesus with others is contagious. Congratulations!