Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 5, 1995 TAG: 9501070051
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A HAITIAN CONGREGATION is being formed for an increasing number of refugees from the impoverished island country who are settling in the Roanoke Valley. Led by Castin Mesadieu, who started a worship service in his apartment several months ago, the group now is meeting each Sunday at 10:30 a.m. in the fellowship hall of Ridgewood Baptist Church, 703 Hemlock Road N.W. Services are conducted in Creole, the language of Haitians. More than 60 people, mainly adults, are attending the services which are not intended exclusively for Baptists. For more information call 343-9436.
THE ALMA HUNT MUSEUM, a tribute to Roanoker Alma Hunt of First Baptist Church on Third Street, will be dedicated Saturday in Birmingham, Ala. Hunt, who grew up in Roanoke and returned for retirement more than a decade ago, served from 1948 to 1974 as executive director of the Southern Baptist Convention's Woman's Missionary Union based in Birmingham. Her home church, First Baptist of Roanoke, also has a library named in her honor.
THE REV. JAMES A. FISHER, formerly of Minneapolis has begun his ministry at Unity of Roanoke Valley whose worship center is at 3300 Green Ridge Road. Fisher is a native of Pittsburgh and grew up in San Francisco. A graduate of Yale University in 1962 and Stanford University, he spent 13 years as a manager for an oil company before becoming a Unity minister 16 years ago. He has since served congregations in St. Joseph, Mo., and for the past nine years in Minneapolis. He and his wife, Andrea, are authors of a guided meditation work and he has published other books. His interests include Salvation Army volunteering and youth leadership in soccer.
GARDEN SEEDS for the needy in Croatia, Angola and Mozambique, which Virginia Southern Baptists sent in the spring of 1994, came from 570 congregations, including many in the Roanoke Valley. A spokesman for the Virginia Baptist General Board said more than 90,000 seed packets went to help refugees, displaced people and those whose homes were devastated by civil wars. The free seeds allowed many to raise crops to help alleviate starvation.
THE REV. TYLER BURKETT has left the staff of Green Ridge Baptist Church to become associate pastor of Chamberlayne Baptist Church in Richmond. Burkett was an associate for youth ministry at the Roanoke County church for nearly four years and came from a Richmond area congregation.
THE REV. MARVIN FIELDS has formed a new congregation, Trinity Missionary Baptist Church, which is meeting on Sundays at 9:30 and 11 a.m. in a building on Loudon Avenue at 14th Street. The building is used on Saturdays by its owner, the African-American Jewish congregation, Temple Beth-El. Since 1991, Fields had been pastor of Maple Street Baptist Church. A member of the new congregation, Jean Curtis, said about 75 former members of Maple Street have started the new church to give more attention to mission work in the Roanoke Valley and elsewhere.
EVELYN CONNER, a gospel music singer from Salem, will present a program Sunday at 7 p.m. at Airlee Court Baptist Church, Hershberger Road at Delray Street Northwest.
HERBERT BROECKEL, president of the Potomac Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Washington, will speak Saturday at 11 a.m. for the North Valley Adventist congregation. It meets at St. Paul Lutheran Church, 4909 Peters Creek Road N.W. Lunch will follow in the fellowship hall.
BETHLEHEM BIBLE COLLEGE will celebrate Founder's Day and Class Reunion Saturday at 6:30 p.m. The celebration will take place at Greater Mount Zion Baptist Church, 1810 Grayson Ave. N.W. The Rev. Charles H. Roberts, pastor of St. Paul United Methodist Church, will give an educational message.
Registration for the college's spring session will be held Jan. 9-30, with classes beginning Jan. 23. Full scholarships are available for everyone. For more information, call the registrar at 362-2586.
CHARLES DOWNS JR.,a member of Christ Lutheran Church, has joined the Global Mission Volunteer Program of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Downs, 22 and a graduate of Virginia Military Institute, will teach in a parochial school in Slovakia.
GRANDIN COURT BAPTIST CHURCH has chosen David Fitzgerald, currently on a Louisville, Ky. church staff, as its next minister of music. Fitzgerald, 32, is a native of Virginia and a graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville and has been music associate and assistant organist at a 1,200-member congregation. His professional memberships include the American Guild of Organists and the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers. The new staff member is married and has three children. He will begin work in late January.
TWO MIDWEEK BIBLE CLASSES for the Southeast community will begin next week at Belmont Christian Church (Disciples of Christ.) The Rev. Michael Barnes, pastor, will teach "What Ministers Wish Church Members Knew" Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. and "The Synoptic Gospels" Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. The church is at 1101 Jamison Ave. S.E. Call 343-7502 to register.
REPORT FROM HAITI will be the theme of a program Jan. 15 at 6 p.m. at Salem Wesleyan Church, 424 Chamberlain Lane. It will include slides taken by the Rev. Orlando Gonzales, pastor.
DANIEL LEIGH CAMPBELL, a 1994 graduate of Glenvar High School who has begun engineering studies at Virginia Tech, will leave Wednesday for Provo, Utah, to begin German language training for two years of service in Frankfurt, Germany. A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Campbell will be a lay missionary in the German city for the next two years. His parents are Michael and Judith Campbell of Salem.
OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP CATHOLIC CHURCH, 314 Turner Road in Salem, will begin on Tuesday a series of classes for adults interested in rejoining the Catholic Church after a lapse in activity. Known as Landings, the classes will include sharing "faith journeys" and an updating of changes in the church over recent years. Call 389-0128 or 387-0491 to register.
Send information to Frances Stebbins, Neighbors, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, 24010, by noon Thursday.
by CNB