South Carolina men gave 150 copies of Strength for Service to God and Community to Billy Robinson, a volunteer firefighter who serves as conference disaster coordinator. “Thank you so very much for this and for all you do through your wonderful ministry of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” said Robinson.

Lydia Istomina, a United Methodist pastor from Russia and a former candidate for the episcopacy in Eurasia, will serve on the 12-member Strength for Service Board of Directors. Now on sabbatical from the church, Istomina had been serving as executive assistant at the Red Mountain Energy Corporation in Kansas City while completing her doctoral degree at St. Paul School of Theology.