Front row:  (L to R) Trish Belkin; Jim Kennon; Ben+Della Magee; Tom Yanks; Anna Jones, Doug Craver.
Second row: (L to R) Brian+Margaret Misch; Lalene+David Kay; Cory Brightharp II; Melvin Jones.

On Sunday, January 10, 2010, The First Church family welcomed the following 13 new members during the worship service:

TRISH BELKIN comes from a Catholic faith tradition and has had a career in early childhood education.  She is married with one daughter in college and lives in Lakewood.

DOUG CRAVER first came to the church with his parents, Barb and Mike.  He is a tech and marketing consultant and is currently serving in that capacity on the UCUMC staff.  He is engaged to ANNA JONES who joined with him.  Anna has 3 children, is a social worker (MSW) with Berea Children’s Home & Family Services and comes from a Catholic background.  You will see Anna enthusiastically singing in the Gospel Choir.  Her son, CORY BRIGHTHARP II joined as well.  He is a quarterback at Berea HS and is training for video editing.  The family lives in Berea.

MELVIN JONES, Anna’s father, also comes from the Catholic tradition. He is a widower with grown children, is retired from UAW, lives in University Heights and has been attending with the Craver/Jones family.

LALENE and DAVID KAY live in Berea, have 2 college-age children and are transferring from Ridgewood UMC. Lalene is a music therapist and college professor whose father grew up in Epworth-Euclid church where she was baptized.  David is a music teacher at University School   They came to First Church as friends of Nate Motta.

JIM KENNON is retired, living in Lakewood.  He is transferring from Grace Presbyterian Church and was first invited to First Church by his friend, Larry Myers.

DELLA and BEN MAGEE are transferring from Chagrin Falls UMC where Ben retired as Pastor in 2008.  Della is a sex education teacher for Beech Brook; and, besides being the wife of a  pastor, she has several generations of UM pastors in her family history.  (Her brother is Rev .Jim Longsworth, Director of Youth Programming at First Church.)  The Magees live in Solon and have 3 grown children and 1 grandchild.

MARGARET and BRIAN MISCH joined as associate members with Willoughby Hills UMC.  They live in Richmond Heights and have 2 young-adult sons.   Margaret is a teacher of English as a Second Language and Brian is a professional photographer.

TOM YANKS lives in Lakewood with his wife, First Church member Carolyn Hufford and they have 2 sons.  He is the facility services manager for First Energy and has shared that expertise by overseeing the building assessments of both FC and E-E. He is transferring from Lakewood UMC.

When the new members were asked what they most like about First Church, they all expressed nearly the same thoughts:  the friendliness and diversity of the people; Dr. Chalker’s stimulating messages; and, the fact that they feel good when they are here and take that feeling with them each Sunday.