“…I was in prison and you visited me…Lord, when ... did we see You in prison?...And the King [Jesus] will answer them, ‘I assure you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did it for Me’” (Matt. 25:36c, 37, 40) HCSB.
On Tuesday, August 23 we celebrated our 10th UBC summer block party with the young men at Mary Haven (MH) youth center in Lebanon, Ohio. This was our third year to partner with Mary Haven officials and Dale McCloud (and of course Spirit the horse) to share positive life lessons and the Gospel.
God blessed with favorable weather in the 80’s with a breeze, too. There were fifteen young men and at least six different counselors and staff from MH. Wow…those guys sure did pound down hot-dogs, cotton candy, nachos, and snow cones... even the staff! (Don’t they feed these guys?)
It was an evening of significant impact. Our UBC team of men that teaches and serves every Tuesday night at Warren County Juvenile Detention Center (WCJDC) re-connected with some of the young men who have transitioned to the MH program. Our team was able to have fun and connect casually with these young men for the first time. The young men were encouraged and this event furthered the discipleship of those that accepted Christ in the WCJDC over the past years.
Dale McCloud illustrated life lessons through his interaction with Spirit and drew prallels to how we interact with God, demonstrating that we have an innate tendency to go our own way. He also explained that we must come to the end of ourselves, ask Christ into our hearts, and follow Him since He has the best plan for our lives.
As Dale concluded his life lesson and sharing the gospel, we had two young men respond and ask for one of our guys to talk and pray with them. Both young men professed to be Christians but just needed some additional help as they shared their specific needs with our counselors.
Great thanks to our WCJDC teams that served at the ministry event. Many of our UBC block party team members helped to make all this possible. Young men at WCJDC and MH are being transformed through the power and work of God’s Word and the Holy Spirit. Thanks UBC team for your faithful weekly service at WCJDC.
For 3 consecutive weeks UBC local missions has spearheaded “Challenge the Hood”. Our strategy was two-pronged, to share the good news of the gospel through distributing Challenge Newspaper and to replenish the food for the empty shelves of the Lebanon Food Pantry.
Cliff Glenn, our local summer missionary intern, led this local mission initiative preparing the distribution packets, Lebanon Food Pantry collection bags, maps, and coordinating our leaders and volunteers.
“Challenge the Hood” was conducted on Wednesday nights, August 10th, 17th, and 24th through 3 key UBC leaders within 3 targeted neighborhoods in Lebanon. Neighborhoods included Revere’s Run, Turtle Creek Village, and Garfield Park sub-divisions. Our awesome neighborhood leaders included Rhonda Kuntz, Rick and Barb Oppy, and Dewayne Jeffers.
Our UBC volunteers went door-to-door each Wednesday night, distributing Challenge and asking for donations of non-perishable food for our local food pantry. After the process of distribution, teams collected all the bags of food and then delivered the food to the Lebanon Food Pantry. Barb Gregory from UBC, who coordinates our Food Pantry ministry, met our teams at the Pantry. The food was so desperately needed that some food was handed directly to the recipients at the Food Pantry while other food was immediately re-stocked on the shelves for future needs. We praise the Lord for His provision of food for this initiative!
The Food Pantry served 76 families with food on Wednesday night, August 24th, alone. Those 3 SUV’s of food collected were an answer to prayer! Thanks to Cliff Glenn, our local summer missionary, and our faithful volunteers that helped to meet the needs of families in Lebanon.
In addition to this initiative, we have asked our UBC congregation to personally bring in food to re-stock the shelves of the Food Pantry and our UBC Resource Center.The response has been wonderful! Just bring your donations to the Worship Center so we can all celebrate God's goodness to those in need.
If you have any questions relating to this initiative for collecting food to re-stock our local food pantry and UBC resource center, please contact UBC local mission’s strategist, Mike Wright: mwright@urbancrest.org or call 932-4405, x32.
