This past Sunday, Pastor Bill shared with us from Acts as a part of the Big Story series. He reminded us that the church was BLESSED to be a BLESSING. Its time for your family to live that out and be a blessing to those in need in South Florida. City Serve is a great place to take that next step. Whether you are a seasoned volunteer or a first-timer, we would love to have you and your family join us!

There are 6 different projects ranging in location and description on Saturday morning, April 14th. By signing up this week, you guarantee placement in the site of your choice. Spots will fill up soon. To view the projects and register follow this link » http://www.ubcmiami.org/missions/city-serve » Two of the projects are specifically designated as good sites for families with young children; Perdue Medical Center and Youth for Christ KIX.

Another opportunity for your family to be involved in helping others is by collecting non-perishable foods for the food pantry. The UBC pantry is almost empty and runs entirely on the generous donations of attenders here. Each week members of UBC and people from the community come for food. We need your help to keep it stocked! You can collect food and bring it to church Monday-Friday to drop off, during any weekend service, or contact Alison for a food pick-up.

Email missions@ubcmiami.org for more information or questions about sign-up. We hope to be serving alongside of you on April 14th!

Join us in the UBC Chapel this Sunday between 3 and 5 pm to audition to perform for the Feed Miami Benefit Concert! Email alison.bisesi@ubcmiami.org or cindy.cohen@ubcmiami.org for additional information.

Thanks to all the families who came out for the Family Picnic this past Saturday… We hope you had a great time together.

And again, a HUGE THANKS to Florida Baptist Children’s Home for allowing us to use their property. FBCH is one of our missions partners at UBC - click here to find out more information about their programs & how you can help.

Hopefully this week you will have received our January Family Ministry E-News, if not click here to subscribe and we will send it to you. We spent November serving Miami by collecting and distributing tons of Feed Miami bags. Since Feed Miami, UBC has established an on-going food pantry which had provided emergency food to many UBC families and individuals from the community. As we distribute food though, there is the need to collect more and for volunteers to sort and maintain the food in the pantry.

Our hope for 2011 is that Feed Miami, but more importantly living out Jesus’ call to serve and love the community, will become ingrained in the fabric of your family. Below we’ve included a list of ideas from UBC families and Family Ministry on how to make this happen. We hope that this serves only as a starting point to the great ways God will use your family in 2011!

• Our kids can identify family, friends, neighbors that would be interested in donating on a monthly basis.  Once these people have been identified then a regular monthly food pick up can be scheduled.  For example, my neighbor wants to be an ongoing partner in Feed Miami so on the 1st of every month the child picks up the food from that home.
• We keep a Feed Miami bag in the car as one of our shopping bags and it will serve as a reminder whenever we see a “buy one, get one” deal at Publix to pick up an extra can, etc. which we will accumulate in a bag or box and bring in monthly.
• When we did our food drive in November, we hit our last two neighborhoods and actually did not solicit in our current neighborhood. We plan to distribute bags this winter/spring and do another drive. Our goal is to do two per year on a going forward basis
• Our kids can do a specific chore in exchange for purchasing a certain number of food items to donate on a weekly basis.  For example, if washing the dog is not one of their regular chores, the child can wash the dog and purchase 5 pantry items.  What’s nice about this is that if the child is really motivated, he/she can do extra chores for extra pantry items.
• As a family  decide to give up dessert (or some other way you spend money) once a week and use that money to fill up a Feed Miami bag and bring it to the pantry. Help your kids understand what it means to sacrifice something personal to help someone else.
• Take a break from your favorite TV show this week and instead sign-up to help sort and maintain the UBC food pantry. Email the day and time you are interested to feedmiami@ubcmiami.org and your family can come help out. No volunteer is too young or too old!

Maybe you need to pick up a few extra Feed Miami bags? Do you have a great idea that is working in your family? Or is your family ready to take the next step and serve together locally or globally? Please don’t hesitate to email us at FamilyMinistry@ubcmiami.org.

The experience my family and I were able to share at Saturday’s event cannot be described in words.  It was such a great experience to share with our 5 year old…We look forward to attending the next one(s)!  Blessings. - Rosie & Bert Felipe (Nicholas is our 5 year old)

Thank you for answering Christ’s call to serve those in need!  Check out some of the pictures from Florida Baptist Children’s Home below & click here for more information on missions at UBC.

“Our family had a tremendous opportunity serving together in the Bahamas this past April. It was an amazing experience, serving others less fortunate than ourselves and joining with Karazim Ministry, who is doing this on a daily basis - what a perspective check for us all! We look forward to serving in this way again and feel this experience was one of the best gifts we could ever offer to our children!”

Scott & Sally Livingston - Leah, Andrew, & Sarah

We want to encourage you to take part of this unique opportunity to SERVE TOGETHER with your FAMILY on June 12^th.  We’ve listed below the different opportunities and some details to help you decide which is appropriate for your family.

• Florida Baptists Children’s Home: Gardening & Refurbishing – Plan to do some outdoor work including refurbishing cottage furniture, gardening, and painting.  Time: 9am-1pm.  This project is best for families with young children. Click here to register and for more information.
• Habitat for Humanity: Building – Plan to do construction-related tasks on several homes being built in Liberty City.  Please note that no one under 16 is permitted.  Time: 8am – 3pm.  This project is best for families with teens over the age of 16. Click here to register and for more information.
• Touching Miami With Love: Summer Kick-off Celebration – Plan to help host a family fun day with games & food for the neighborhood families.  Time: 10am-3pm.  This project is best for families with elementary aged children and older. Click here to register and for more information.
• Open House: Summer Kick-off Celebration – Plan to help host a family fun day with games & food for the neighborhood families.  Time: 10am-3pm.  This project is best for families with elementary aged children and older. Click here to register and for more information.

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Back in October, Bill preached a message entitled Making Friends for God (Click here to listen). He challenged each of us to identify people within seven concentric circles of relationships, and in these relationships we identified, to be prayerful and watchful for ways to show love and share hope. Easter gives us a great opportunity for just that! Because it’s Easter, many of these people who are in our circles of relationships (family, relatives, close friends, neighbors, business associates and acquaintances) may be more motivated to attend church than any other day this year. And what a great day for them to come! What other day is the celebration for the love we’ve been shown in Jesus and the hope we have because He lives more evident in our worship?

We want your family to CHOOSE one or two families that you will visit, taking along an invitation packet that we’ll provide, and personally invite them to attend UBC on Easter with you. Here’s how:

1. Make choosing which families you will invite a ‘family decision’.  As a family, talk together about which families you should CHOOSE to personally invite.
2. As a family, visit the tent in the main parking lot this Sunday to select and package the items for your invitation packets. Among the items are a card you can personalize, a DVD previewing the Family Ministry environments and past Easters at UBC, a bag of yummy cookies, and an Easter invite with all the options of service times listed.
3. Make plans to deliver the invitation(s). Put the time and date on the family calendar.
4. Pray, and while praying for your guests, pray that UBC will be a church where many are introduced to Jesus.

Yesterday, the Family Ministry team met together to pray, by name, for each UBC family who made packets this past Sunday and for the families they chose to invite. As I listened to the prayers of my team members and as I prayed, God reminded me how persistently He pursued me through the love and care of others until one day I realized He loved me and to what end He went to demonstrate that love! Tagging up with that memory created an urgency and excitement to be ready to welcome our guests with the love of Jesus and to be expectant that He’s pursuing them. What a privilege to partner with you and with Jesus!