There is an opportunity to serve the Lord this summer with Backyard Bible Clubs. These clubs will be led by Bill Denny, who has attended UBC in recent months. Bill has led these clubs for many years, and is looking for some people to help him during the summer. The club meets once a week for about 1-1 1/2 hours, beginning in June. The kids play games, have a snack, and a Bible lesson taught by Bill. If you would be interested in helping out, or in finding out more about it, please contact Pastor Brady, and he will get you in touch with Bill.
Date: Monday, October 31, 2011 Time: TBA Location: Unity Baptist Church Parking Lot
On Monday, October 31st, Unity Baptist Church will be hosting their Annual Trunks of Treats Event! This is an opportunity for you and your family to stop by the church parking lot and do your Trick or Treating in a safe environment. Members from our church will be parking their cars in the church parking lot, decorating their vehicle trunks, and filling them with candy. Families will be able to visit over 20 cars and trunks to collect candy and decide which vehicle trunk was decorated the best! We’d love for you and your family to stop by and visit us! If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact us at the church. Also, if you are a member of our church and would like to decorate a vehicle, please see Nathan and Cassie Brady.
Date: Sunday, September 18, 2011 Time: 10:15 a.m. Location: Unity Baptist Church
We are a church with a heart for missions. It is part of our effort to obey the great commission and get the gospel throughout the world. Right now, we support 8 missionary families or projects at $150.00 each month. We have set aside September 18th to focus our attention on missionary outreach and our responsibility to do all we can to reach the unreached people groups with the gospel.
As a part of the Missions Emphasis Sunday, joining us on this special day we will be having Ray and Kristi Rhoton, our missionaries to Costa Rica; and Bud Everett, who is with Outreach to Asian Nationals. We hope you’ll plan to be with us on this day!
After 8 days and over 40 hours of travel, our Costa Rica Mission Team arrived home safe and sound! During those 8 days in Costa Rica, our mission team was able to update an existing building into a youth center, lead an evangelistic youth rally, set up and help run a family fun fair, run children’s programs during the church services, and find time to see the beautiful country of Costa Rica! It seems like a lot during a short amount of time, but all of the team members more than willing to serve our missionaries, Ray & Kristi Rhoton, in any way possible! We thank you for your prayers, and we want you to know that the Lord was glorified and the name of Jesus Christ went forth through this mission! Please click the movie below to see pictures and highlights of our trip!
Date: Sunday, July 30, 2011 Time: 10:15 am Location: Unity Baptist Church
On Sunday, July 30th, we will be having a day to highlight our AWANA program. We would like you to be praying about whether the Lord would like you to be a part of this ministry. If so, this is not a Sunday to miss! Please come on this interest Sunday ready with your questions for our AWANA Commander, Beth Beaty.
Hello Friends! Here is our 1st and most recent update due to a lack of internet connection down here!
We arrived at 3am in Costa Rica (4am IL time) Tuesday morning after traveling since 8am Monday morning. Ray and Kristi were gracious to encourage us to sleep in so our Tuesday morning wake-up call was 10am. We had devotion time and prayer and headed to the old church to see the vision for changing it into a community Youth Center. We immediately jumped into the project. The boys worked on tearing down a wall and the girls began scraping the walls, followed by sanding the newly created pits in the wall, and then spackled by Dan. By the end of Tuesday night we had successfully… cleared out the benches, tore down the wall, completely prepared for painting, and cleaned out the office and organized all of the items that were in it.
Wednesday morning was a 9am “go-time” after devotion and prayer. We immediately set to work taping EVERYTHING to prepare for painting, followed by some serious (ALL DAY LONG!) “cutting” (as we discovered is another term for “edging”) and LOTS of rolling. Pretty much… we painted all day. The men also had to attack a cement wall that almost had them beat, but they came out victorious in the end. Our night ended with a trip to Ray’s parents’ church in Santiago for Caritas Felices. It’s an Awana-like program that Ray’s mom created. It was great to be involved and see the different ministries already taking place here in Costa Rica.
Today we spent many, many hours touring the “Highlights” of Costa Rica. The adventure included breakfast on the terrace at Siempreverde coffee plantation, a hike to the Poas Volcano, and a visit to the La Paz Lodge and Waterfall which included many sights and sounds of the Costa Rican Rainforest! Tomorrow brings the Youth Night “Extreme Games” and Saturday morning brings the Family Fun Day “fair.” Please pray for us as we have a LOT to do tomorrow to prepare for these two main events. We will update again as time allows to fill you in on what the Lord is doing!
Love you all and are so appreciative of your support!
Date: Monday, June 13, 2011 Location: San Jose, Costa Rica
In less than one week, a Missions Team from Unity Baptist Church will be heading to San Jose, Costa Rica. The purpose of this Missions Trip is to visit our missionaries, Ray and Kristi Rhoton, to help, encourage, and support them in their ministry to the people of Costa Rica. During the trip, the team will helping the Rhotons minister through children’s programs, youth events, and a family fun day to help evangelize the area. They will also help begin the process of turning an old church building into a youth center for the teens in the surrounding areas. They’ll be working hard to transform this building into a place that teens will feel safe and comfortable.
This is a great opportunity that the Lord has provided to work in hearts and change lives in people from Champaign, IL, all the way to San Jose, Costa Rica. Please keep this team of short-term missionaries in your prayers by praying that the Lord keeps them safe, uses them mightily, and brings them back to Illinois more on fire for the Lord than before. Here are the names of the team members so that you can pray for them specifically [picture: left to right, top to bottom]: Pastor Dan Neighbors, Lyle Shallenberger, Ed Kennedy, Laura Neighbors, Samantha Gray, Priscilla Kennedy, Katie Sapp, Rufina Ebes.
Unity Baptist Church is excited to see how the Lord will use the Mission Team for His glory! We’ll pray you there and back and look forward to hearing the great things the Lord will do!
On Sunday, October 31st, Unity Baptist Church took some time to reach out to some of the families in our community through our annual Trunks of Treats event. On Halloween during the Trick-or-Treating hours, members of our church parked their cars and trucks in the parking lot and decorated their vehicle’s trunk with a variety of different themes which ranged from a Festive Fall Theme to an Alien Planet Theme. Children and families from the community were able to walk around to the different trunks and get candy from the owners of the vehicle.
Trunks of Treats was a great way for our church to reach out to the families in our community during the Halloween holiday. Not only were we able to put some smiles on children’s faces by giving them some candy, but we were also able to pass out information about our church along with a Gospel tract that outlined the plan of salvation. This event also provided a safe environment for families to bring their children during the trick-or-treating hours.
We thank all those that volunteered to help by providing candy, decorating their vehicle, and passing out treats to those in our community. We saw over 200 people come visit us at the church from 5 p.m to 8 p.m. that night; the most we’ve ever had turn out for our Trunks of Treats event. Pray that the Lord will use this event to encourage the families in our community towards a relationship with Christ.
At 10:30 a.m. on the morning of October 9th, we as a church body had the opportunity to pass out information about our church along with Gospel tracts to some of those in our community. Many families and individuals who are a part of our church came out to help; and in this situation, the more help the merrier! With all the help that we received, we were able to pass out a total of 500 packets of information about our church to homes in the community! From this outreach, we have seen some families contact us already with interest about the church – what an answer to prayer!
We appreciate all of you that came out on Saturday morning to help. Thanks so much for being willing to give your time for service to our Lord! We are praying that the Lord uses this outreach for His glory and that someone in our community will come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior through this!
Date: Saturday, October 9, 2010 Time: 10:30 am Location: Unity Baptist Church
Come on out next Saturday, October 9th at 10:30 a.m., and help us with our Fall Church Outreach. This fall we’ll be taking 500 fliers and packets filled with information about our church and hanging them on the doors of many of the homes in the community surrounding our church. In order to accomplish this task, we’ll need several people to help us go out in the nearby neighborhoods and pass this information out.
Our goal is to get this information into the hands of families in the homes surrounding our church, so that they will know more about our church, what we believe, and how to accept Christ as their Savior. You can help us accomplish this goal by bringing your family and helping us pass out these packets of information. If you’d like to be involved, sign up in the lobby at the church and/or show up at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday here at the church! We’d love to have you and would appreciate your help.
