Mission & Mercy Ministry Update - 2025, Issue 6
Table of Contents
Prayer Focus: Bridges of Hope
Mission Highlight: Sewing & Craft Team Bless Women at Pure Joy Conference
Mercy Highlight: IFI Graduation Party
Opportunity: Fix-It Team Serves Forested Families
Opportunity: Refugee & International Engagement Interest Meeting - June 29
Upcoming UBC Mission Trips: Short-Term Trips Underway for 2025
Prayer Focus
Bridges of Hope
This month, we will pray for another of our local partners, Bridges of Hope, an overnight shelter in Xenia for those who need a temporary place to stay. They provide meals for their guests and offer chapel services Monday through Friday. They provide other social and physical services such as job training, housing services, a recovery ministry, and other life classes. Bridges of Hope desires to see souls saved, people restored, and generations redeemed. Join us in praying toward that end.
If you or your Growth Group would like to volunteer, there are many ways to get involved. Visit the website or contact Director Stephen Taylor at stephen@skbridgesofhope.org.
Prayers
Pray for the guests served at Bridges of Hope – for their salvation, growth and healing.
Pray for staff - that they would grow in Christ and that Christ would be glorified in the work done. Pray too, that they would seek to magnify Him and not themselves.
Pray for the ministry - that the Lord would continue to uphold it and see His work through to completion.
Pray for new partners to join the work that Bridges of Hope is doing.
Mission Highlight
Sewing & Craft Team Bless Women at Pure Joy Conference
The UBC Sewing and Craft Ministry came alongside one of our UBC-supported missionaries, Krista McCutcheon, to bless women at the Pure Joy Conference in Kenya in May. The ministry made and sent gifts for each of the missionary women attending the conference and prayed for them personally leading up to and during the conference.
Krista taught from Isaiah 44, speaking candidly as one missionary woman to another, challenging each of the women to examine their hearts for areas where they may have been elevating their own interests (even ministry) above God. During meals and afternoon free time hours, Krista met 1-on-1 with women desiring biblical counsel for their personal soul struggles in marriage, conflict, disappointment in life, or other challenges they are facing. She was able to dive into Scripture and laugh and cry with women as they sought the Lord on how to respond.
Here are some of the messages from missionary participants at the conference:
“The retreat came at such a perfect time for me. Having never had the opportunity to attend something like this before, I found it both encouraging and challenging. I left feeling deeply seen and loved—so aware of the prayers and generous hearts behind every gift. Thank you for making us feel so special.”
“In a very deep way we were challenged to change some key things in our lives. The Bible encouragement and reminders of how much we were prayed over by a wider group of individuals and churches supporting this ministry, was very humbling!…Life has launched back into the usual ministries and domestic affairs, but I’m sitting down to reflect on those that have given so much of themselves for the conference to be the success that it is…The conference was such a significant blessing to me in my personal, spiritual and ministry life - I had been waiting for this for years!!! Please pass on thanks also to the beautiful people of University Baptist Church for their generosity in contributing gifts, support and prayers, and especially to the Sewing and Craft ministry that made the very impressive shopping bags- with clips and everything!! It really was so, so special hearing of your prayers, and receiving these lovingly created gifts.”
“Wow! What a wonderful experience. I have been filled up to overflowing, felt spoiled cared for and loved on. Thank you so much for all the time, sacrifice, prayers, and love you have showered upon me and the other ladies there. It was such a joy to always come back to the table and find another gift!…I know you gave out of your generous hearts and thoughtful spirits to women whom you’ve never met and may never meet. Thank you, I feel so blessed and filled up because of the love you have shown me!”
The next open house event is scheduled for Saturday, June 7 at UBC East from 1-3:30 PM. The group will be working on BFC trip projects. All are welcome (no experience needed). You can sign up for the June event, here. If you aren’t able to attend in June, but would like to be part of the Sewing and Craft Ministry at UBC, let us know here.
Mercy Highlight
IFI Graduation Party
On May 9, UBC joined in the joy of celebrating the graduation of international students through a special event hosted by International Friendships, Inc. (IFI). IFI is a Christ-centered ministry that shares the love of Jesus with international students through what they call “life-changing hospitality.”
The graduation party marked the culmination of a year filled with meaningful connections and spiritual growth. Throughout the year, students participated in Friday Night Life groups, Bible studies, discipleship relationships, field trips, and countless gospel conversations. These gatherings not only provided community and support but also opened doors for many to encounter the love of Christ in a personal way.
Much of this ministry is made possible by the faithful service of volunteers. Each week, dedicated individuals prepare home-cooked meals for Friday Night Life, creating a warm and welcoming environment. Others invite students into their homes for holidays and dinners, offering a glimpse of family life and Christian hospitality. This year also saw the launch of Friendship Partners, a new initiative that pairs volunteers and international students to help them feel more connected and supported during their time in the U.S.
As we reflect on this celebration, we give thanks for the seeds planted and the lives touched through IFI. Please continue to pray for these graduates as they carry their experiences - and the message of Jesus - with them into the next chapter of their lives.
“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” - Hebrews 13:2 (ESV)
Opportunity
Fix-It Team Serves Forested Families
Forested Families is a faith-based organization that exists to provide support, connection, and family to young adults transitioning from foster care. The organization name is inspired by the interconnected root systems of a forest. Their vision is to provide opportunity for young adults aging out of foster care to connect to supportive community and an ongoing family network ensuring they are never alone. In Ohio, approximately 1,000 youth age out of the foster care system each year. Many of these young adults find themselves with little preparation for independent living and no family support.
The long term goal of the organization is to have a large campus that provides community, support, education, lifeskills training, mentorship, and temporary housing. They are beginning with a small pilot program based in a large home that has been vacant the last 50 years and requires complete renovation. Once the home is completed, a host family will live there, maintain the home, and will oversee the program and its participants alongside other volunteers. The pilot program will be able to serve four young women who will be given personalized plans according to their goals to prepare for independent living.
Eight individuals from UBC’s Fix-It Team lent their helping hands two Saturdays in May to help with renovations to the pilot program home. They did outdoor landscaping, planting, and repaired a drainage ditch on the first workday. On the second workday, the group cut down trees, cleared brush and weeds from the lot.
The UBC Fix-It Team will be planning another work day in July. If you would like to serve, please contact tpauling2009@gmail.com. If you would like to be part of other opportunities to make Christ known mercifully with the Fix-It Team, please let us know here.
Opportunity
Refugee & International Engagement Interest Meeting - June 29
As UBC continues to send out many teams on mission trips, you can also engage people from other cultures right here at home. God has brought the nations to us!
People from all over the world have come to Dayton as refugees, immigrants, and visitors, including those from unreached people groups. This presents a great opportunity for us to demonstrate Biblical hospitality, compassion, and to share the love of Christ.
UBC will be forming a new ministry to engage with the international community in the Miami Valley. If you’re interested in discussing and sharing ideas, please plan to attend a meeting on Sunday, June 29th at 12:30 PM in classroom A105. If you have questions, please contact Sharon at skerstes4@gmail.com or mmstaff@ubcbeavercreek.com.
Monthly Mission Quote:
"The King seeks to restore the well-being and wholeness of his Creation. The Church is not to be an underground railway to heaven, hiding people on earth until they can escape to glory. Nor is the Church to be another philanthropic organization, kindly doing good works and dispensing aid to those in need. Rather, the Church is the Body of Christ, consciously and explicitly participating in the establishment of His reign on earth. The Church is to be consciously and explicitly Christ's, regardless of the activity. Therefore, we extend both hands of the gospel: the hand of inviting people to repentance, faith and eternal reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ, and the hand of manifesting the deeds of mercy and compassion, extending the goodness of God's Kingdom on earth. One is not a means to the other. Both are equally significant to life in the eternal kingdom as described by Scripture."
- From "Beyond Duty" by Tim Dearborn
Upcoming Mission Trips
"How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news..." Romans 10:15
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How beautiful are your feet?
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"How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news..." Romans 10:15 ~ How beautiful are your feet? ~
Short-Term Trips for 2025 are Underway
UBC has a variety of short term mission trip opportunities 2025! There are local, national, and global trips offered. Trips for 2025 are underway! Watch for stories from the field coming soon on our UBC Talking Points podcast!
If you are planning to participate on a mission trip with another organization (e.g. Cedarville’s GO trips), please contact us to let us know more!
If there is a nation or a people group that God has placed on your heart, share it with us. We would love the opportunity to hear and to help you find a trip in the coming year. Reach out to Jim Corbin (jim.corbin@ubcbeavercreek.com).
June 5-20, 2025
Uganda
Come help serve South Sudanese refugees as we share the gospel and start discipleship groups. More information may be found here.
Contact: Jim CorbinJune 25 - July 5
STUMIN (Utah)
Come help a church plant in Riverton, UT
Contact: Rob Slouffman
August 1-10, 2025
Argentina
Work with Pastor Fabian Santillan and his church as they share the gospel and plant another church. More information may be found here.
Contact: Jim CorbinSummer 2025
Builders for Christ
Serve in the mission field of church construction and help a church build their building in Sterling, MA. More information may be found here.
Contact: Dave Gneiser
Contact to learn more:
Jim Corbin
jim.corbin@ubcbeavercreek.com
To read past Mission Updates or to get more information about UBC on Mission, visit
https://www.ubcbeavercreek.com/mission-and-mercy-ministries.