We’ve all said it before, but it still doesn’t change the fact that it is hard to believe that another year has come and gone.
Looking back over 2021 as a church, God has done some pretty remarkable things in and through us.
Ministry has been at the center of our year. In January, we provided dozens of people experiencing homelessness coats, sleep bags, and other winter gear in the Staying Warm Initiative. In addition, we continued our 30+ year partnership with Highland Elementary School, gifting hundreds of new books to students and providing 25 families with Thanksgiving Meal Kits.
We hosted three drive-in movies and three large gatherings, connecting with the greater community around UBC.
We saw over 150 children participate in two Soccer Academy seasons.
We kept the highest level of standards, never once having to shut down the Mother’s Day Out program due to a COVID-19 outbreak.
We saw an increase in participation in our Spiritual Formation and Sunday School classes.
We hired a new Minister of Children and Retirees, Tanya Parks, all the way from Slovakia.
We’ve seen the Youth Ministry quadruple in size.
We expanded the MDO, adding a new classroom and opening Friday hours to younger children.
We managed a campus-wide electrical and air condition failure, replacing the systems and getting a new roof along the way.
We stayed financially solvent because people saw the worth of our mission and vision.
We have yet to highlight so many things, but the message is clear: God is doing extraordinary things in and through University Baptist.
It is a new chapter to see that while the world is changing around us, we are uniquely placed in this location with these people in these circumstances to reach more people than we thought possible. It is a new chapter to grow the capacity of our faith community to lead new people to Jesus.
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