Christmastime at UBC (Focus, Dec 2016)
Ukraine is a country that has been stricken with much conflict and poverty. A young girl, Katya, was hosted as an orphan by a UBC family and attended UBC for a summer. She was from an orphanage in a region called Donetsk, which is very close to the Ukraine/Russian conflict. For the past four years, UBC has been a part of a drive called “Coats for Katya,” collecting and shipping warm articles of clothing to this particular orphanage as a reminder to these children that they are not forgotten and that they are loved. This year, we were able to ship coats to a second orphanage in the Odessa region and a box of baby coats to a baby orphanage in Dnipropetrovsk.
UBC’s Royal Ambassadors boys’ mission group were a huge help in decorating the boxes and in collecting coats during their annual Turkey Shoot, a BB gun target shoot competition. UBC’s Girls in Action mission group also collected coats, as well as made Christmas cards in both Ukrainian and Russian to be included in the boxes. Approximately 150 coats were collected, 70 jackets, approximately one hundred pairs of new socks, a few dozen scarves,
Angel Tree
Angel Tree is a program of prison fellowship that reaches out to the children of prisoners and their families with the love of Christ. This unique program gives people an opportunity to share God’s love by helping to meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the families of prisoners. This year, UBC delivered to 24 families, totaling 64 children. Two WBS classes participated as groups, along with eight individuals. There were approximately 26 preschool families that made fleece blankets for 51 children. We had twelve wrappers and over a hundred people who purchased the gifts. To learn more about Angel Tree, visit www. prisonfellowship.org/about/angel-tree.
