The Mission of the Month for January is Comunidades Unidas Pro Salud (CUPS).  CUPS is a Christian ministry founded in 1989 to assist communities in northeastern Mexico and the Rio Grande Valley to improve health and education, to foster a sense of community, and to provide volunteers opportunities to serve and be served.

During the month of January, our church will be collecting the following items for CUPS:

• Items for elderly
  (Such as adult diapers, canes, walkers, crutches, bedside commodes, and wheelchairs)
• School supplies
  (Such as pencils, pens, crayons, dry erase markers, small scissors, spiral notebooks, construction paper, and story books in Spanish and English)
• Working Laptops
  (One of their board members reworks them and puts licensed Spanish Microsoft Office products on them.)

All the above items can be left in the bins outside of the church office. Nina Rach, a CUPS Board Member, will faithfully pick up these supplies and deliver them to CUPS in McAllen.

January Mission Updates & Opportunities

Messy Church Service Project – each month’s Messy Church offers an opportunity for the participants to complete a service project. In December at our “Happy Birthday, Jesus” worship service, 26 complete Birthday Party in a Bag kits were packed. Each one had all the ingredients for an iced cake plus candles, napkins, balloons, and some fun extras. Thank you to Mark Plunkett for facilitating that assembly line! The kits were then donated to Fair Haven Food Pantry and given to our Angel Tree families.

Fairbees Square Dance Toy Collection – In December, once again, the Fairbees Square Dance group collected toys for Memorial Assistance Ministries (MAM).  Patti Nanney and Pastor Mark took over a carload of toys for the MAM toy drive, and Laurie Mitchell dropped off a check from Fairbees to MAM.  Thank you, Fairbees Square Dance Group!  Don’t forget, they welcome all of you to join them for square dancing each Thursday evening at 6:00 PM.

Angel Tree Prison Ministry Follow-up – This year we provided Christmas cheer for 24 children within 9 families.  Each child received 2 Christmas gifts from their incarcerated parent, and school supplies, beautiful homemade knitted hats and pillowcases from SBPC, and Birthday Party in a Bag kits. In addition, each family also received an overflowing food basket for the entire family to share.  Thank you also to all those who made deliveries to all the receiving families!

December 1st Annual Seafarers Packing and Wrapping Party – 158 boxes were filled to the brim and wrapped up in Christmas paper. Mark Plunkett and Savannah Goodman then delivered them to the Seafarer’s Center at the Port of Houston. This is truly a church-wide project that cannot happen without the whole congregation.  All the filler has to be collected, organized, and then a very large number of us gathered for breakfast (thanks Liz Earnest and fellowship committee), and a huge assembly line of packing and wrapping. It was great to see so many come out to help!

SBPC Hot Meals on Weekends – The 4^th Saturday of each month we look for individuals to deliver meals to shut-ins.  We have 2 routes with about 14 people on each route, so we usually need a total of 4 volunteers each month.  Please contact Lu Taylor if you are interested in volunteering to deliver meals one month.

January 10th Family Movie Night – Come join us in the Gathering Place to watch The Star. We will begin with an episode of Bluey and a pizza dinner at 5:45. The main feature will begin at 6:15. We hope to see you there!

February 9th Souper Bowl Day of Caring – Just a reminder that we will be collecting dollars and food items on Super Bowl Sunday, February 9th, for the Souper Bowl Day of Caring.  All money and food collected will benefit the Fair Haven Food Pantry.

Peace & Global Witness Offering Update – Thank you to everyone who contributed to our Peace & Global Witness Offering on World Communion Sunday. We are happy to report that we collected a whopping $5,392, as compared to $1,125 last year. The funds collected were split evenly between the Presbyterian Mission Agency and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance.

December 1st Blood Drive Update – 6 units of whole blood were collected from 12 participants. We would love to have more units collected at our next blood drive on February 16th. In preparation for the February event, it is important to take consistent iron supplements or enjoy a high iron diet. In addition, high water intake and physical activity 24-48 hours before donating, and a hearty breakfast on the day of can boost your success as a donor!  We challenge you to be a first-time donor!

Academy Christmas Pageant – on December 11th, an enthusiastic audience of family and friends experienced a cuteness overload in the sanctuary as our youngest ones took part in the annual Academy pageant. The Academy is our number one mission, and it is thriving!