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Volume 20, Issue 4
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Feed The Bay Plans To Donate 190,000 Pounds Of Food To Local Charities
By Bonnie Mentel
Family Pack of Tickets See Page 19
Inside:
Christian Men United Conference In May See Page 10
April 2016
When Bay Life Church started Feed the Bay in 2006, the event was held in November. They soon discovered that this was a very popular time for people to give and that the local food pantries were already receiving a lot of holiday donations. There was no room at the organizations for the over 30,000 pounds of food that was being brought to them, and by spring all their holiday donations were gone. Feed Feed the Bay will take place Sunday, the Bay began holding the April 17 this year. food drive in the spring to Women’s Resource help stock up the food pantries. Center, Metropolitan Ministries, Manna This year, Feed the Bay will be on Wheels, the church gives us a recSunday, April 17 from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. at ommendation and we call them to ask various Publix locations throughout the if they want to be a participating food area. A list of locations can be found at agency,” said Events Coordinator at www.feedthebay.org. Close to 35 Bay Life Church, Melanie Langston. churches are expected to partner in Church partners are provided with the food drive, which will benefit 16 shopping lists and are assigned to a local food pantries. Publix located near their church. Each “The food goes to Feed the Bay’s site will have a truck ready to collect participating food agencies. When a donations. Publix provides trucks at church signs on and they partner to be five of their locations and Bay Life a Feed the Bay church, they actually Church rents trucks for the other locarecommend a food agency that they tions. All the trucks are decorated with support. So whether it’s ECHO, Feed the Bay banners to promote the
event. “It’s time to go and be the church to the community. At Bay Life, we have a chant where we shout ‘Together we can do more.’ It’s like a big, high energy pep rally and then we send our shoppers out,” Langston said. She expects this year’s event to collect about 190,000 pounds of nonperishable items. “Publix is amazing. Sometimes they bring certain items to the front of the store so the shoppers don’t need to go through everything. They also open all their registers from a certain time so people can get through the store,” Langston said. When the shoppers are finished, the donations are loaded onto the Feed the Bay trucks in the parking lots. Some volunteers work as sorters to organize the food as it gets loaded. At 2:30 p.m., the trucks make their way to the agencies. For more information, visit www.feedthebay.org. For further questions, contact 661-3696 or mlangston@baylife.org.
Upward Sports Offers Safe, Positive Christian Environment For Young Athletes
By Bonnie Mentel
Sun’n Fun Air Show See Page 4
Upward Sports begins registration for soccer in April and ends Saturday, May 14.
Summer Camp Section See Pages 11-13
Columns: Faith & Footprints:
Page 5
Derrick Williams
Page 6
Hooked On Books: Page 14 Grace Notes:
Page 17
According to its website, “Upward Sports is the world’s largest Christian youth sports provider. Today, approximately half a million players at more than 2,000 churches in 47 states participate in camps, clinics, and leagues through Upward Sports’ Recreation Division.” When the MAC facility opened at First Baptist of Brandon eight years ago, the staff looked at starting an Upward Sports league. The purpose of the league is to introduce kids to sports who might not be able to play elsewhere and to introduce the gospel to children. “Every practice will have a five-minute devotion. The child will learn a Bible verse and talk about a character virtue of Jesus Christ,” Kevin Ohme, Minister of Activities, said. Ohme said that most of the time chil-
dren make up their mind about their religious beliefs by the time they’re 12. The Upward Sports program at First Baptist of Brandon offers flag football, soccer, and cheerleading for children from Kindergarten to eighth grade. “Every kid is going to play the exact amount of playing time. They have a substitute system that they use. That kind of takes it out of the coach’s hand. Whoever is in the game at a particular time is in the game. It’s more of a league for beginners; for those who may have never had an introduction to the sport which makes it a great, safe environment. The emphasis is not on winning, but on having fun while learning about the sport,” Ohme said. The season begins with two evalua-
tions, although every child will make the team. The evaluations ensure that the teams can be made as even as possible. They don’t want to have one team dominating all the others. There is an award ceremony at the end of every season with useful prizes, and occasionally, there will be trophies given out. “That’s all included in the price. We usually charge about $90 per child to play. It’s an eight-game season with a couple of practices beforehand. They practice one night a week for an hour. The games are also an hour and take place on Saturdays,” Ohme said. Soccer registration begins in early April and closes Saturday, May 14. The first practice will start at the end of May. The first game will be on Saturday, June 11. The teams will play eight Saturdays in a row and then that season will be over. Toward the end of September, registration will open for basketball and cheerleading. “We never turn a kid away because they can’t afford it. I always talk to the parents when they come in to tell me they have a hardship. I’ll ask them what the reasoning is behind that and I’ll ask them what they can do and what they can afford,” he said. To register, visit www.fbcbrandon. org/mac and click on the Leagues and Camps link, or visit www.upward.org. Contact 315-3280 or kevin.ohme@fbcbrandon.org. Membership to the MAC is open to the public.