VERO BEACH — Rebecca Williams missed the team members who came to her door bearing a light bulb signifying Jesus Christ as the light of the world, but she wasn’t about to miss a block party announced on a flier she found sticking out of her door when she returned home.

Williams was among hundreds of people who flocked to Asbury United Methodist Church here July 25 to attend a block party offering free food, games and door prizes. The block party was the culmination of the Melbourne District’s Celebrate Jesus Mission July 19-26.

A Celebrate Jesus mission is a weeklong effort during which local churches reach out to their community. Churches set their own goals, design their campaigns and recruit members to participate. A visiting team of laity and clergy coordinated by Celebrate Jesus organizers helps members of the local churches with their mission projects. Nearly 300 people from Florida, New Jersey and England participated in the mission.

One of the mission’s goals is for church members to get to know the people in their neighborhood better, according to Karen Taylor, executive director of Celebrate Jesus.

“I think it’s great they are not trying to take us from our home church,” said Williams, who attended the block party with her two grandchildren. “I think it’s great to come here, sit down and just talk to people. It’s nice to know we’re welcome here. The people have welcomed me with a smile. This is good for the community.”

That’s exactly what the Rev. Charles Mompremier, pastor of the United Methodist Haitian Mission in Wabasso, wanted to accomplish.

Mompremier partnered with members of Asbury United Methodist Church and visiting team members to go door-to-door sharing and praying with people in the community around the Haitian mission. He said the week was filled with “high moments proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord.”

Barbara Strecker, a team member from Deltona, said every moment talking about her savior Jesus Christ is one of the things she looks forward to during each Celebrate Jesus mission. This is her fifth year participating in the event.

“…It feels good to share the love of Jesus Christ with the community,” Strecker said. “I like everything about it. It’s about prayer, community and love, everything we’re supposed to be.”

Team member Tom Bledsoe does it because he gets as much from it as he gives. He has been on a team for seven years.

“I felt God call me into this ministry,” said Bledsoe, who is from Casselberry, north of Orlando. “It’s great to see a church reconnect with its community and have fun doing it. I get a blessing from it because we go out and say nice things to people and they, in turn, say nice things to us. It’s like recycling love.”

Julia Bosma has felt that love. Bosma lives in the neighborhood around Asbury United Methodist Church and has taken her 8-year-old daughter there for Vacation Bible School.

“We are having such a good time,” Bosma said, as she watched her daughter in line for the giant water slide. “We don’t attend here, but we’d like to start.”

Taylor said the Melbourne event was one of the finest she has experienced. One church is anticipating families with young children joining the church after the event and spent some of its time creating a nursery and a children’s Sunday school room, Taylor said. She said another church made more than 4,000 visits.

“We want churches to see this as a new way of doing ministry,” Taylor said. “We want them to begin to look beyond their walls. The people we met were excited to know God loves them and has a plan for their lives.”

Next year a Celebrate Jesus mission will be held in July in Sarasota and in September in Okeechobee with a citywide event planned.