1:30AM: I am starting to fall asleep!
I am staying up all night tonight! Not because I have a lot of homework or because I am out partying. I am volunteering at a church which has opened its doors to be an emergency homeless shelter for the homeless in the area. Because of the freezing temperatures at night and not enough room at the shelters, churches in the area have taken weeks to host overflow homeless as guests for the night. Volunteers are recruited to provide hospitality to these special guests throughout the night. Some churches split up their volunteers in shifts throughout the night(which I have done) but this church has volunteers stay up all night. So, I have had time to blog and catch everyone up on what I have been up to! Please enjoy reading my latest postings! Below is the board report I just submitted. I will share it with you as well so you can see what I have done with United Campus Ministry in the past month:
I have coordinated volunteers to help at Churches United for the Homeless. A couple students have consistently helped with the CUFH Food Pantry on tuesdays, and I have had a few students log some volunteer hours at various times/days at CUFH as well.
One student told me that I “make community service easy” because I can arrange service opportunities for students. There is a committed group of about three students who volunteer regularly as well as a couple new students to UCM who found out about community service opportunities from friends. CUFH employees are impressed with UCM volunteers and UCM volunteers really enjoy the people at CUFH. It has made for a great relationship!
I have coordinated volunteers to help with Faith UMC’s weekly Food Pantry.
This service project allowed me to connect with a student volunteer who had not been out to UCM activities lately. I also received interest from a new student as well as one of UCM’s faithful student volunteers. Faith UMC’s food pantry is also open to students and they are free to take any food that they need. Another great relationship for UCM!
I have coordinated volunteers for the Churches Emergency Homeless Shelter.
After having three students help in January, two of those students volunteered to help with an overnight shift in March! These are two MSUM students who are new to UCM and interested in community service. I was able to connect with them as I too served as a volunteer on the same shift. I received good feedback from the students about this service opportunity.
I have recruited and planned for UCM to participate on an Urban Immersion Service Retreat from March 16th-18th. This trip will educate students on poverty and the injustices that perpetuate the cycle of poverty. It will also be a time of service and fellowship. Pastor Theta Miller, Ashley Rosser, and I will be attending along with two students.
The fruit of this trip is yet to be seen but there is great excitement about this trip from all who are going and a great expectation that it will be an educational and eye opening experience for all.
I have helped organize and participated in Taco Salad Fundraisers to help raise money for Costa Rica 2013 and the Urban Immersion Service Retreat.
It has been a good time to bond with students who are considering going on the Urban Immersion and Costa Rica trips. These fundraisers will make UCM mission trips much more affordable for students. Since December 2011, we have raised $2,622.75 for missions!
I have led a UCM worship service. Theta was on vacation and asked me to give a sermon and lead worship.
This was the first worship service after the tragic accident on Presidents Day in which four NDSU students were killed. Theta had given me the sermon topic a couple of weeks in advance and the topic happened to be death. I was able to have an intimate, spiritual discussion about death and grief with students. Many had attended the memorial service that week and my message echoed Pastor Theta’s message of hope in a time of tragedy and grief.
fargobro 