The Missions Students’ Association will host its third annual Day of Service to help nonprofits in the Abilene area this Saturday. 

As part of the Halbert Center for Missions and Global Service, MSA was formed to help connect students to local nonprofits in need of volunteers. 

Dawson Mullins, MSA president, got involved with the organization early in his time at ACU and said he has enjoyed working with students both as a member and as part of the leadership team.

“Our primary mission with Mission Student’s Association is to foster a missional body of students here on campus that one, loves God, and two, wants to go out into the world and go out into their communities and join in God’s kingdom work,” said Mullins, junior mechanical engineering major from Abilene.

This year, MSA will partner with nine non-profit organizations around Abilene. Those organizations include:

• Abilene Youth Sports Authority
• Alliance for Women & Children
• All Kind Animal Initiative
• Camp Able of Buffalo Gap
• Christian Homes and Family Services
• Grace Garden
• Grace Fellowship
• Houses for Healing
• Regional Victim Crisis Center

Additionally, MSA is partnering with other student organizations on campus to help spread the word about the service event. However, students don’t have to be a part of an organization to participate.

“We try to get our student organizations involved because it creates a lot of buy-in from the members,” Mullins said. “If one person from that organization is going, then they’re likely to draw a whole big crowd. But we also don’t want to limit people [and say] like people have to be in a student organization to participate.”

Along with the event on Saturday, MSA also hosts a chapel open to all students every Thursday at 11 a.m. Abby Madera, MSA vice-president, initially connected with the organization through these chapels as a sophomore. 

“Sometimes we do like a service chapel, so we packed bags for the homeless,” said Madera, junior English and Bible major from San Antonio. “Other times we’ll do discussion chapels, or we’ll have a speaker, or sometimes we do prayer chapels as well.”

On Saturday, the Day of Service will begin with an MSA chapel service in the Beauchamp Amphitheatre. The Chapel will begin at 9 a.m., and the Office of Spiritual Life will provide breakfast. From there, the service events will begin at 10 a.m. around Abilene and will go through the early afternoon, depending on the event.

“Day of Service is a really awesome way to get plugged into the Abilene community, especially since we can be very much in our ACU bubble,” Madera said. “The ACU mission statement is to raise up global leaders, and I think the best place to start when you’re serving globally is right in your neighborhood.”

More information can be found on the MSA Instagram page, @acumissions, and through QR codes around campus. There are around 140 sign-up slots for students, and it is first-come, first-served.

“My favorite part about ACU Day of Service is seeing students get plugged into a non-profit that they didn’t even know existed,” Mullins said. “Like our dream of ACU Day of Service is not for this to be a one-time thing. Our long term dream and visions for this is for this to just be the beginning – the beginning of a long-term partnership where God is working through our students.”