By Mitch Holt, Staff Writer
The annual ACU for Abilene service day, planned by the Service Action Leadership Team, will be April 16. Students who participate will take on a more intensified and mission-centered role this year than in the past.
“We often talk about wanting to serve God and helping those in need,” said Jordan Swim, sophomore Christian ministries major from Richardson and co-chair of ACU for Abilene. “Well, here is a chance in our own community, and all you have to do is wake up on a Saturday morning.”
ACU for Abilene is a service day designed to further the good of the Abilene community. Swim said the difference in this year’s event is the passionate desire of the student body to see Abilene transformed.
“So often, we have had simple service days, which isn’t a bad thing, but this year we want to answer the call to unify as a student body and try to meet the needs of those in the community as a result of that call,” Swim said.
SALT has arranged opportunities for volunteers to serve at women’s shelters, nursing homes, the neighborhood surrounding the school and several other venues. The students who have been praying for and planning the event have been surveying the needs of the city and observing what can be done in the community, Swim said. Volunteers will be working in yards, cleaning and praying with people of the community.
“ACU for Abilene is something that SALT begins praying for during the fall,” said Jessica Masters, junior English major from Tallahassee, Fla. and co-chair of the Involvement and Publicity Patrol. “The bulk of the work happens at the beginning of the spring semester once committees have been assigned.”
The committees perform their respective tasks in order to make every aspect of ACU for Abilene a success.
Students will be able to sign up for the event April 11 through 15 after Chapel until 2 p.m. at the Campus Center ticket windows.
The service day will begin in the morning with a time of prayer and singing.
Student groups like Spring Break Campaigns and social clubs are encouraged to adopt a site for the event, Masters said.
Members of SALT hope this year’s ACU for Abilene will be the biggest thus far because of the intensified focus on God’s call to ministry in the community, Swim said, adding students, faculty and staff should ask themselves if they are willing to accept their radical calls to service and answer the call of Christ.
“I think that with the continual messages about evangelism that we hear in Chapel and other locations on campus,” Swim said, “the Lord is really trying to arouse the attention of the student body.”
