A Christian community at college

As Christians, we are called to serve. We are called to serve our congregations, our communities, and our nations. This service is carried out in a number of ways. Some are called to serve as ministers or lay leaders within the church, while others are called to participate in mission trips or do volunteer work.

While in college, I answer my call to service through a special organization. I am the president of the Bethany College Petitioning Group for the co-ed service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega. (By the time you read this, we will have gone through the official chartering ceremony by the national office, and will no longer be a petitioning group.) This service fraternity is founded on the basic principles of Leadership, Friendship, and Service, and therefore, does wonderful acts of service to their campuses, communities, and our nation. To name a few things, my chapter sends volunteers weekly to a youth tutoring program and a weekly recovery program. Most recently, we have teamed up with a committee from Bethany Memorial Church to help raise money for local and tsunami flood relief.

Through the numerous events Bethany Memorial has hosted, they have raised approximately four thousand dollars, and there is still one major event left to go. The team, comprised of members of the Bethany Memorial congregation, has hosted silent auctions, a spaghetti dinner, a bean soup Depression/Tax Dinner, hoagie sales, and much more. The final event will be an ice cream social held during Alumni weekend. Most of the funds raised will go to support flood relief locally and internationally. The rest of the funds will go to assist in sending a group somewhere to do hands-on mission work.

BMC has reached out to the campus to find student organizations to assist with this mission. Not only has Alpha Phi Omega been a part, but so has the International Student Association and the Student Artist Guild. The campus organizations help with serving food, providing entertainment, or creating table decorations. I commend Bethany Memorial Chruch's efforts to answer their call to service, and applaud the willingness of the campus to get involved with such a worthy cause.

Carissa Cullumber is in her second year as a HELM Leadership Fellow and is a member of Avon Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Indianapolis.