love in action

Love in Action Engaging the culture of the community is participating in the shaping of the world through affecting people in some way. Engaging with the people in a community can come through many avenues, including service opportunities, jobs, or even just living daily life with an awareness of what is going on and an openness to get involved. Although it can seem small and insignificant on the global scale, putting time into serving those in a community has a large impact and can change the direction of people’s lives. Service opportunities are ideal for Christians to show the love of Christ to those around them, and they allow the person serving to gain a new perspective on life and the needs in the community. As Christian students at Southeastern University, it is imperative that we engage and pour into our community the love and encouragement of Christ that we are being shown everyday on campus so we can not only make an impact, but learn and grow as we serve. To get involved with the community this semester, I joined a group of Southeastern students that have been going to Dakota Park apartments for the past year and a half to do kids outreach on Saturdays. It was exciting to see how, as soon as the cars pulled up, the kids swarmed to the field in the middle of the apartments and were ready to play with anyone, even though they had never met many of us before. I am not an initially outgoing person, so it took me a while to gather my thoughts and decide what to do and where to go since there were kid everywhere. It was not long before a soccer game got started and I joined the mobs of kids running up and down the field. Once involved in an activity, it was not difficult to begin talking with the kids and observing how they reacted to us and each other. I noticed that many of the kids were related and they treated the SEU students as an extension of their family. It has been incredible to see the way the kids soak up love and attention that they may not