Last week classes were cancelled on Wednesday for the annual Service Day. Students could sign up for a variety of projects on campus as well as a trip to Camp Mennoscah that I was lucky enough to be on.

The biggest project was the cleanup of the Kidron Canal, which runs through campus in between the athletic and academic buildings. President White was really excited about this project because it would help tear down the physical barrier between the athletic and academic sides of campus. The football team and many other students worked on it, and it’s an impressive change.

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Who doesn’t love saving lives? Especially when there’s pizza involved. Well, at Bethel one of the ways that we show our appreciation for our fellow man is by showing up to donate blood. It must be hardwired into our Mennonite DNA (don’t worry, if you’re non-Mennonite you too can develop a deep appreciation for volunteering) to do what we can to make the world a better place, and one of those ways is by having a blood drive. Who doesn’t love having Vietnamese food? Not the International club. They took a trip down to Wichita to eat at a delicious Viet restaurant and experience multiculturalism through their stomachs. It was rightly glorious. Read More

As part of the Service Learning Scholarship from Bethel, I volunteer as a nurse’s aide in the surgical department of the Newton Medical Center. I put in 60 hours a semester, which works out to about five hours per week. This year, I’m volunteering from 6-10:30 am every Thursday. It means that I have to wake up at about 5:00 am, which is less than ideal, but it’s really the only time that I can fit in such a large chunk of time. It helps that I absolutely love every minute of volunteering at the hospital. It’s a great way to gain experience in the medical field. Occasionally the head nurse is able to get me into the surgical suites to view procedures. I’ve seen a knee replacement, parathyroidectomy (removal of a parathyroid gland), hernia repair and several heart catheterizations. The doctors have always been very good at pointing out different anatomical landmarks and making sure that I can see exactly what they’re doing, to the point of pulling up a stool for me (I’m pretty short) and letting me peer over their shoulder. It’s an unparalleled rush, seeing the inner workings of the body displayed less than two feet away. Read More

Bethel has just adopted a new tagline: Seek. Serve. Grow. We try to incorporate and encourage these three aspects into campus life daily. Service is of great importance at Bethel because I think it makes everyone feel good, and it also helps to promote community. During the holiday season, it is often easy to find ways to help serve others. Currently, Bethel is holding a food drive on campus called the Harvest of Love offering. This act of service began the week before thanksgiving break and is still continuing now. This is a very local opportunity for students here on campus to make a big difference in a very easy and simplistic way. Students simply bring non-perishable food items to the Student Life office where they collect them to distribute to the local Newton community. Those of us students who attended Chapel, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving got to help kick off this offering by bringing our food items to the Chapel. Students from all over campus, in every aspect of campus life brought multiple items to give to our local community. So, if you plan to visit in the next couple of weeks, feel free to bring food for our offering of love, or in any case, be ready to be immersed in acts of service on campus.

Service Day is day where all the students at Bethel go out into the community and lend a helping hand. It was so exciting this year because so many people signed up and everyone was willing and able to go out into the community and volunteer their time. This service day was very unique in that more people volunteered than usual and students actually had fun stories to tell about their voluntary service. Maybe we should have a day like this every month to really show our service. Seek. Serve. Grow. Bethel College. Our new motto for Bethel is really emphasized when the community gets involved in service.

Regardless of our intentions, we haven’t blogged at all this week. That’s partly due to exhaustion but also the result of the faulty internet connection around here. Our apologies.Despite the worst sandstorm that the area has seen in a long while, we were able to start working bright and early Monday morning on our project: the new volunteer center. Finishing this building is the last in a long string of construction projects for the Hopi Mission School, including a duplex for the school’s teachers and a large gym. One of our main jobs was to prime and put two coats of paint on the exterior of the building, and the other was laying tile in the interior. Read More

I have had a fun couple of days. Since you’re on the internet, I’ll assume you have nothing better to do than read my blog about it. Sound good? Awesome. By the way, I’ll be blogging intermittently for the rest of the week, so stay glued to your computer screens for more updates!Back to my fun few days. Read More