Honoring MLK With Christ-Centered Service
Reported By: Shelby McCormick
Photo Courtesy: @georgefoxuniversity on Instagram
On Jan 16, in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr (MLK) holiday, 27 George Fox University (GFU) staff and students headed to Portland, Oregon to spend the day doing service.
“We have Christ’s purposes around this; in that sense, we’re connected to Dr. King’s faith and his Christ-compelled mission,” said Rusty St. Cyr, university pastor.
The morning began with a litter clean-up in Portland hosted in partnership with SOLVE. On its website, SOLVE, an Oregon-based nonprofit, states, “Across the state, we bring diverse communities together to improve the health and safety of our neighborhoods and natural areas including our coast, rivers, parks, and forests.”
After a morning of picking up litter, the GFU team then broke for a lunch hosted by the City Team. City Team works to rehabilitate those who have experienced substance addiction, homelessness, or other difficulties in life. While the team ate, several men from the City Team shared their stories.
“Adding human stories to this event adds meaning, making it so we're not just checking off a box,” said St. Cyr. Students were also able to ask questions and get an inside look into nonprofit work and have conversations about the misconceptions about non-profits and the communities they work with.
To conclude the day, the GFU team met up with Doing Good Things to do a walkabout around downtown Portland. Doing Good Things holds weekly Night Strike events, which GFU has historically been involved with.
For this walkabout, groups walked around to share socks, hot chocolate, conversation, and prayer with those they came across outside. The goal was “to listen to them and to see them,” said St. Cyr.
“This all really resonates to Dr. King and the whole movement, to see people as God’s children and to work for the beloved community. Which means everyone has something to offer in the kingdom of God,” said St. Cyr.
Cinematic Arts majors were also provided a unique service learning opportunity as a small group of them went along with the group to get footage for an assignment. But, they also connected with the organizations to provide some of the footage for their marketing materials.
Emily Ong, a Spil intern, said that her favorite part of the day was being able to hear people’s stories. “To be there with the houseless individuals that I normally just walk by, and to slow down and really see them, and give them the attention and love they maybe have been lacking,” said Ong. “It hurts not to be able to fix all their problems right there and then, but to give them love; I hope that will continue with them.”
St. Cyr would like to see more of these service opportunities throughout the year in varying sizes. He said “to not underestimate the experiential side of students formation at Fox. We’re really looking for service as a spiritual discipline, not just as something we do once a year but for students to see it as a way to experience God.”