Ozark Mission Project at SOS | SELFLESS
Enjoy this recap of our week with OMP thanks to Sidney Dennis, SOS Academy Intern. Our boxes of Hothands are empty, three roofs have been completed, and 75 college students are back to their studies. This past week at SOS we had the pleasure of hosting the Ozark Mission Project Winter trip consisting of The Wesley Foundation campus ministries from numerous college campuses in Arkansas. Not your average SOS trip, we were able to partner with a few of our neighborhood ministries and offer a week of willing volunteers for special projects. One group worked alongside a few of the Binghampton Development Center’s job trainees in a house they are rehabbing for an affordable rental property. Melrose High School in Orange Mound has a freshly painted locker room. Also, Union Ave Baptist Church has some new paint on its walls and old carpet removed from the premises. But, in keeping with an SOS trip, three teams were able to finish three roofs in one week. Partnerships like this allow us to stretch from our typical routine and show our volunteers some of the movers and shakers in the neighborhoods we are in.
An immersive trip like this at the beginning of the year has set up the students and our staff for a new and challenging year focused on serving our Lord with selfless hearts. Theses students gave up a full week of their winter break from school to serve with us. I don’t know what kind of environment could lead them to be selfless more than freezing temperatures and being asked to work outside for a week. This week may have taught us one type of selflessness, with our time and our bodies, but being selfless is more than just doing something for someone else. Along with our work days conversations bloomed, talking about new year's resolutions, the many ministries in Memphis, and God’s call on their life. We can be selfless in our money, in asking someone about their day instead of sharing yours, or in putting God's plans for our life above our own. Galatians 2:20 says “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” We participate in SOS not for the glory of ourselves but for the Glory of God. We want to be selfless because it is God who lives in us and we want to put his plans in front of ours. By no means does this mean that we have mastered selflessness, but the lessons learned this week will be practiced and cultivated the rest of the year.
