Spring Break Camp Wrap-Up
Our spring camp season has come to a close! Over 200 college students chose to spend their spring break in Memphis rather than sandy beaches or a soft couch! The 2014 camps included rain, snow, ice and fortunately some sun. This camp season we partnered with 8 homeowners in Orange Mound and have been working on roofing their homes.
College students came from the University of Toledo, Cedarville University, Silverlake College of the Holy Family, Northside Christian Church (Springfield, MO), UNC - Chapel Hill, Ball State University, Western Illinois University, Mississippi State, h20 Pittburgh, Virginia Tech, College of the Ozarks, Mount Vernon Nazarene University, Valdosta State University, Johnson University, Taylor University, and Missouri! The Orange Mound homeowners were very gracious in opening their homes to dirty college students at lunch time for devotions and lunch.
Some of these students had never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ! As a staff, it is an amazing thing to learn that students were able to hear the gospel in word for a first time and participate in SOS's mission to also show Christ's love by our deeds. Through the homeowners' lives we saw many evidences of the body of Christ. One very faithful lady of Princeton Avenue Baptist on Scott Street is recently widowed, and she has a revolving door of visitors that check in on her. That was truly a beautiful thing to witness.
College students were greatly impacted by the lives of the Memphians that they met. In evaluations, the highlight of most students' camp experience was getting to know the homeowner they served with and the families that they met who have intentionally moved to Orange Mound or Binghampton with the purpose of loving and serving their neighbors well.
Partnering with homeowners to make homes warmer, safer, and drier is a beautiful thing to get to do as an organization. Unfortunately, it can be slow at times. Very often, SOS is not able to fix everything that is needed at a house. We lack the resources and time to be able to meet every need. This spring, the weather and trickiness of some of the roofs has kept us on our toes and their is still work to be completed by our full-time staff on these roofing projects. We are working diligently to get these roofs completed!
Check out a few more #SOSsb14 pictures below!