Hope everyone is getting ready for a wonderful Thanksgiving! It feels like this semester has just flown by, hasn’t it? It’s been a great journey thus far and one of the highlights here in the MAS office is serving in our ministries! This week – I wanted to highlight for you Door of Hope! At the Door of Hope, located in Pasadena, students will have the opportunity to serve and build relationships with families who are transitioning out of homelessness. Through after-school tutoring, free babysitting, work projects at the facility, and other activities with those living at the Door of Hope, volunteers will be challenged and encouraged in their life, faith, and concepts of love and justice. Here’s a sneak peak into Student Ministry Coordinator Alicia Dill’s daily life at Door of Hope:
“When I started volunteering at Door of Hope last Spring I had no idea what a huge impact it would make on my life. Door of Hope is a privately funded, faith-based outreach located in Pasadena that focuses on serving homeless families. I knew that I wanted to get connected with a ministry and Door of Hope fit into my schedule so I signed up to be a volunteer. Quickly, I feel in love with the organization, the kids, staff, and families that live at and are involved with Door of Hope. I am now the Student Ministry Coordinator and have the opportunity to get other APU students involved with the organization.
Each day you go to Door of Hope is definitely an adventure. Homework is a consistent task that has to be done each day, but you never really know what creative measures you will have to go toto get the kids to be motivated to do their homework. I remember standing on the stairway a few weeks ago with a young boy who was about to run upstairs to his room in hopes of avoiding his homework and convincing him that I was about to tell him a huge secret that he could not tell anyone else. “Did you know that journaling and writing now will help you get good grades in college?” That’s all it took. Before I knew it he was journaling away, eager to have me read his journal entry once he was finished. It is in those small moments that I get really excited about the ministry and service that is happening at Door of Hope. In the midst of the chaos and craziness, the volunteers are helping to develop the kids for tasks and challenges that they will face later in life. However, the Door of Hope afterschool program is not all about the homework. Now that we have a larger volunteer team, we are able to do more activities that help foster relationship building and mentorship between APU students and the kids at Door of Hope. We color with the kids, we tell them Bible stories, we play sports, we carved pumpkins on Halloween, and we have even been able to go on a few“field trips” with the kids. We were able to take a couple of the kids on a hike at Eaton Canyon earlier in the semester and a few APU volunteers were able to accompany the kids at a movie screening on the roof of Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles.It is exciting to see all the growth that is happening in the program and in the lives of those in the program and in the lives of the volunteers.”
Thanks for reading about Door of Hope and we wish you and yours an amazing Thanksgiving this coming week!
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Ministry and Service exists to educate and mobilize the APU undergraduate community toward an active response in service that advances the work of God in the world. Azusa Pacific University sponsors a plethora of local and global programs, which prepare students to become capable leaders of service in diverse settings. To stay connected with what is happening in the local community, “like us” on Facebook (Ministry and Service) or “follow us” on Twitter (@apumas). Every year, over 1250 students serve through City Links, over 500 students participate in on-going ministry, and Justice Week.
Tags: action, azusa, domestic, Door of Hope, faith, justice, Local, Los Angeles, MAS, Ministry, reconciliation, Service
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