On Feb. 7, Chad Frey, director of Messiah College’s Agape Center for Service and Learning, and Hope Hess ‘12, student director of outreach, participated alongside Dr. Sybil Knight-Burney, superintendent of the Harrisburg School District, in a round-table discussion facilitated by the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

This is not the first time Messiah has partnered with the Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.  This past summer, Messiah joined the White House’s Interfaith Campus Community Challenge, which encourages increased student service in the community.

The round-table discussion focused on the role of faith-based organizations and colleges in helping low performing schools and a possible partnership between those organizations and the White House. Since the discussion, the partnership, entitled “Together for Tomorrow,” has been announced by the Obama administration. (more…)

The Messiah College soccer teams are passionate about finding ways to use their talent to impact the lives around them, reaching beyond the fan section at Shoemaker Field. What started with tutoring at local churches elevated into summer camps with local refugees and eventually led to a new vision for sports ministry at Messiah College.

The call to engage in local outreach began when Aaron Faro, the assistant coach for the men’s soccer team, joined the Messiah community in 2009. Before accepting a coaching position at Messiah, Faro played for the Charlotte Eagles, a professional soccer team that engages in sport ministry. His experiences were testimony to the power of using sport as a form of ministry, and he passed a shared enthusiasm onto his players at Messiah. (more…)

On any Monday night during fall or spring semester, all of her friends know where to find Hope Mead – in the Uptown neighborhood of Harrisburg. Each week, she leads a group of students to serve 20 to 30 inner-city children at Abba’s Place.

Abba’s Place is a 14-year-old ministry that started at New Heritage Christian Church when Messiah College students attending the church noticed the need for more adults to serve the children’s ministry. Since its inception, this weekly Bible School ministry has been led by Messiah students and sustained through alumni involvement under the direction of the church’s pastor, Scott Barkley.

According to Barkley, “Abba’s Place, from where we stand, serves as a line of defense in terms of deterring children from a life of drugs, crime, teenage pregnancy, poverty and other negative life paths.” Through the program, Messiah students have influenced children to complete high school and go to college.

Student leadership
An art education major graduating in 2012, Mead began serving at Abba’s Place during her first year at Messiah.  She kept coming back because she grew to love the kids she serves. “Seeing each one of their smiling faces every week was so encouraging and a wonderful break from the intensity of classes and homework.”

By Mead’s sophomore year, she was ready to step into a leadership role which includes organizing and recruiting student volunteers for Abba’s Place. She has identified a large number of benefits for Messiah students who volunteer with the ministry. “They get an opportunity to focus on someone other than themselves, to learn about another culture, to be encouraged by the love, the joy and the energy of the kids.” Messiah students also benefit from an upfront look at the needs of the local community.                    

Abba’s Place would not run without Messiah students. They are the playground supervisors, the worship leaders, the planners, the teachers, and the friends of the children.

Alumni involvement
When Abba’s Place started it had a mascot, Duct Tape Man. Fourteen years later, Duct Tape Man or Chad Swartzentruber ’00 is still serving the ministry—albeit without a duct tape mask or cape. Affectionately known to the group as “Mr. Chad,” he works in the church’s daycare and has become a cornerstone in children’s lives in the community. 

Throughout the years, students have become attached to the community and the children and find themselves still involved with Abba’s Place years after graduation. According to Swartzentruber, “Alumni give continuity to the program. They help teach the new volunteers what to do. They help the children adjust to new people.”

Barkley understands that Messiah students and alumni are receiving as well as giving through their involvement with Abba’s Place. “I have stated for years to new students that while you are coming into the ‘hood’ to give of yourselves, I promise that you will take back to the campus more than what you left with in terms of the experience. The alumni, if they hang around, are able to see firsthand a ‘return on their investment’ – far exceeding any investment on Wall Street.” 

Abba’s Place serves children ages pre-kindergarten to fourth grade on Monday nights and children ages fifth grade through high school on Wednesday nights during the school year.

If you are interested in learning more about Abba’s Place and how you can be involved, contact the Agape Center for Service and Learning at 717-796-1800, ext. 7255.
Story by Rachel Crownover `09, a member of the College’s Alumni Council and volunteer at Abba’s Place since 2006.

Junior Roxanne Benedict traveled to Kenya during a May 2010 cross-cultural course, and returned to campus inspired and motivated to positively impact the lives of Kenyan children affected by poverty and AIDS.

Together with Dawn Gearhart, instructor of family and consumer sciences, Benedict, a family and consumer sciences major, devised a plan to sew book bags; fill them with school supplies, hygiene products, books and notes of encouragement; and deliver them to Kenyan children.

Benedict, through participation in the Pennsylvania Family and Consumer Sciences Conference in Gilbertsville, Pa., in October of 2010 was able to secure additional assistance from family and consumer science majors across the state. Soon the project was embraced by dozens of like-minded students and professors.

“I just felt God’s hand was behind it all,” said Benedict. Students spent class time sewing the bags from materials provided by teachers and parents. (more…)

A typical Friday night for students Isaac Won, Kevin Manieri, and Andy Breighner consists of driving into Harrisburg, parking along Front Street, and talking to homeless men.

Last fall, one Sunday after church, they spontaneously began to talk somewhat casually about doing something like this. The idea didn’t go away. Later that day, they bought food at Walmart and went into Harrisburg to find anyone who may need some help.

Now, along with other men from the Men’s Ministry at Messiah College, they go to the Front Street area just to talk to the homeless men who are waiting for the Bethesda Mobile Mission van. Typically between five to 10 men from Messiah College go every Friday.

“The goal was to build friendships,” said Manieri. He says there are many opportunities for the homeless to get a meal or a place to sleep in Harrisburg, but the real need is for individual needs to be met.

“The biggest need is hope, because they believe they are in a hopeless situation,” said Manieri. (more…)

Imagine that you are the parent of a toddler who is ill and exhibiting symptoms such as a fever and sore throat. You live in Steelton, and your child’s doctor’s appointment is in downtown Harrisburg. You must use the bus system to get to the office. The doctor examines your child and orders more tests at a separate facility, so you have to take the bus to yet another location. After more waiting in another medical office, you and your exhausted and ill child still have the bus ride home, complete with several connections, ahead of you.

Such is a sample scenario that a senior student in associate nursing professor Wanda Thuma-McDermond’s community health clinical rotation might receive, along with a bus pass so that they can maneuver the city under conditions similar to what their community health clients might face. (more…)

Once perceived as a grandmother’s pastime, knitting has exploded in popularity among younger generations. Now knitting has become the new chic way to be crafty and creative. Some attribute the popularity surge to numerous knit-loving celebrities, but Joy Oakes, a senior at Messiah College, believes that knitting’s attractiveness comes from its conduciveness to multitasking.

“Knitting is something that can be done while doing something else,” Oakes stated. For Oakes, that something else is fellowship. Specially, fellowship made possible through Tabitha’s, a unique student-ministry that uses knitting to serve the community.

(more…)

In the late afternoon on January 12, a powerful earthquake struck Haiti, destroying much of the capital and surrounding area, leaving thousands missing or dead and countless others homeless and without resource.  Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and does not have the infrastructure or resources to handle a crisis of this magnitude. We believe it is our Christian responsibility to pray for and support the Haitian people in their time of distress, and are currently partnering with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) to raise funds that will immediately and effectively respond to this emergency. (more…)

The largest Christian music festival in the country, Creation, takes place less than 90 miles from Messiah’s Grantham campus. For four days, tens of thousands of young adults and church groups turn the scenic Agape Farm into a tent city of sorts.  With countless campsites dotting the landscape, a wonderful community atmosphere is created.  And lots and lots of garbage. Believe it or not, that’s where Messiah College comes into play!
In 2008, transfer student admissions counselor Bryanna Boone got the idea that Messiah could offer a valuable service to Creation organizers and attendees by instituting a recycling program at the festival. That year, Messiah staff, students, and volunteers collected and recycled more than 60,000 bottles and cans.
This year, a team of 10 employees, six work-study students, and six volunteers saved another 60,600 cans and bottles from the landfill, all while chatting up Messiah with nearly 2,000 attendees! This sustainability commitment amounts to a little more than two tons of recycled material during the four-day event.
Watch a video highlighting the College’s recycling efforts at Creation.

Read more about Messiah’s sustainability commitments.

There was a time when Bridget Nace ’10 (pictured in red) wasn’t sure she’d ever walk across the stage to receive her degree. Now, that goal is in sight, and she couldn’t be more grateful for all that God has done to provide for her so that she could reach this point in her life.

Difficult Decisions
Bridget isn’t your typical college student. At the age of 20, while attending a community college, Bridget’s mother suffered from a stroke. Bridget made the decision to drop out of college to care for her mother, and devoted herself completely to ensuring that her mother’s needs were provided for. When it was clear that her mother would remain in a nursing home for the long-term, Bridget made the decision to go back to school, and, although she is ‘on her own’ when it comes to paying for her education, she chose Messiah.

“I wanted—no, I needed—a Christian environment,” Bridget says. “I didn’t grow up in a Christian home, and I knew I needed support to help me grow in my new Christian faith.”

(more…)