Every year, during the third week of June, hundreds of junior and senior high school students flood the Vineyard Community Church for SOS: Summer of Service.
In a nutshell: SOS is not your average summer camp for kids.
Instead, SOS is a MEGA service-oriented camp/conference during which, for one week, hundreds of young people will be loving the people of Cincinnati into a relationship with Jesus, through various daily outreaches/community projects such as free car washes, block parties, water giveaways. Also, the kids experience powerful worship with some pretty cool national acts and great messages from some pretty cool speakers everyday. The whole point of SOS is to give students an opportunity to grow closer to God while developing a heart to serve those around them and instead of just telling people about God's love, getting creative in showing His love in practical ways.
This year, more than 900 students have registered and you better believe it's gonna be a blast.
Needless to say, with all those hyped-up-excited-to-serve-God-and-people teenagers running around...you better believe that TONS of adult supervision is required...about 1,500 adult volunteers to be exact.
I've been involved with SOS throughout the years, working a few days/hours here and there at a couple of block parties and water giveaways, but for the first time this year (I seriously believe that God provided this time in my life when I'm in between jobs, as an excellent serving opportunity), I'll actually be "working" all day, all week! Talk about an alternative...über fun..."full-time job!" Oh! And to top it all off, the sis will be serving along side me since she's off for the summer from UC! (another God sign that we TOTALLY should be doing SOS!)
Everyday, except Thursday, I'll be doing the block parties. Thursday I'll be doing something that's entirely new to SOS this year, serving as a Special Ops Team member. Also, there's a HUGE, special surprise event scheduled on Thursday that's supposed to knock the socks off the kids!
Words can't even describe how excited I am about this leg of the week, during which I will be paired with an awesome cool cat named DaJuan in making sure, that despite his special needs, he'll have an awesome experience! Hopefully, DaJuan won't think I'm an uncool, old lady and he'll get my corny, sarcastic sense of humor! HA! Can't. Friggin. Wait!
If you are interested in serving, there are still spots available throughout the week. Even if you can only do an hour, every bit o' help...helps! So sign up and come be part of a serving experience I guarantee...you'll never forget...or never regret!
So stay tuned for my twitter updates and blog posts regarding all the SOS hoopla. And make sure you're in the loop with all the official SOS updates:
Twitter (as well as all mentions of #summerofservice on Twitter)
and
This year's SOS focus/theme is social justice (ha! something that I'm definitely ALL ABOUT! Another God sign?...I certainly think so!), with the scripture, Micah 6:8, serving as inspiration. So all SOS initiatives will be focused on serving the hungry, the poor, the illiterate, the forgotten and the minimized.
Imagine. One week. One week to change your life. To change other people's lives. To join hundreds of other junior and high school students to impact the city of Cincinnati in revolutionary ways.
It's gonna be freakin AWESOME!
"He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God."
Micah 6:8 (New International Version)
*All photos from SOS Facebook
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment