Ohio Adventist Christian Fellowship: Community Service

About Ohio Adventist Christian Fellowship

Here’s a surprising fact: Did you know that 65% of Seventh-day Adventist young people attend secular colleges or universities? Studying at a secular college or university presents challenges to a student’s faith. Being at college may be his or her first time making decisions of their own, without mom and dad there to guide them. University studies are stressful, and social pressures are strong. The Ohio Conference has long hoped to minister to students—Seventh-day Adventists and others—on secular campuses. In September, we started a pilot program to place chaplains at three of our state’s universities: Ohio University in Athens, The Ohio State University in Columbus, and Wright State University in Dayton. Here are some of their experiences.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Community Service

On September 16 Ohio saw some bad weather - very bad. At least 8 tornadoes were confirmed throughout the state and Athens County, where some of the worst damage was done, saw four twisters. Trailer homes blew over while larger homes were torn apart and at least 200 people were left homeless. Adventist Community Services - Disaster Response was one of the organizations that was asked to help. Their role was to manage a warehouse and collect much needed donations for the storm victims. Starting all over again takes time. Almost four months later they are still working hard at sorting and organizing donations for redistribution. When the ACF group at OSU heard that volunteers were needed they decided to plan a trip down to Athens. December 26, the day after Christmas, several students along with area church and community members arrived at the warehouse run by Adventist Community Services to see what they could do to help. We prepared palettes of household necessities to be delivered to three different families who had lost everything in the storms. We also sorted, boxed, and labeled linens. We were grateful for the opportunity to serve and are looking forward to doing it again.

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Our Campus Ministries team

Columbus, Ohio is the home of Ohio’s largest university, and one of the largest campuses in the United States. There are 55,000 students on the campus of The Ohio State University. Gina and David Helbley were serving as missionaries in Kazakhstan, when they felt a calling to do campus ministry. David is an engineer, and Gina is a graduate from the ministerial program at Walla Walla College. Now in Columbus, they’ve made their home a center for campus outreach.

Wright State University is located in Dayton, Ohio. Many Seventh-day Adventist students are in the 20,000 student body. We’ve invited Sabrina Araiza, a young adult psychology graduate from Arizona, to become our campus chaplain at Wright State. Sabrina will be working with a team from the Kettering church, under the mentorship of Kettering young adult pastor Elliot Smith.

The state’s oldest university is located in Athens, Ohio, in the foothills of Appalachia. Although Athens is a small city, 20,000 students attend Ohio University. The church in Athens has a vision to reach out to the university community. They’re being assisted by Darrin and Cristine Thurber. The Thurbers come to Ohio from California. Darrin is a ministerial student, and Cristine (known to her friends as Beamy) is a social worker. With the help of other Seventh-day Adventist students and faculty, they’ve started a strong outreach program to students.