Students participate in 11th annual Bisons for Christ

April 6, 2017 |

More than 1,500 students participated in the 11th annual Bisons for Christ service day Wednesday, April 5, volunteering in 150 service projects in the Searcy area. Bisons for Christ is hosted by The Original Rock House, a campus ministry of College Church of Christ, each year to promote service to others.

The 2017 Bisons for Christ theme was “Continue 364,” emphasizing Hebrews 6:10, “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.”

Project coordinator Curtis Wilson, junior computer science major from Graham, Washington, said that the Bisons for Christ staff wanted the focus to be on continuing service, particularly in the relationships formed through this day of service.

“Officially, as a day of service, Bisons for Christ often becomes a once a year event; however, as a Christian community, we are called to serve continually,” Wilson said.

Pizza Ministry, a weekly student-led project, is the kind of continual service Wilson hopes for. Pizza Ministry has been a growing ministry for the past five years as a result of a project organized by Bisons for Christ.  Read more about Pizza Ministry and the work it does: bit.ly/2nOLmMK .

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This year, students served widows in their homes, cooked and delivered casseroles to shut-ins, visited retirement and children homes, assisted in cleanup at local camps, hosted sports clinics, wrote cards to the elderly and more. Freshman Chesney Barrett served a woman at her home for Bisons for Christ. Barrett said she thought Bisons for Christ was a great opportunity for her to get involved in the community she would live in for the next four years.

“God calls us to serve, and I thought what a better way [than] to serve an elderly lady who needs help, and she’s not able to get around,” Barrett said. “I just felt like this would be an amazing project to do, not only every year, but also to start to be acquainted with her and people who need help.”

Wilson, like Barrett, said that service to others is a foundational part of faith in Christ. Wilson said this year’s event was incredible because of the way he was able to see God working.

“Every year we do this, we literally get to see God in action,” Wilson said. “We see him working in the form of keeping the rain away while we work, we see him in how it affects the people who serve and are served, and we see him in how he works in the hearts of people so that we get just enough to fill all the projects that we have to work on. God is good!”