As of fall 2018, MBU has implemented service days to take place each semester, during which students and staff can partake in service activities while also enjoying free food, yard games and live music.
Photo courtesy of MBU Office of Faith and Service
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The event features four main service activities: preparing backpacks for children in St. Louis and Ghana with the North American Mission Board, donating gently used clothing items with Gamma Delta Sigma’s “Threads” project, which will be sold to raise money for the International Justice Mission, building stuffed animals for kids in children’s hospitals through Sharing Smiles and donating non-perishable food and personal items to the Sharing Shop to help fellow students in need. Service days are new this academic year, this being the second, and will be ongoing for Spartans, according to Aaron Lumpkin, campus minister and director of faith and service. “Each semester, we will host an on-campus service day to offer opportunities for the MBU family to give back to the community,” Lumpkin said in an email. “Service flows for our core values, and Service Days are a way for us to express this value together.” Service Day begins after Chapel and will continue until approximately 2 p.m. In addition to service activities, the event offers Chick-fil-A, hot dogs off the grill, snacks and drinks, along with a variety of games. Sharing Smiles is an organization that makes stuffed bears for children in hospitals, founded by Lindsey Peters, sophomore theatre major from O’Fallon, Missouri. Peters is responsible for bringing material for the overall execution of that activity. “I would love for the students to find a love for service,” Peters said in an email. “A lot of people forget how fun it can be and how much it makes a huge difference to even the smallest child in a hospital. Many hands make light work.” Service days are reminders of the privilege and responsibility to care for those around us, according to Lumpkin. In locking arms to make a difference in the community, “we reflect the God of the universe, for He is the greatest servant of us all.” “College is a busy season for students,” Lumpkin said. “It’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day responsibilities of being a student or professor. Even in this, God has called us to be a people of both word and deed. We are committed to the power of the Gospel, and we believe this power is expressed through loving and serving one another.” The MBU Office of Faith and Service oversees the planning of service days, but they collaborate with Special Events, ResLife, Student Activities and other offices on campus, as well as various outside organizations. Kelsey Dotson, a junior double-majoring in elementary education and cross-categorical disabilities, from Labadie, Missouri, who is a member of Gamma Delta Sigma, said the donated clothing will be sold in the fall in a pop-up thrift store on campus. All proceeds will then be donated to IJM to financially support the fight to rescue victims of human trafficking and slavery. Service Day, Dotson noted, presents an opportunity to serve not only members of our local community but members of our global community as well. “There are numerous adults that are suffering through physical torment and sexual abuse, but one in four of these victims are children,” Dotson said in an email. “Their innocence has been ripped away, and they don’t get a fair shot at a normal childhood. We got that chance, and I think it’s important that we pay it forward.”
Emma Tihen 
MBU Timeline 
Jessica Kunkel