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What does it mean to serve others? Perhaps it’s getting up early to flip pancakes at a local community kitchen, volunteering to greet guests at the front door of the church, sharing a word of encouragement with a coworker, or traveling overseas as a missionary. Students and staff at Southern Adventist University feel that serving others is one of the most powerful ways to live out their faith and share God’s love.

As Paul writes in Galatians 5:13, “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.”

Starting With Service

A long-standing tradition at Southern is to begin each semester with service. The Fall semester kicks off with Southern Serves Day, when new students incorporate service into orientation week. The Winter semester launches with MLK Service Day, held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. At each of these annual events, Southern partners with local organizations to meet specific needs in the community.

“I deeply value the ongoing partnerships we have,” Cheryl Craven, Southern’s director for Christian Service, shares. “There’s always a core response: ‘Yes, sign us up! We love Southern students.’”

Renita Moore, First Year Experience coordinator and co-organizer of Southern Serves Day, explains why including community service as part of new student orientation is important to her. “It helps us show freshmen what this school is about,” she says.

“I enjoy service,” shares Gwen Loney, freshman English major, who volunteered to play cornhole with residents at a local assisted living center. “It connects us on a different level with people we wouldn’t normally interact with,” she explains. “The elderly don’t get to be around the younger generation much anymore and joked that we help keep them young.”

Esel Choi, freshman psychology major, worked with a group writing letters to people with depression. “It was a blessing to me that I was able to send messages of encouragement to people who are losing hope. Service is giving without expecting anything in return.”

Opportunities like these help students see firsthand the difference they can make in others’ lives. “I want students to catch the joy that comes from being others-focused and make it a way of life,” Craven shares, “both during their academic career and following graduation.”

Scholarships Honoring Service

Dedicated service days aren’t the only way Southern serves; students and staff answer the call to serve throughout the year. In 2024, Logan Johnson was one of several upperclassmen awarded the Rita Vital Endowed Scholarship for Faith and Service Learning, which enabled each to continue prioritizing an others-centered way of life. Johnson’s testimony demonstrates service in action even when not on the university’s campus.

A junior biology biomedical major, Johnson served at Kendu Adventist Hospital in Kenya as a student missionary during the 2022-23 school year. Outside the hospital gates was Nyaburi Integrated Primary School, a learning center and orphanage for disabled children. Johnson first visited to help with vespers and then quickly recognized a deep need.

The children at the orphanage struggled to get consistent meals, and their beds were soiled by bats that lived in holes riddling the ceilings. Immediately after visiting, Johnson and fellow student missionary and senior biology major Gabriel Brown decided they needed to step in.

“There was no hesitation,” Johnson says. “When you’re the only chance someone has for reasonable living conditions, the responsibility is unavoidable.”

The two young men created a short documentary showcasing the children’s testimonies and needs. They showed the video in churches back at home with the goal of raising $30,000. “More than $50,000 in donations came in,” Johnson reports. “It was truly a miracle.” Through a contractor willing to do the work for the cost of materials, Nyaburi School got a full facelift. 
Now back on campus, Johnson feels called to become a mission doctor, saying, “Service gives me a purpose on this earth.

Lifestyles of Service

Kristie Wilder, JD, professor and Southern alum, has been teaching in the School of Social Work for 14 years. She and her husband Tron Wilder, PhD, who is a psychology professor at Southern, have made service a regular activity for their family.

For the past decade, the couple has volunteered at Welcome Home, a non-profit in Chattanooga that provides a community for people diagnosed with terminal illnesses and nowhere to go for end-of-life care.

“When the Wilder family started volunteering and bringing their young sons, we watched the boys grow up, and they became part of our family. It's a beautiful thing,” says Sherry Campbell, executive director of the organization. “Our volunteers are the heart and soul here.”

Wilder feels that her spiritual life is deepened when she’s engaged in service. “I'm tangibly sharing all the ways I believe God has filled my life. It may sound cliché, but we are the hands and feet of Jesus, and we tend to understand Him better when building relationships with others.” She also appreciates the opportunities that Southern provides for her to serve alongside her students and grow spiritually alongside them.

Searching to Serve

Wilder offers advice for those who would like to serve in their own communities. “There are ways to serve all around, and so many needs,” she says. “Start close to your home, start a service-focused small group at church, and look around your neighborhood. If you see a nonprofit or a school, call them up. I promise you they are looking for volunteers to serve.”

In an era when people are often led to focus on themselves, pursue their own desires, and prioritize their own interests, God calls His people to look for ways to serve humbly in love. Service is a core value at Southern, where students and employees regularly search for opportunities to serve, and the benefit is two-fold—it meets a need, and it changes hearts. With each act of service, participants learn a little more about empathy, humility, and love.

 

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