Mission Arlington | Mission Metroplex

Partners on Mission – DBU Students at Mission Arlington

DBU students arrive on campus, ready to work.

DBU students arrive on campus, ready to work.

Every year, Dallas Baptist University (DBU) hosts a “student welcome and transition” week, called “SWAT.”  This week-long event “opens the door to a new life at DBU for incoming first year and transfer students.”  This event is a long standing tradition at the school, and it happens the week before fall classes begin each year.

Hard working young people, with a sweet enthusiasm for the ministry of Mission Arlington.

Hard working young people, with a sweet enthusiasm for the ministry of Mission Arlington.

In this week, incoming students receive the “training they need to lay a solid foundation socially, intellectually, physically, and spiritually in order to be prepared for their college experience. They also find the opportunity to make “instant connections with other students,” and to form “lifelong friendships,” as they become “comfortable with their new college home.”

Block parties, special games days called “follies”, and pool parties form much of the fun. On the Friday of this week, the University sponsors what they call a “landmark service day,” sending the students out into the community to support non-profit organizations like ours. Their heart is to impact their community for Christ, and to introduce the students to service learning, and integrated part of the University’s Christ-centered education.   Three hundred (300) students will serve in and through Mission Arlington today.

DBU students brought an energetic and enthusiastic spirit to every task. Here, a student helps us get food ready for the pantry.

DBU students brought an energetic and enthusiastic spirit to every task. Here, a student helps us get food ready for the pantry.

As a part of our work, these students will help us love on children and youth in multiple apartment communities, places where Mission Arlington® has established work. They will share the love of Christ with everyone – with words and actions.  Plenty of smiles and hugs will be the order of the day.  They will also lift the load for us here at our main campus – moving food into locations, building and placing new shelves for the food pantry, receiving and organizing donations, helping to deliver school supplies, and so much more. The things they will do in one day – with 300 college students – are the kinds of things that it would take us “forever” to do on our own. We are so truly blessed and grateful.

For Dallas Baptist University, this day is more than just an event to help the students feel useful and comfortable as they transition to a new place.  Service learning, for this University, is a way of life, an integral part of their mission, a hope that as their students experience the world now, it will affect not just their heads, but also their hearts, so that long after University life has ended, “making a difference” in the world will be simply a matter of course.  We stand with them towards that end.  It is also the heart of the Mission Arlington® family.

We are grateful for each and every one of you who pray for us, give here, and lend your time, to help us reach our community for Christ.  Thanks to you, and all glory to God!

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