About 300 Oklahoma Baptist University (OBU) students, including freshmen, transfers and upperclassmen, as well as OBU employees, spent Monday morning, Aug. 19, serving the Shawnee community. The volunteers served at locations all around the community for OBU’s annual Serve Shawnee event, held the Monday before the fall semester begins.
Groups served at more than 20 locations around the community, including Frontline Church, Legacy Parenting, Community Market, Boys Scouts of America, Hope Pregnancy Center, Cargo Ranch, Community Renewal and Uplift Mentoring.
Students work to organize and clean Shawnee Splash after the end of the summer season. Photo provided by OBU.
Serve Shawnee began more than 20 years ago to give back to the Shawnee community and to teach OBU students the importance of local service. Each August, students venture into the community on a Monday morning to locations in and near Shawnee. Upperclassmen and staff lead the groups as they work on various projects including landscaping, painting, cleaning and more.
Adam Clifton of Duncan, a senior studying political science, is a small group leader who was helping bag and stock items at the Community Market.
“Right here at Community Market is where I first served as a freshman in 2021,” he said. “Now, I’ve probably been here seven or eight times. It’s really shaped me; I want to help serve other people rather than serve my own needs. God calls us to serve others and to help those in need and that’s what we’re doing today.”
Clifton said it also sets a good example.
A volunteer spray cleans the pool at Shawnee Splash. Photo provided by OBU.
“We’ll have community service days all throughout the year and I think this helps the freshman know this is what we do,” he said. “We’re not just going to sit inside our bubble, we’re going to go out and serve the community that needs us.”
Myah Edwards of Skiatook, an incoming freshman studying nursing, was working with other students at Frontline Church on Monday. They were wrapping and boxing up China dinnerware to be sold to help raise money for the ministry.
“It’s important to show our love for the Lord and other people by helping others,” she said. “It’s important for us to be the hands and feet of Jesus and that’s what we’re doing right now. And getting outside the campus and meeting people also helps us feel like we are a part of the community.”
Addison Saunders of Joplin, Mo., an elementary education major, and Judah Skelton of Edmond, a Christian Studies major with a minor in Worship Ministry, are coordinators for Serve Shawnee.
Students help staff of The Guilded Grayland pull up old flooring. Photo provided by OBU.
“I think that this project is important to the community of Shawnee and OBU because it allows new students who are new to the area to see the community that they will live in for the next four years,” Saunders said. “It acclimates students to different aspects of community that is outside of campus.”
Saunders said that “Serve Shawnee” demonstrates the emphasis that OBU places on servanthood.
“For all of the organizations that we have partnered with, this allows them to show the new students who they are and how to get plugged in,” she said. “I think of some of the churches that we get the ability to serve during this. Students who want to go to church and are not sure where to go can remember the people they interacted with and feel more comfortable going there. In scripture, it says that we are called to be the body of Christ. Whenever we all come together for one cause, it allows us to use all of our gifts and abilities to glorify the Lord. I believe that Serve Shawnee is a great representation of that. We all get to come together in the name of Jesus and love others how He loves us.”
Serve Shawnee is part of Welcome Week, an annual tradition on Bison Hill where new students learn about OBU traditions, build lasting friendships and participate in fun activities together before classes begin. They spend time in small groups, learn the school chant “Ka-Rip” and take “The Walk” to officially welcome them into the OBU family.
Fall classes begin at OBU on Wednesday, Aug. 21.
