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	Giving To Dordt

From a Random Acts of Kindness Club to mission trips to Nicaragua, a heart for service is evident among the student body at Dordt College.

Since 1981, thousands of Dordt College students have given countless hours of service, many by participating in three programs at Dordt: PLIA (Putting Love Into Action), AMOR (A Mission OutReach), and COP (Community Outreach Program). The largest of the three programs, PLIA, enlisted 115 students in their annual spring break project in 2007, sending student teams to 13 different ministry sites across the U.S.

At the heart of these service projects lies Dordt College’s distinctive approach to education, which recognizes that learning must lead to service, and that service enhances learning. Helping those in need is one part of the service God expects of us, so a holistic Christian education should include opportunities to do so.

The strength and vitality of volunteer service programs at Dordt has always come from students’ personal commitment to Christian service.

PLIA got its start in 1981 when a dozen students decided to put their spring break to good use as volunteers at Cary Christian Health Center in Cary, Mississippi. That began a tradition of student ownership and management that has continued throughout PLIA’s subsequent history, and been transferred to COP and AMOR as they came into existence.

While the benefits of the volunteer project to recipients are key, these programs also provide students with a rich learning experience in planning, organization, leadership, group processes, and even fund raising.

For more than a decade, Putting Love in Action (PLIA) has routinely enlisted a large percentage of Dordt’s student body. As the numbers involved have grown, so has PLIA’s geographical reach and variety of projects.

Last year alone, PLIA teams worked at ministry centers in Atlanta, GA; Birmingham, AL; Camden, NJ; Cary, MS; Chicago, IL; Denver, CO; Grand Junction, CO; Mendenhall, MS; Neon, KY; Red Lake, MN; Shiprock, NM; Vicksburg, MS; and Toronto, Canada.

Students do a wide variety of work at these centers, such as home repair and painting, cleanup of center grounds or facilities, and childcare or teaching. While these are primarily work trips, groups usually also find some time away for recreation or sightseeing.

PLIA participants will also attest to the importance of social and devotional times, as students grow closer to each other and get to know the personnel of the ministry center and the people of the community in which the team is working.

No matter the location they go to or the work they do, students will routinely point to their PLIA experience as among the most memorable of their college years. Not only do students witness through the work they do and the love they show, but they also come back from their work sites with a new perspective on poverty, social injustice, and race relations.

Chris Garris, a student from Branchville, N.J., sums up the effect of his PLIA experience in these words: “Something that made a huge impression on me was how working for the Lord can be so rewarding … in everything we did, the Lord was present and this helped us as a group grow closer.”

Read about PLIA's Spring 2008 Service Projects.

A Mission Out Reach (AMOR) was also founded in the ’80s, expanding upon PLIA’s tradition of outreach to the less fortunate by adding the element of foreign missions.

AMOR work projects have taken as many as 35 students annually to a Third World country where they have carried out work projects, led Bible schools, and been introduced to the culture and the missions challenges of their host country.

In 2008, 35 Dordt students formed three teams that traveled to Belize, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua. “God used that week to emphasis the need for purpose in our lives and how we can help others,” said Rachel Antvelink, a student on the Belize mission team. Team members said their time there was a powerful reminder of the abundance in their lives, and how God calls each of us to rely upon Him and share our blessings.

The Dominican Republic was the first AMOR mission destination, and students continue to partner with Worldwide Christian Schools and Christian Reformed World Missions there, primarily building and improving schools and churches in the poverty-stricken barrios (neighborhoods) of the capital city, Santo Domingo, or the batays (villages) of impoverished Haitian cane cutters.

Nicaraguan AMOR teams often assist with Christian Reformed World Relief Committee projects, including working on a farm that helps small landowners improve farming methods.

Read about AMOR 2008 trips to Belize, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua.

Since its beginnings in 1981 the Community Outreach Program (COP) has involved hundreds of students in volunteer service through agencies and ministries in the Sioux Center area. About 75 students served others through COP last year.

College-funded and student-run, COP gives students the opportunity to make more long-term commitments to the organizations and individuals they serve than they are able to with PLIA and AMOR. For some students their COP projects also directly support their classroom learning, as they find volunteer positions that allow them to gain hands-on experience related to their studies. Teacher education students have worked in Head Start programs, daycare centers, or local schools; social work students in a variety of social service agencies, nursing homes, and hospitals. Other programs in which COP volunteers have worked include PALS (a big brother/big sister outreach), a substance abuse center, a domestic violence intervention center, and local residences for persons with disabilities.