= trCJrlS arm Campaigners return home to give back, minister .- For three students, spring break campaigns offered a chance to return home and work with local churches and residents. Senior Caleb Borchers, sophomore Kyle Dismuke and junior AshleyThompson traveled to their home congregations with other students from Harding to help their communities. "It helped more (hat it was in my home state because I love it up there," Dismuke, a sophomore from Natick, Mass., said. Borchers, who was from the Detroit, Mich., area, led a group of 14 who worked with the Lake Orion Church of Christ and focused on reaching rhe communities of Lake Orion, Pontiac and Detroit. "It helped strengthen my interest in working in urban areas," Borchers said. "The suburban church has done a bad job about forgetting the city." Specifically, the group worked with God's Helping Hands, a benevolence organization, and Grace Centers of Hope in Pontiac, which renovated drug houses in dangerous neighborhoods for use as recovery centers and children's homes. Borchers said the small community that stands now used to be a street ofdrug houses five years ago. Dismuke returned home to Massachusetts with a group of 15 students led by Mark Simmons to serve the Natick Church ofChrist and surrounding towns. 'X'hile in the area, the campaigners participated in events such as youth rallies and working at nursing homes. Dismuke said that the campaign's focus was primarily aimed toward the community. In Orlando, Fla., Thompson participated in inner-city work with the Concord and Midtown churches ofChrist. With her father serving as minister Stretching to reoch. junior Heather Wilson paints the trim of a community member's house in Snellville. Ga .. March 9. 2005. The Snellville campaign spent two days priming and painting the house, Wilson said. -Oaniel Caceres . I::student life for the Midtown church, that service was personal for Thompson. "I've always been involved with inner-city work," Thompson said. "You get to offer the kids something they don't get at home." Having been aware ofinner-ciry mission work since she was 6 years old, Thompson had the opportunity to witness the effects ofhelping others over (ime in her home congregation. "If you just help somebody, even ifit's just a little bit, it can change their lives," Thompson said. Furthermore, Dismuke was impressed by the immediate impact that the Natick campaigners had on his home congregation. "The presence the church had there could be seen," Dismuke said. "I didn't really think people were going to be that receptive to what we had to offer." Despite the differences in location and types ofwork, all three campaigners said they benefitted from their campaigns. "1he gratification ofyour trip lasts so much longer when you do some– thing that's mission oriented," Borchers said. "I would definitely say to do it. I believe you would have as much or more fun doing that as a vacation experience." Thompson said she agreed that spring break campaigns were worth sacrificing a week of vacation from school. "You feel like you've done something for God instead of putcing H im behind," Thompson said. ·Jillion Hi(ks Hommer in hond. senior Caleb Borchers works to renovate a former drug house Morch 8. 2005. in Pontiac. Mich. The campaigners worked with Grace Centers of Hope to refurbish the house to be used as a children's home. -Cynthia Noah
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