Students participate in nonprofit events

The Master’s University put classes on hold for three days to give its students the opportunity to “serve, evangelize and fellowship” throughout Los Angeles County.

More than 400 students, faculty and staff participated in the university’s 20th annual Outreach Week Oct. 13-16. The campus-wide effort paired students with 33 local churches to volunteer in a variety of sectors including children’s outreach, music ministry, ethnic outreach, manual labor projects and more.

According to the university, Outreach Week is designed to aid in the students’ spiritual formation and help form strategic partnerships with local churches.

“The Master’s University really hopes that students will learn what a life of ministry looks like daily,” said Sabrina Michael, a writer for the Master’s University’s marketing department. “It can be as simple as cleaning out a garage or as extravagant as throwing a carnival or going out and doing evangelism.”

Outreach Week is run entirely on a volunteer-basis. Students wishing to participate submit an application with their top three volunteer location choices to the Office of Student Advancement who then place students in teams, according to Michael.

The teams will either stay in the university’s dorms, at partner churches or in host homes during the week.

“They [host homes] were able to open up and host them and the students were able to see the larger church body at work and get a different experience then they usually do here,” Michael said.

One team of students traveled to Grace Bible Deaf Church in Highland Park where they cleaned an apartment complex people live in, sanded down railings, repaired a stairwell and threw a carnival for the church’s members.

The students also experienced blindness and deafness firsthand through a simulation.

“They participated in a practicum where they were blindfolded and given headphones and walked around to experience what it was like to be blind and deaf,” Michael said.

Another team of students traveled to Grace Community Church in downtown Los Angeles where they evangelized every single day. These students went to the North Hollywood Metro station on Friday, Skid Row Saturday and door to door Sunday.

Thirty other volunteer teams did a majority of their work serving in the church community through ministry, programs, cleaning and outreach.

“The other churches in the area were a lot of helping out in cleaning up the church and doing children’s ministry and helping the pastors,” Michael said.

Hopes for the annual Outreach Week includes teaching students to think outside of their own academic environment and get involved in the larger community through acts of ministry and service.