Welcome Week for SUNY Oneonta Students 2013!

The last week of August in Oneonta is busy as the town doubles in size with the return of college students. At the Redemption Movement, we love working with and ministering to students. We believe students are a valuable asset to our community and we want to honor them with a week of special service projects! 

Here's what we have planned for Welcome Week 2013:

• Sunday, August 24th: Help students move into their dorms.
• Thursday, August 29th: Invite students to BASIC's Kickoff Event, 7pm at LEE Hall.
• Thursday, August 29th: Offer free rides as designated drivers downtown.
• Friday, August 30th: Our weekly Gathering, 6pm at 148 River St., followed by a community service project.
• Friday, August 30th: Offer free rides as designated drivers downtown.
• Saturday, August 31st: Offer free rides as designated drivers downtown.
• Sunday, September 1st: A special Sunday Act of Kindness project, details TBA.

We believe college ministry is important for churches to support. Statistics show that 50-70% of students that go to church before college, stop going to church while attending college. The first week of college is important because students will be more open to making new connections than any other time of the year, and these connections will greatly influence their decision to include church as part of their college experience.

The Redemption Movement Partnering with BASIC

Connecting with college students is a big part of The Redemption Movement's heart. In fact, the two local colleges helped draw Pastors Kaler and Laura to Oneonta back in 2009. As a new church, we lack the resources to start and lead a Christian student group on campus. Therefore, we were excited to learn about a new Christian group at SUNY Oneonta called Brothers and Sisters in Christ (BASIC), and we are even more excited to partner with BASIC for Welcome Week 2013.

Kaler Carpenter from The Redemption Movement, and Ryan Alsheimer from BASIC Oneonta are all smiles in welcoming back the students.

On Sunday, August 24th, The Redemption Movement and a team from BASIC will be moving students into the dorms, and we will be passing out invites to BASIC's kick off event on Thursday, along with our kindness cards. On Friday, BASIC will also be participating in the Designated Driver outreach. We believe that having more designated drivers on the road will make the night safer for the entire community, and the more churches participating in a project like this will show more people God's love.

3 Nights of Designated Driving

On August 29-31st, we will be parking our vehicles in downtown Oneonta and offering students and members of the community free rides when the bars close. This is a successful outreach we have done in the past. We have found it to be a great way to show God's love and help keep the roads safe. Contact us for times and locations if you are interested in helping.

A Friday Evening Community Service Project

On Friday, August 30th, we will have our regularly scheduled Friday Evening Gathering at The Redemption Movement, except, instead of staying open late into the night, we will end the evening early and take a team downtown for a community service project. We will once again be deodorizing the stairwells at the downtown parking garage. In July, we cleaned out all three stairwells, and now, 2/3 are again in need of a good scrub down. We will also be trimming overgrown bushes off Water St. to help beautify the downtown. Any volunteers remaining after the cleaning will be welcome to participate in the following Designated Driving outreach. 

We will be trimming these overgrown bushes along Water St., and cleaning the stairwells in the parking garage.

Our reasoning behind doing a community service project in downtown Oneonta on a Friday evening is that it's a great way to show God's love, and a unique event to invite students to participate in. During the first week of college, every student group and organization is hosting some kind of big party or event to draw new students in. We don't have the resources or location to throw a big bash, but there is one thing our little church is good at: service. We feel that inviting students to serve the community alongside of us, will be a refreshing and unique invitation to receive in midst of the week's big events, and a great opportunity for the community to see students giving back.

Sunday Act of Kindness

Every Sunday The Redemption Movement does an act of kindness to show God's love. The next two Sundays will be no different, except these two Sundays will be geared towards welcoming back college students. On August 25th we will be helping students move into the dorms, and on September 1st we will have another student-oriented AoK project, details TBD. 

Serving the students and the community; we can think of no better way to welcome the students back to Oneonta. If you wish to participate in any of these activities, or if you want to learn more about our church, then reach out to us for more details!