Hundreds of Oneonta Students Reached with a Full Week of Back-to-School Service Projects!

We completed our full week of service projects welcoming back college students to Oneonta. It certainly was a busy week, but it was well worth it considering all the people that were shown the love of God!

Moved Students Into Their Dorms

This was the third year in a row that we performed this service, and the first year that we did it two days in a row. Additionally, this was the first year that we partnered with both SUNY Oneonta student groups BASIC and Campus Ambassadors to help with the move. We were blessed with a moving team consisting of seven volunteers, which allowed us to help overwhelmed parents by approaching their vehicle full of stuff and saying, "Hey, I've got a team of volunteers helping students move in today. We can get this car unloaded for you in one trip."

3 Nights of Designated Driving

Much to the dismay of local residents, this first weekend of students back (also known as "rush week") is one of the biggest party weekends for downtown Oneonta, and for three nights in a row, our church was right in the middle of it all holding a sign that read, "Act of Kindness, FREE RIDES, No Drink & Drive." We've been doing this ministry for over a year now, and we've been improving the service more and more, with this run of outings being the first time that our team wore matching jackets, hats, and name badges to look trustworthy. And it worked out great!

Over the course of three nights, we gave 88 people free rides home. The majority of the free rides were SUNY Oneonta students. Rides were also given to Hartwick students and "townies." This outreach is ministry in its rawest form and gives us a chance to meet people's needs right where they're at and speak God's love directly into their lives. Highlights of this round of designated driving included:

• Giving a ride to the Red Dragon women's lacrosse and soccer team and making plans for a joint service project.
• Having a car full of students (some high) chant "CHRIST-Y-AN-I-TY!, CHRIST-Y-AN-I-TY!"
• Getting a clipboard full of contact information and adding signs on the back seats pointing to free water bottles in the seat pockets.
• Giving rides to children of whom I am friends with their parents. 
• Meeting a girl that we gave $1 to on the city bus during last year’s 30 Days of Kindness campaign and watching her convince her six friends to get a ride. 
• Giving a ride to a group of students that regularly attended our rock shows. They were on the brink of tears when discussing our music getting shut down. 
• Getting several people home safely that were too intoxicated to properly walk and talk, much less drive. 
• And as always, we had amazing conversations about faith, religion, church, and God.         

The front of our "kindness card."

It should also be noted that, in addition to the 88 people we gave rides to, we talked to way more people than that while standing outside of Tino's Pizza and Red Jug Pub. People would walk by, see our sign, and say, "That's awesome," or, "Keep up the good work." Often times, people would approach us for a chat, giving us a chance to put a kindness card in their hand with our church information and a message about God's love.

Painted Faces and Gave Away Water at a Music Industry Club Show

Painted faces in the crowd to see reggae band "Baked Potatoes."

The students of SUNY Oneonta's Music Industry Club have been our friends for awhile now. They helped us remodel our building and helped us with booking and running several awesome shows at our River St. storefront (unofficially). This year, we were unable to host our own back-to-school concert, but thanks to MIC, our church was still able to participate in this year's back-to-school festivities. We had a table set up at the show in Chase gym, and we gave out free bottled water while painting faces.

It was a really fun time and we got to meet many new students. It was especially satisfying to be there to support the bands that have played out of our venue in the past. Including our friends in Bray (the official Redemption Movement house band), Baked Potatoes, Everything Ever, KLOZAPIN, and more.

Bonus Act of Kindness: Moved a Family

 We also came to the aide of a single mom who reached out to our church for help with moving. On Sunday afternoon, while half of our AoK team was at the MIC show, the other half spent 8 hours moving furniture. At the end of the move, we got to pray for the Mom. On a side note, this is one of the biggest needs that our church is approached with: Single Moms, divorced women, and widows that are overwhelmed with their stuff and need help moving or maintaining their property. As a church that stands on the principles of the Bible, we can't ignore these cries for help.   

Our church performs acts of kindness like these every Sunday, and between the 8-hour move and the 7-band show, that Sunday was certainly our longest AoK day to date. All things considered, our week of hard work was worth it knowing that we made an impact. At the end of the week, we were all wore out but we felt good about what was accomplished--and we were very thankful that the following Monday was Labor Day.

At The Redemption Movement, we love having the college students back in town. It certainly makes Oneonta more exciting and livens up the ministry of our church. Welcome back to school students. Here's to another great year!