Eleven members of the Disciples on Campus college group (a joint effort between Broadway Christian Church and First Christian Church in Columbia) ventured east on I-70 last week to serve God’s people in St. Louis, January 1-5. The Urban Mission Inn at Union Avenue Christian Church served as home base for the group and allowed for fun nights of games and prayer throughout the trip. All of the mission work was done for Isaiah 58 Ministries, a non-profit agency that serves the needs of low-income individuals in the South St. Louis area and is based out of Compton Heights Christian Church. One of their largest services is a food pantry that provides healthy and fresh foods to members of the community.

During the mornings, DOC organized food donations that had accumulated throughout the holiday season into boxes that could be stored until needed and participated in the fresh Friday food distribution which served more than 50 individuals. In the afternoons, we took on a difficult task of repainting the hallway into a more user-friendly system that included stripes to direct customers to the Food Pantry, Fellowship Hall and the Thrift Store.

As always, the evenings were filled with cooking dinner, playing games and hanging out as a group. They had a great time catching up on their college experiences and recounting fun memories from previous trips and camp.

All of the projects were completed by the end of the day Friday, so Saturday morning we slept in and went to tour the gorgeous Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis. By going on a trip during the first week of 2019, the group felt we were taking on the New Year with a fresh sense of gratitude and faith.

By Julia Bower, DisciplesOnCampus (DOC),
Sophomore at The University of Missouri, Columbia