The excitement is unreal as your eyes flash open before your alarm even has the chance to wake you! It’s 6:45 on a Saturday morning and you’re rushing around throwing on a classic purple shirt and a pair of worn down shoes and jeans. You’re ready! Ready for what? Only one of the best experiences you could take part in as a GCU student, Serve the City.

If you’re reading this, you have likely heard about and maybe have even participated in GCUs major service project called Serve the City, but if you haven’t let me give you the run down! Serve the City happens every semester here at Grand Canyon University in which the Local Outreach team partners with Habitat for Humanity and offers the student body the chance to serve and volunteer with other Lopes to better the local community. The projects that are done are to help the local neighborhoods and help homeowners and families within the community with tasks or projects they may not have the means to do because of their personal circumstances. Landscaping, maintenance, painting of homes and cleaning up of the streets and alleyways are just a few of the projects that take place on this impactful day.

Taking part in Serve the City is much more than just a one-day service project because what it leaves you with lasts a lifetime. The forming of bonds and intentional friendships between you and other students on campus are almost immediate from the people you meet checking in, to the individuals you’re on site with. The laughs, sweat, dirt filled smiles, and feeling of accomplishment and love for the family is just some of the many things shared between these people and it truly creates a memorable time and lasting relationships. Not only is the aspect of the community between student body an amazing outcome of this experience but being able to just see the Lord's hand at work, personally leaves me in awe each time. It’s so beautiful to see the coming together and unity between people of many different backgrounds and paths of life and the shared common ground for volunteering consisting of; the love for Christ, wanting to serve others, and truly just wanting to spread the love and grace of Jesus with those around them. I see this every time I serve especially when you get to know the homeowners or families more intentionally by giving them your time, sitting and talking with them, and hearing their stories of how God is indeed at work in their lives no matter the circumstances they are facing.

God is always with us, He is always there walking side by side with each of us but let me tell you… when you take part in Serve the City or similar experiences you truly just feel His presence and power at work everywhere. Being able to have conversations with those you’re working with on these projects has left me filled and overflowing with love for others and the Lord. The conversations shared about testimonies, mission work, and other things while shoveling gravel is honestly one of the most humbling experiences...That this individual whom the only thing you know you have in common is your school and love for serving is trusting you by opening up and sharing with you how God has and is working within their lives.

Lastly, to me, one of the best parts of Serve the City is seeing what the project looked like before and then seeing the outcome and how it looks after all the work and remodel. The Lord provides this group of sleep-deprived students with the strength and energy to come together and use them to transform not only the home and its yard but also the hearts of the families and of other students. The most rewarding thing about it all is the pure joy and smiles you see from the families as you wave your goodbyes, now that is what makes it all worth it and it leaves my soul overflowing.

So I urge you the next time you have the chance to be a part of Serve the City or any volunteering project in general, I say go for it! Don’t let doubt or excuses stop you from taking part in an experience that could very well change your life. When you give your time and energy to others that’s when the heart change happens. It’s in these humbling moments of making yourself less and placing others before you that the joy of the Lord truly begins to fill you up, if you are waiting for a sign to serve here it is, just do it, you will not regret it.

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” –Matthew 25:40

Interested in signing up with a GCU service project or through Habitat for Humanity? Well here are a few links:

https://habitatcaz.volunteerhub.com/lp/gcugen/acco...

https://habitatcaz.org/restores/