Our students have a heart to reach out to their community in a more tangible way. As our staff thought about how to do this, we just kept coming back to the idea that many of our supporting churches are doing right now.
One day….the whole ministry…go out and serve the community.
So from conversations with staff and students came Yo Heart Cholula.
Our first one was go out and pick up trash. Simple. But very needed. It was a huge success. The students felt as if they were really making a difference in their community. Business owners were coming out and asking us who we were and showing their appreciation. It really was awesome.
So we did it every first Friday of every month this spring semester. We had between 40 and 60 students participating every time. One month, the football team and a few coaches from the university came to participate. Another month, both girls and boys basketball teams from UDLA came. For many of them, it was the first time they had stepped into the casa verde.
Although we picked up trash every month, it was always on the way to our project. We have planted fruit trees for people, painted desks at a local school, cleaned and painted an afterschool center, put out trash cans on the street, and helped create a garden for a community center.
This semester was the beginning of something extremely special. The staff is already brainstorming and looking for more opportunities for the upcoming year. It definitely started out as something we knew we needed but prayed the students would get behind….and it ended up being something quite incredible. God worked in the hearts of our students and they definitely showed their love for Cholula.
(p.s. the photos were in a order but it didnt save...sorry.)