ORANGE CITY, Iowa—Megan Timmer is one of 183 students from Northwestern College who will travel across the United States and overseas for the college’s annual Spring Service Projects (SSP) Feb. 28 through March 9.
This year’s teams will serve at 14 sites. International destinations include the Netherlands, Haiti and Nicaragua. In Amsterdam, students will live and work at two Christian youth hostels, sharing their faith with guests from around the world. The team in Haiti will teach children and provide manual labor, while those in Nicaragua will do construction work, distribute food and help lead a vacation Bible school in the impoverished area of Bluefields.
Teams in the U.S. will travel to Minnesota, California and throughout the South. A new U.S. partner for Northwestern College is Mount Olive Ministries, a Christian community development organization in Mount Olive, Miss. Students on that SSP team will serve as classroom, after-school and writing workshop tutors. They will also paint, do manual labor and help with office projects.
In Minnesota, one group will join Urban Ventures in Minneapolis, where they will conduct three health fairs, participate in work projects, serve as tutors, and help with a street patrol ministry and youth events. Another team will travel to the Grand Portage Indian Reservation, where they will interact with community members, and spend time in Duluth, assisting a Habitat for Humanity renovation project.
In California, students will partner with Emmanuel Reformed Church of Paramount, Calif., to paint homes and build relationships in a nearby gang-ridden community.
Additional U.S. service opportunities include tutoring and recreational programs in Jonesboro, Ark.; home repair in the Appalachian community of Annville, Ky.; after-school programs and construction projects in New Orleans; and construction, tutoring and community cleanup in Opelousas, La.
Still other Northwestern students will assist with after-school programs, home visits and a thrift store in Cary, Miss.; volunteer in local schools and after-school programs in Jacksonville, Fla.; and serve with a ministry to ex-prisoners in Lindale, Texas.
Timmer is a senior and an art/graphic design major at Northwestern College. She will serve with United Christians International in Haiti. Timmer is the daughter of Rick and Julie Timmer of Dell Rapids.
Northwestern College is a Christian college of more than 1,200 students in Orange City, Iowa. Rated the nation’s eighth-best baccalaureate college by Washington Monthly and a top-10 Midwestern college by U.S. News & World Report magazine, Northwestern provides an education committed to academic rigor and a Christ-centered worldview.
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by Anita Cirulis, acirulis@nwciowa.edu, 712-707-7369