MILLS COLLEGE MOVE-IN

We were so excited to welcome our newest 1,400 neighbors to the neighborhood at the beginning of August at Olympia Mills Apartments. And with new neighbors comes the neighborly opportunity to help carry futons, barstools, mattresses, and pretty much anything else they deemed worthy of bringing to college up to their new home for the year.

A little reluctant at first, many students quickly said yes to the help once they realized their new home was all the way up on the fourth floor. In between trips up and down, they stopped by our snack table under the RADIUS Church tent for cold water and a banana to keep them going. U-Haul after U-Haul was greeted with smiling faces and people ready to lend a hand.

But the best part wasn’t the stuff we carried. It was the conversations along the way.

We talked with bright-eyed students, teary parents, proud siblings, and grandparents as they helped their students settle into a new season. Through cold water, bananas, lots of sweat, and a whole lot of stairs, we had the opportunity to show our new neighbors that the local church, right across the street, is in their corner.

That’s what it looks like to glorify God by planting churches that make disciples and live generously. Generosity isn’t always complicated. Sometimes it looks like giving your Saturday morning, carrying someone’s mattress up four flights of stairs, or simply being willing to show up and be present in your community.

And perhaps the sweetest part of the whole day was seeing one of the young men on our team, sweating through his RADIUS t-shirt as he helped move students in. Three years ago, he was one of those students on the receiving end of that same generosity. Along the way, he found a church that glorifies God by living generously- and now he gets to be part of extending that same generosity to someone else.

What started with a few trips up and down the stairs became an opportunity to build relationships, earn trust, and remind our neighbors that they have a church in their corner.
Praise God for the chance to be present, serve generously, and see that generosity come full circle.

MC Probus
Campus Director
RADIUS Church - Southside