{"id":23,"date":"2019-02-26T19:28:03","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T01:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/?p=23"},"modified":"2019-03-05T11:45:53","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T17:45:53","slug":"in-love-we-serve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/2019\/02\/26\/in-love-we-serve\/","title":{"rendered":"In Love We Serve"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>McMurry University hosted its fifth\nannual \u201cMcMurry Serves\u201d on the weekend of February 16<sup>th<\/sup>, 2019. In\ntotal, there were over 196 McMurry students, employees, and alumni serving the\nsurrounding Abilene community. Old and new War Hawks were able to attend six\nservice projects, such as, a food bank, garden work, cleanup, as well as other\nprojects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Suzann Couts, who is the director\nof Alumni Relations and coordinator for McMurry Serves, said, \u201cCompared with\nour first project in 2015, we have more places to serve each year, which also\nencourages more people to be a part of.\u201d This project provides current McMurry\nstudents a chance to serve, and above all, students learn that they can\ncontinuously be involved in McMurry\u2019s family by participating in service\nprojects even after they graduate. Every McMurry student will eventually become\nan alumni. However, when students leave, they should know that McMurry is always\nhere for them. \u201cAlumni were excited for attending McMurry Serves. They think it\nis a great opportunity to feel the common belonging, and also giving back to\nthe community they love,\u201d added by Couts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During McMurry Serves, our students\nexpressed their love to McMurry University and the Abilene community. Through\nthe experience, students also gained new friendships and happiness as they served.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI had a lot of fun with my friends\nat the Aldersgate Community Garden project. I pulled out the weeds and learned\nhow to plant onions, as well as, participate in the chili cookout competition.\nServing others brings me happiness,\u201d said Sarah Pellikan, a junior majoring in\nearly childhood education. &nbsp;\u201cIt also\nbecame more fun when I serve the church I love to go with my friends. After I\nattended many service projects, I realized that McMurry University truly values\nservice and helping others, which makes me love McMurry even more.\u201d &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawna Faucett, a sophomore\nmajoring in biomedical science, said, \u201cGod didn\u2019t give me the ability to serve\nothers so I could sit around and watch. He wanted me to go and do.\u201d By feeling\nthe call from God and her heart, Faucett served at the Food bank of West Central\nTexas project. \u201cI sorted through dry and canned foods with excitement. Through\nthe process, I got to meet new people and make new friends. I became overjoyed\nwhen I saw how many boxes of food we were able to sort out for a good cause. I\nlove the friends I have met at McMurry, and I am also really grateful to serve\nwith these amazing people,\u201d added by Faucett. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The weather of Febuaray 16<sup>th<\/sup>\nin Abilene was cold, but the service students and alumnus\u2019 love heated up the\ntown. However, it wasn\u2019t just students who made the town warmer, McMurry\nfaculty also served throughout the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Mark Waters, professor of\nreligion and director of international education, said, \u201cIt is important to be\ninvolved in the community. I chose to serve the Aldersgate Community Garden\nbecause I think it is particularly important for McMurry to nurture our\nconnection with the United Methodist Church, specifically with our neighbors\nwho are right across the street. The experience was delightful because I got to\nmeet new people and work side-by-side on a project that benefits the community.\nAs a faculty member, I love the education and servant leadership McMurry\nprovides.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because of love, we serve our dear\nAbilene community. Because we continuously serve our community, we build tight\nbonds with it, which inspires us to love our community more and to give back to\nit more. McMurry University has received lots of appreciation from Abilene.\nLet\u2019s serve more and love more, War Hawks!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>McMurry University hosted its fifth annual \u201cMcMurry Serves\u201d on the weekend of February 16th, 2019. In total, there were over 196 McMurry students, employees, and alumni serving the surrounding Abilene [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":30,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","clearfix"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/mcmurry-serves.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions\/25"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}