Portland Adventist Academy's recent all-school service day helped to demonstrate the tangible love of Jesus to its community.
More than 275 students, teachers, parents and pastors joined forces for a full day of service. They worked for organizations like Portland Rescue Mission, Adventist Medical Center, Love Inc., Loaves & Fishes, and more. Participants did yard work and major cleaning projects, helped build wheelchair ramps, sorted and packaged food for street ministries, stacked firewood, and even helped a family move into a new home.
Parents and pastors not only volunteered their time, but they also brought along yard tools and even provided transportation for groups of students.
New to PAA this year, social studies teacher Tim Erich was impressed. "By the end of the day," says Erich, "our group alone had collected three large bags of food and helped two widows with upkeep of their houses and yards. Although the point was to help these individuals in need, we know that we were blessed as well."
This is the second year in a row that PAA has organized the service day, and it won't be the last. "It was a real encouragement," adds Erich, "that the one question our students were asked over and over again was, ‘when are you planning this again?'."
Nina Schmidt and Kathryn Conyers help weed a flower bed during the PAA all-school service day. (Chris Jones)
Yard work was one of the many projects PAA students did for the all-school service day. (Chris Jones)
From left: Becca Maher, Erik Peterson, Zi Yuan Liao, Alan Brajcich helped to clean up a yard that needed some attention for PAA's all-school service day. (Chris Jones)
