Take your pick; many forms of mission service are available at La Sierra University. Throughout the year, La Sierra sends students to preach, sing praise or perform. Students can also be found feeding the homeless in downtown Riverside, coordinating on campus ministries and working with a wide variety of Homebase Missions throughout the school year.

A growing organization on campus is Hispanic Ministries. Twenty-eight percent of the student body at La Sierra is Hispanic students.

“We have around 80 students in Hispanic Ministries,” says Sammy Acosta, director of Ministry Outreach and Hispanic Ministries. Each month, five 8-person groups go to local churches to hold Friday night vespers, youth church or many other programs. “We focus on the spiritual needs as well as community.”

This past Christmas, a campus ministries First Service team went to Tecate, Mexico, to build a home in four days for a Mexican family. “The family even helped us build the house,” says Samuel Leonor, Jr., campus pastor. “What a great opportunity.”

“At university worship and Friday night’s First Service, students can utilize the action booth that connects how people live and what they do,” says Leonor. “For example, we have been working on a 'Body, Mind, and Spirit' series that focuses on things like drinking more water, supporting local businesses, and your personal relationship with Jesus Christ.”

Another ministry on campus is the gospel choir, Called 2 Praise. “We are not only about singing the gospel of Christ, we include community outreach programs,” says Kimberly Bennett, a 2004 graduate who directs Called 2 Praise. This past holiday season the gospel choir wrapped gifts for the homeless, presented gifts to the community, and in January they held worship at a homeless shelter and performed their annual concert.”

The mission statement of Called 2 Praise is “Because of You, God, when we praise there is a fire that burns within our hearts, creating an atmosphere of love, compelling us to serve others, making our words, our thoughts, and our actions not our own, but Yours. And for this, of God, we thank You.”

“We are passionate about Adventism,” says Jodi Cahill, director of Homebase Missions. “When you preach the gospel, it becomes alive. When you preach about heaven, you see heaven.”

Homebase Missions works with many mission opportunities including the traditional student missionary that goes overseas for one year. But Homebase also offers missions like 30 hours of famine, meet you at the pole, national prayer day, big rig ministry and more. Some Sabbaths you can find Homebase at the LSU church helping children bake cookies to give to dorm students. This Christmas, Homebase coordinated a live nativity scene for the annual Christmas Candlelight Concert featuring the children of campus faculty and staff.

“We also have a mission called Homebase Artisans,” adds Cahill. “They use missions through drama, art, film, photography, music and technology. When you have a loving relationship with Jesus, you change.”

“We all need to take the opportunity to be original and walk like Jesus’ 12 disciples—with Christ alone,” says Cahill.