Liberty students, staff, faculty minister to local community through annual Serve Lynchburg event

With finals and the end of Spring 2025 right around the corner, Liberty University students, staff, and faculty spent one of the last Saturdays of the semester serving the community through the ninth annual Serve Lynchburg event. The occasion is sponsored by LU Serve.

This year’s event featured over 1,200 students serving with 85 different organizations in Lynchburg and the surrounding area.

Aviation sophomore Logan Spoelstra spent his day serving at the CraveABLEs ice cream shop. This nonprofit organization provides meaningful job opportunities for those with intellectual disabilities while also supplying the community with sweet treats.

Spoelstra and his team built cabanas and chairs to help the organization prepare for its opening day next week after recently moving from Lakeside Drive to Candlers Station Shopping Center.

“God calls us to be disciples, and He calls us to be missionaries,” he said. “The opportunity to be out in the community and help serve is a blessing that’s been put on my heart. I just wanted to come out and serve.”

He also noted his appreciation that Liberty students could come together for Serve Lynchburg, make a meaningful impact, and share Christ’s love through acts of service.

“It’s awesome that Liberty offers a program like this because there aren’t many colleges out there that offer programs for serving the community,” he said. “God calls us to serve in the community and have outreach to those who either do know Christ or don’t. If they do, you just help build them in that faith aspect. If they don’t, then you just share the Gospel with them. It’s nice to be out in the community and help serve those who do and don’t know God.”

Taylor Perkins, founder and executive director of CraveABLES, said she appreciated the help from Liberty students in preparation for opening day.

‘It’s awesome to not only have the extra hands to help do stuff, but we have introduced them to some of our able staff today, and they have already built relationships and become friends in such a short amount of time,” she said. ‘We’re really thankful Liberty allows students to leave campus and come out here to put hands and feet on the ground to help communities like us.”

CraveABLES was just one of numerous organizations students served on Saturday. Kaycee Lee, who is pursuing a master’s in elementary education, spent her morning and afternoon organizing rooms at Hill City Community Church. Having participated in Serve Lynchburg every year she has been at Liberty, Lee said the event helps students find meaningful ways they can serve the community. By providing all the logistical work, Liberty allows students to focus solely on meeting the needs of their respective worksites.

“Whenever I serve I feel like I gain so much more out of it than even the people we are serving,” she said. “Obviously, we are helping them, but I like to be able to humble myself to help others. It’s a super great opportunity to be a light for Jesus in all kinds of places where people wouldn’t otherwise see it.”

Interior design freshman Cailla Dang served at Park View Community Mission, helping provide food to those in need. She currently serves with Liberty Manna Club, which collects donations for local food banks, and saw this as another opportunity to serve the hungry.

“With the love the Lord has shown me, I want to be able to pour that on to other people, and sacrificing for this is nothing compared to all that,” she said.

Gideon Wise, who is in his second year at Liberty studying elementary education, tended mulch beds at Roads to Recovery, an addiction treatment center. He said he appreciates the opportunity to serve alongside his classmates. Having previously attended LU Serve Now trips, he said he has built close relationships with his peers simply through a shared love for Christ and others.

“God has given me the ability to (serve), so I steward what He has given me,” he said. “I just want to serve the Lord and serve the community in any way I can, and this is a really cool way to do that. It’s so cool to come to a school that isn’t just training us to serve when we get out of college. College students have the physical capabilities to come out and do work like this. We’re not going to waste that opportunity.”

LU Serve Senior Director Steven Gillum emphasized the important role Serve Lynchburg plays not only in the community but also in the lives of Liberty students.

“Service like this does more than meet tangible needs, it transforms the heart,” he said. “As students step into the community they live in right now and the lives of others, God uses those moments to grow humility, compassion, and a deeper knowledge of Him.”

“This is where spiritual formation joins the head, heart, and hands of students. They are learning that following Christ is not just something they believe, but something that impacts the way they serve the world around them.”

Following Serve Lynchburg, Liberty students were invited to the annual After Party in the LaHaye parking lot for a time of live music, food trucks, carnival rides, local vendors, ice skating, and more.