Tiger Serve Day: Service, leadership, and friendship
January 01, 2020
Tiger Serve Day has done nothing short of change my life over the past 4 years. Being
a member of the Tiger Serve Day (TSD) leadership team has allowed me to learn important
life skills, such as being a good member of a team, being responsible and dependable
and being flexible when things don’t always go to plan. However, my experience as
a member of the TSD leadership team has helped me to grow the most in the areas of
service, leadership and friendship.
Service.
I got to witness steadfast, servant hearts as I worked alongside my team members,
as well as our own leaders: Judy Duvall and Ian Cosh. Yes, the job of a leadership
team member is, in essence, to serve - to visit people in need and see how we can
practically meet their needs one day out of a semester.
But the real service I have witnessed is in the stories of my team members pouring
into people’s lives. It’s a guy spending two hours in a senior man’s living room,
listening to war stories and having heartfelt conversation, when he could be playing
basketball with his buddies. It’s a girl meeting with an elderly woman and learning
her life story and building a lasting friendship.
I’ve learned that service is more about seeing and loving people, rather than focusing
on completing a task and then calling it a day. Being a servant is putting people
first.
Leadership.
I learned that good leadership is less about focusing on yourself as a leader and
more about focusing on those you are leading. As a leadership team, we want to set
up those serving on TSD for success.
The reason why we exist as a team - why we visit projects, write out clear directions,
prepare the necessary tools and organize all the teams - is so those serving can clearly
focus on their goals, and again most importantly, the people.
One thing our team is more passionate about than service is the gospel, and we love
TSD because it provides us with a means to get the gospel out to our community.
We do our job to provide students with the means to practically serve, love and share
the gospel with the people in Arkadelphia. Leadership is always about others.
Friendship.
It’s always amazing to me how a group of twenty-something college students from different
walks of life - with different interests, friend groups, upbringings and career goals
- can meet together and form such a tight bond that the TSD leadership team has. Besides
getting to enjoy Mrs. Judy Duvall’s delicious cooking together, I think our bond is
so strong because of our common purpose. We are all playing a part in showing the
love of Jesus Christ to the community of Arkadelphia.
As a sophomore member of the team in 2012, I was taken a little out of my comfort
zone when I was paired with an older team member to visit projects with. Though we
were in different majors and he was almost four years older than I was, it was cool
to see a friendship form from being on that team that transferred into regular life.
It was even more fun when I was an upperclassman getting to show the ropes to a freshman
team member. The TSD leadership team taught me that pursuing friendships that are
not always comfortable at first can be incredibly rewarding in the end.
It is sort of surreal that April 11th will be my final Tiger Serve Day. No more crazy
project visits or goofing off in our Wednesday lunch meetings with Jeremy Dixon. But
as I graduate I will forever carry with me the memories of the friendships made, the
fun time I had, and the faces of those I got to serve.
Most of all, I hope to always remember the power of prayer, which Mrs. Judy Duvall
has so faithfully taught all of us on the TSD leadership team. It is what empowers
us as servants. It is what sustains us as leaders. It is what enriches our friendships.
Tiger Serve Day has most definitely done nothing short of change my life.
By Coleson Lechner, senior Mass Communications major
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