Fast Facts on Volunteerism at Pacific Union College

Pacific Union College's campus ministries, which operate under the chaplain's office, provide a number of avenues for students to reach out to help others.

Each week, approximately five students and their sponsors of the Prison Ministries team present Sabbath School, a church service, and personal counseling to the inmates of the Medical Correctional Facility in Vacaville. Prison Ministries involves a substantial commitment from participants, including training and a security clearance.

Twice a month, 15 to 20 students join Homeless Ministries in offering a hot meal to the homeless people living around People's Park, Berkeley. Students and sponsors set up a serving-line of hot food, cafeteria-style. They also spend time talking one-on-one with the people who come to eat.

Lighthouse sponsors community service events in Angwin and the greater Napa Valley twice per quarter. Students clean houses and yards for elderly people, participate in a "Brush Rush" to clear brush and promote fire safety for those who cannot do it themselves, and cooperate with the Napa Valley Food Bank. Major events attract 40 to 50 students, plus faculty and staff.

Short-term Missions gives students the opportunity to make short mission trips to other countries. Each spring break, 12 to 15 students raise money for airfares and building supplies and fly to Latin America to build a church or school, often in cooperation with Maranatha.

Parable Players is a 12-15 member Christian drama team which performs short religious skits at Adventist churches and schools around California.

Forty-six PUC students have decided to devote the 1997-98 school year to World Missions as student missionaries or task force workers in places including the Czech Republic, Chile, the Marshall Islands, Australia, Norway, Japan, and the United States. They will serve in several capacities, including elementary and secondary school teaching, teaching English as a second language, and acting as assistant boys' and girls' deans.