Hi-Hope is once again the beneficiary of some very generous volunteer efforts as part of Perimeter Church's annual Rush Conference. For those not in the know, Rush Conference is a student-led leadership conference with "stuff like worship, small groups, seminars, food, fun, missions, enough candy to frighten a dentist, and well, tons more." Hi-Hope benefits from the "missions" component of the conference. The Rush website describes the missions as follows:
Part of learning to be a mature follower of Christ is learning to be His hands and feet. Community outreach projects all over the city of Atlanta allow students to exercise their faith and to experience what it means to share the love of Christ.
Hi-Hope loves being a mission site as it guarantees that every summer, for three days, a group of fantastic students visit us with open minds, full hearts and the desire to serve. There is no service challenge they are unwilling to tackle. As in previous years, the volunteers spent the first half of their visit interacting with our individuals. Afterward, the groups tackled operational projects. This year they sorted art supplies, moved artwork and moved some seasonal decorations into more permanent storage. It might not sound like much, but their help reduced the project timeline from several days to a couple hours. This year's groups represented folks from Perimeter Church right here in Atlanta, a group from Florida that had visited Hi-Hope several years ago, and a group from Chickamauga.
Each year Rush is a bit of a whirlwind - or a RUSH. It is three busy days of young folks coming with energy and enthusiasm and the genuine desire to help. It injects our organization with vitality and inspiration and the capacity to take on some tasks that we just can't handle on our own. Indeed, the "rush" of Rush is a welcome and wonderful thing that we look forward to doing for years to come.