Sometimes, as Jesus noted, it only takes a cup of cold water to serve others. On a cold winter night in downtown Hamilton, service sometimes takes the form of a cup of hot chocolate and a listening ear. Redeemer students have long volunteered in Hamilton, serving communities in many different ways and places. Over the last several years, teams of students have travelled downtown on Friday nights to offer hot chocolate and a warm heart to those who do not have a home to go to. It is only one of many outreach activities that are available to Redeemer students. Many of these activities are coordinated through Redeemer’s Community Service Learning (CSL) Office. “The goal of CSL is to get involved and make a difference in the diverse communities that surround Redeemer,” says James Cuthbert ‘09. “More than that, these are opportunities for students to learn through these experiences.” As Activities & Orientation Coordinator, James oversees many of the co-curricular and volunteer community engagement programs at Redeemer. Besides DEEDZ, the group that serves the hot chocolate, several groups of students also volunteer with kid’s clubs throughout the core of Hamilton. Not all of those activities are local. This past February, a team of Redeemer students also went to Philadelphia, PA during their Reading Week to learn about life in that city, and to provide a helping hand with several ministries there. Mark Van Noord ‘03 of Airborne Productions (part of Lawson Ministries of the Salvation Army), accompanied the DEEDZ group and the Philadelphia team and created videos of each group in action. “The videos really show the work that our students are doing,” says James. “They also reflect the servant heart that is behind the work they are doing. We are so blessed to have students like these. They are serving now in Hamilton, but they are also using these experiences to learn and prepare for a lifetime of service.” Watch the videos: https://youtu.be/VKqv-mhAWco; https://youtu.be/AJvOeSvUsDg