SWAP (Students with Amazing Potential)

http://studentswithamazingpotential.com/

SWAP, Students with Amazing Potential, is a ministry created by Chapelwood United Methodist Church to serve at-risk teenagers in the Spring Branch School District. The students who participate are selected by the counselors at their various schools. Volunteers from Chapelwood, including my parents and myself, meet with these students on Saturdays once a month. For my sophomore service project, my family and I became SWAP mentors. Two or three mentors were assigned to a small group of teens. The mentors council and befriend the students and potentially nurture them for through the rest of their school years.

The theme of this year’s SWAP program was “Legacy”. The message we were trying to convey to students was that they all embody many positive traits that have been given to them by their ancestors, including their parents. These traits could be talents, physical characteristics, or cultural traditions. The second part of the message was for the students to value these traits and to build on them so they have a positive legacy to pass along to others. God gave all of us vocations in life to help in his glorious mission. By recognizing theirs they become more fit to lead, to serve, and to be men and women for others.

The activities we shared with the students supported the overall theme. We made scrapbooks, talked about the environment and conservation, encouraged their talents theatrically and athletically, and also performed service projects with them at a local Hispanic church, Esperanza. There we helped paint the Church and participated in worship with them.

I believe this project guided me to become a man for others. It was easy for me to see the positive impact that the SWAP mentors, particularly me as a young man, had on these students. The project was also consistent with my longer term goal to have a positive impact in the communities where I live and work. The project also strengthened my Christian foundation by following Jesus’ call to serve those less fortunate than ourselves. These students are all God’s children and deserve every opportunity to have the fullest and most complete lives possible. By serving them I grow in my own call to be a man for others.

It was very rewarding to participate in SWAP with my parents.  We share the common desire to serve our God and the world. We built some family memories from these projects and they will continue to affect us in how we view the world and help us praise God’s glory. We plan to continue to participate in community service activities as a family unit and with our church. I feel that I myself have grown over the past year as I prepare my heart and soul to be a servant in God’s community and I hope to continue to be a servant for the rest of my life.