By Katie Mahaffey | Broadcast Reporter

Urban Missions is preparing for a new semester of service. Their ministries strive to show the love of Jesus to people in the Waco community who are in need.

“At Baylor Missions we believe that God calls us to love God and to love our neighbors and so with Urban Missions we do that through relationship building and service,” Carole Meriwether, Assistant Director for Urban and Domestic Missions at Baylor said.

Baylor students have the opportunity to serve their community in a variety of ways. There are children’s ministries, eldercare ministries, special needs ministries and more. The teams are student-led and partner with established organizations in Waco.

“I think Baylor students have a ton of really wonderful opportunities here on campus to be involved in a lot of great learning opportunities — ways to get to know classmates and learn from professors. I mean it’s just amazing, the number of things that are available on Baylor’s campus. But we’re part of a larger community of Waco and there’s just countless opportunities in Waco as well and so I just encourage students to be part of the Waco community,” Meriwether said.

One of the special interest teams that Baylor Urban Missions provides is the Talitha Koum Team, where students work alongside social work interns at the therapeutic nursery for at-risk children in the Waco community. Baylor students play with the children on Tuesdays while their parents are in a parenting class.

“It’s just really nice to have kids so excited to see you and just know that you are a part of something … outside of class. It’s really fun,” Houston senior Brandi Johnson said.

There are many ways that students can get involved with mission work on and off of Baylor’s campus. Students are able to choose the ministries that they are most interested in and contact Urban Missions for more details.