From Alaska to Puerto Rico: Carson-Newman students to spend Spring Break serving others

^{Carson-Newman SPOTS team members take a moment to rest while serving during a 2017 trip to Nepal.}

(Feb. 22, 2018) – More than 115 Carson-Newman University students and members of the C-N family have decided to spend their Spring Break volunteering as part of the University’s annual spring SPOTS mission trips.

The SPOTS (Special Projects Other Than Summer) trips have been an annual spring event since the mid 1970s and this year eight teams will travel to seven states.

Beginning Feb. 28, teams will leave campus to serve in locations from Alaska to Puerto Rico.

The team headed to Alaska will be serving those involved in the Iditarod, the world’s longest dogsled race, according to Chad Morris, associate director of Campus Ministries and coordinator of the trips.

“Our team will share the love of Christ in physical capacities as dog handlers, registration workers, parking attendants, water teams, etc.” said Morris. “They will also have the opportunity to share their own faith with individual race goers and athletes.”

This will be the first year that a Carson-Newman SPOTS team has travelled to Puerto Rico. The mission of this trip is disaster relief. “A neat connection is that we have a Puerto Rican student who is going with us and many of her family members still live there,” said Morris. The C-N team will be working with the Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief Team.

Morris said, “I look forward to SPOTS because it is always an eye-opening experience for our students. They get to express their faith but are also challenged and grow in their own walk with Christ.”

“I recently spoke to a C-N alum that said that SPOTS and Campus Ministries was the most influential and pivotal experience of their college career,” he added.

In addition to Alaska and Puerto Rico, the University is sending SPOTS teams to Texas, Florida, Kentucky, Virginia, Ohio and across the state of Tennessee.