Three Campuses & Three Missions “For the Father”

Mustang Missions, CAC’s student and faculty-led outreach ministry, is in full gear once again this holiday season rallying behind three missions with one common goal – to do it all “For the Father.”

Earlier this week, the three campuses wrapped up “Feeding the Multitude” – CAC’s annual Thanksgiving food drive. Throughout November, students collected corn, green beans, yams, cranberry sauce and boxes of stuffing in order to provide Thanksgiving meals to families in need.

“This is about bringing food so that people can have a good meal and so we can share the love of the Father, because everything we do is for the Father,” Erik Schramm told students in secondary chapel. As part of the secondary efforts, Schramm and CAC’s juniors challenged each class to collect enough items to fill boxes for 100 families. The students exceeded this goal and together, CAC and Pleasant Valley Church of Christ, which partnered with CAC on this mission, filled enough boxes to feed 350 Little Rock families.

Even before the Thanksgiving boxes were packed and set for delivery, Pleasant Valley and North Little Rock Elementary were making arrangements to begin their next mission, the River City Toy Drive. Once again this year, both campuses are partnering with River City Ministry to stock the shelves of the nonprofit’s annual CHRISTmas Store. The CHRISTmas store helps empower parents on limited incomes by giving them the chance to buy new Christmas gifts for their children at low prices.

At the secondary campus, students have begun gathering gifts for one of Mustang Mountain’s most highly anticipated events — Mustang Christmas. For the past several years, fifty to sixty CAC students have journeyed to Morrilton to deliver gifts, food and a Christmas celebration to the children at Southern Christian Home. This year, however, Mustang Missions is bringing Mustang Christmas to The Mountain.

The event will take place on December 7 and will offer the same excitement the children have come to expect from Mustang Christmas — gifts, bouncy houses, obstacle courses and a visit from Santa Clause himself. This year, in addition to the normal Mustang Christmas activities, the children will attend CAC’s choir Christmas concert.

In past years, staff members have been in charge of heading up the various missions at the secondary campus. This year, however, each class has taken on one mission to lead, organize and promote to the student body.

CAC’s seniors are the driving force behind Mustang Christmas this year. Senior Class President Lilly Kate Philbrick said she is excited about sponsoring Mustang Christmas on The Mountain. “It’s going to be different than what we’ve done in the past because the kids are coming here, and we’re expecting one hundred plus students from CAC alone,” Philbrick said. “It will be the biggest Mustang Christmas yet, and I’m incredibly excited about it.”

Chad Tappe, head of advancement and enrollment at CAC, said he thinks giving students more of a leadership role in Mustang Missions has helped them become even more invested in these service projects.

“They’re not just participating on the day of,” Tappe said. “They’re working out the details, they’re planning and they’re dedicating time during the days leading up to these events. And it’s through experiences like these that they’re learning what a life of service to the Father really looks like.”