LOUISVILLE—Despite inclement weather, 400 volunteers from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and its undergraduate Boyce College participated in the fifth annual 1937 Project, April 22.

Seminary volunteers made contact with Louisville residents and city workers, engaging in numerous gospel conversations, reported Jeremy Pierre, dean of students and associate professor of biblical counseling.

“One person even professed Christ as Lord and is seeking fellowship at a great neighborhood church,” he said, noting, “This is the wonder of serving.”

Volunteers logged about 1,200 community engagement hours, according to the seminary’s student life office. The mayor’s office assigned the seminarians two specific projects—Smoketown Neighborhood Cleanup and Shawnee Neighborhood Cleanup—where about 300 people disbursed to pick up trash and share the love of Christ with residents.

Seminary volunteers also worked at such locations as the Louisville Rescue Mission, Oxmoor Lodge Retirement Home and Scarlet Hope.

As part of the cleanup in the Shawnee neighborhood, Boyce professor Kevin Jones led a group to work on a century-old church building that recently became the home of No More Limits Church pastored by Emery Scott Lee. Affected by water damage and years of vandalism, the church was almost destroyed, Jones said. Despite the damage, Lee still had hope.

Lee’s vision “is that the church will become a beacon of light in the Shawnee neighborhood,” Jones said. “His hope is that his church will be a place where the gospel will be fully displayed.”

Jones said praying for one another there was “probably the highlight of our time spent (together).”

“Pastor Lee prayed for our institution, volunteers and the body of Christ. In turn, I prayed specifically for him, his church, his family and the community,” Jones said. “Myself and the other volunteers with our team look forward to a continued relationship with Pastor Lee. The goal is to make a continued difference, not an annual event. We will meet with him this summer to strategize ways for collaboration.”

The 1937 event commemorates the seminary’s relief efforts in the Great Flood of 1937 when the Ohio River rose to more than 50 feet, creating one of the worst floods in American history. The effort joins with Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer’s “Give A Day” week of service. (SBTS)