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What is Highland Service Project?

Highland Service Project (HSP) was started in 1984 by Highland UMC's Director of Christian Education and a team of Highland Church members who were dedicated to providing an opportunity for senior high youth and adult volunteers to serve God by serving others. Each summer since 1985, youth and adults have gathered from churches across North Carolina and other states to spend a week in service to others by day while engaging in an organized program of spiritual growth by night.
Throughout the past several years our HSP home base has been at Camp Lapihio in William B. Umstead State Park in Raleigh, NC. Each day our youth and adult volunteers go out to do home repairs throughout Wake County. In the evening after our day's work we are able to escape the busy world and focus on God as we are surrounded by His creation and wilderness. We believe living, worshiping, and playing in this environment is God's way of centering our lives back in line with the way he created us to live.

Through our work and the time we spend together, we seek to be true servants who share the restoring power of God in all we do. By serving the needs of others, we are able to lift up the example of Christ and share the message of our faith through this home repair project.

Overview

  • You will interact with the families you will serve, your work team, and the rest of the youth and adult participants.
  • You will experience what it means to live simply as you step away from the many comforts of home.
  • You will learn a lot about yourself as you give more of yourself to your group and to the work you will be doing.
  • You will grow in your faith.
  • You will make new friends and deepen existing friendships.

The concept of the HSP experience is built on the ideas of simplistic living, sacrifice and discipleship. Come with an open mind and a gentle heart that is ready to give and grow. It is important that you understand how wonderful a ministry and service you are providing. The people you will be serving would likely not be having this work done were it not for you and your group. Your ministry will go on long after you have returned home. Lives will change and be changed because you were here. We pray you will be open to all God has in store for you.