SNU is filled with many opportunities for us to be the hands and feet of God. One of these opportunities is through one of SNU’s theme houses, known as ONE.
ONE stands for “Our Neighborhood Empowered” and is one out of the four theme houses that are on campus. ONE was created by OKC First Church of the Nazarene as an outreach program to the surrounding neighborhoods. They began by having cookouts in the neighborhoods and visiting apartment complexes in hopes of growing and building relationships with the public in that area.
Since then, the outreach program has started an afterschool program, where the kids are able to play games, get help on their homework and be in a safe environment with people from the church.
Our peers take on important roles in the ONE branches. Becca Janka, a junior here at Southern Nazarene University mentioned, “Clifton Grear and Britain Dawson are the coaches for kids club. Kids club is the afterschool program for kids in kindergarten through fifth grade. Kaitlyn Metcalfe is the Hope Academy mentor, a program specifically for middle school girls.”
Living in ONE comes with some requirements, such as having to volunteer each week at one of the 
branches of ONE. You are required to have 10 hours of volunteer work a month and meetings bi-weekly. At the meetings they talk about what they have learned and what they might be learning about themselves from volunteering.
Koryna Arroyo is a junior here at Southern Nazarene University, a theology ministry major and a resident of the ONE theme house. She has a calling to work in urban ministry and mentioned that she “appreciates the opportunity to volunteer and learn.” She explained that ONE is perfect for those who are feeling called to urban ministry. Although it is not an easy task, it is amazing to get to have the opportunity to mentor, teach and build relationships with kids and teens who need that kind of positivity.
Both of these girls when asked How does it make them feel to be apart of ONE, answered back that they absolutely LOVE it! They enjoy working and building relationships with the kids/ teen girls. Becca says, “it is such a joy to help and encourage them as they work through the problems.”
It seems that our peers that participate and are apart of the ONE house are being impacted in many ways. If you would like to learn more or become involved you can contact the director of ONE Kaylee Vaughn.
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Lizette Casas, Staff Writer
Lizette Casas was born and raised in the beautiful Land of Enchantment, aka New Mexico. Currently, she is a junior majoring in Mass Communication. Recently, she has become a huge fan of NASCAR and has hopes of one day meeting her favorite driver, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. After Lizette graduates she has dreams of pursuing her education and moving to San Diego to become a Professor at Point Loma Nazarene University. There, she hopes to teach students about the fascinating world that is videography and photography.[/author]