Oil Belt Christian Service Camp
Oil Belt Christian Service Camp, northwest of Flora, is a religious organization that has been in operation for almost 80 years and is supported by 108 Christian and Church of Christ churches. They offer summer camps for kindergarten through college age. They have the 2026 tentative summer schedule on their website at www.oilbelt.com. Their goal is to make disciples of Jesus Christ through the teaching of God’s Word.
       A few of the upcoming events are: Men’s Night, February 6; High School Retreat, February 16-17; and the Big Overnighter for 3rd-5th grades, March 6-7. Plus, they will be taking a bus trip to the Ark Encounter, April 16-19 with registration due December 9.
Not only are they busy with summer camps during the summer, they offer many retreats for all ages throughout the year. They also offer their facilities to be rented out. Tyler Mulvany, Executive Director, is busy all year long visiting churches to share the needs of Oil Belt, then he keeps the summer camps running smooth. To help keep things going, they have several permanent staff members, but they need to hire some people to spend a summer serving as summer staff. If you know of a college age young adult, ages 18-24, looking for a summer job, checkout the website to apply and to learn more.
If you’ve been to Oil Belt recently, you’ll notice that it looks a lot different than it did years ago. They are in need of updating the HVAC system so the big project right now is Keeping Campers Cool Campaign. Their goal of $36,000 will help upgrade the units across the campus. As of a couple of weeks ago, they were at $17,230. If you’re interested in helping, you can either donate online at www.oilbelt.com or put this in the memo of your check at church. Thanks!
Tyler is very appreciative of West Village’s support. He knows that West Village is invested in our youth and the desire for each one to follow Christ. Thank you for supporting Oil Belt!

     Six years ago, I started my time here at WVCC with a sermon series about serving. There are signs that are easy to forget about in our foyer. One above our sanctuary doors telling us “Enter to Worship.” The other is abovt the exit telling us that we “Depart to Serve.” After all these years those signs still strike me. What we gain when we are together is meant to translate into everyday life. And those lives are meant to be in service of others.
Between 2018 and 2023 science caught up with scripture in a series of studies done by psychologists. In three separate studies they found that people that regularly spent time serving others had lower levels of depression and anxiety, improved physical and cognitive health, reduced mortality rates, and overall better life satisfaction. To put it simply, serving others makes your life better. What Jesus tells us is that in those tiny acts of service when we feed the hungry, clothe the poor, assist the elderly, take care of the orphans, and any number of other acts of service we are not serving others so much as we are serving Him.  (Matthew 25:31-46) But there is also a warning in that passage. When we serve others its like we are serving our God, but when we pass on by, its as though we are walking past, ignoring, our God. And those that do not serve are not servants of our Lord. But lest we fall into the trap of giving just to get, the grace of God should remind us that we serve because Jesus came as a servant. We serve because of His example, and in service we find humility and love that will change us one interaction at a time.