Hosted by members of Charleston Southern University’s campus ministries and Summit Church, the Super Bowl party has been an annual event for the past three years. Last year, campus ministries opted to modify the name of the event to the Souper Bowl of Caring and use it not only as an outreach event for students but also for the community. A canned food item and one dollar were requested from each guest to later be distributed to the NAMB hunger relief fund.
Pizza, door prizes and the Super Bowl drew 425 students to the Souper Bowl of Caring event, where students contributed dollars and food items to the North American Mission Board hunger relief fund.Caleb Taylor, a 2004 CSU graduate who then attended New Orleans Baptist Seminary, currently works with Summit Church and plans events such as the Souper Bowl of Caring.
“In today’s world, we as people, and even Christians, find so much to argue about that we allow it to fracture us as a society,” said Taylor.?”But with this event, we can have one third Giants fans, one third Patriots fans, and one third commercial fans, and nobody cares.?Everyone was just there to have a good time and hang out together as one people.?I think the church as a whole has a lot to learn from that; even though we are different, we all love Jesus; and that’s what matters the most. That’s what I love about this event.”
Door prizes were distributed at halftime.
“The coolest thing that happened this time was that the student who won the grand prize gave it away to another student because he wanted it more,” said Taylor.?”That’s what this is all about; showing Christ’s love.?This student was unselfish and that makes me happy.”
With 425 student attendees, $81.04 and 117 food items were collected.
“We make this our biggest outreach event every year,” said Taylor. “We believe that Christ showed his love to us for free, so we should do the same. We want to show the greatest love possible, with no expectation of anything in return.”