Summer Ministry Takes Azusa Students Around the Globe
by Helen Kaufmann (all photos courtesy of Azusa Pacific University)

Azusa Pacific University, a Free Methodist-cooperating institution, has sent more than 150 students, faculty and staff on mission trips this summer to every corner of the globe. Groups of five to 15 members headed for locations in Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe. Teams spent four to six weeks in Uganda, Tanzania, Chile, Bolivia, Cambodia, India, Slovenia, Albania, Haiti and Samoa and ten other countries, doing a variety of ministry activities. "Developing hearts and minds for missions" is the principle guiding this ministry.

Organized through Focus International in the World Missions department of Azusa, the program has sent more than 150 teams and 1,500 students abroad for short-term service since 1985. Specific ministries take a variety of forms. For example, this summer's group to India did hospice work with Missionaries of Charity — Mother Theresa's organization. The students who went to Cambodia worked in orphanages, and the South America teams worked in schools. The several teams to Africa were involved in construction, small business development, teaching, orphanage ministry and AIDS awareness programs.

Leaders in the program stress that students go as "learners and servants" rather than experts. And all who go seem to come home changed. One member of a team to Haiti said, "I am so thankful that God called me on this trip! I really wish I was still there; I know that I'm never going to be the same. Already people around me have noticed how I look at things differently." A student working with street kids in Ecuador reported: "They are an incredible group of kids. I think that we are learning just as much from them as they are learning from us. Our group has been blessed to hear their simple prayers of gratitude and praise to God. We never would have guessed we could love a group of boys so much!"

Recruitment for mission trips begins each year in October, when students are invited to attend an informational meeting introducing mission options and given the opportunity to apply for one of the trips. Mission teams may be organized and led by faculty, alumni, community members or students themselves. Teams partner with a wide range of Christian organizations operating in the chosen countries. During the spring semester, teams meet weekly for training, which covers a series of ten topics, from cultural sensitivity to language study to spiritual warfare. The various teams leave for their target countries throughout May, June and July.

Focus International is actually one of three ministry programs grouped together at Azusa Pacific under the Institute for Outreach Ministries. The second, Ministry and Service, provides local serving opportunities through organizations like Prison Ministry and Habitat for Humanity. The third — Mexico Outreach — organizes trips to Mexicali and Ensenada during vacations to give students service experience in another culture. All three programs may be used by students to obtain the ministry credits required for graduation.

For more information about Azusa Pacific University, go to www.apu.edu.