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Liberty University students serve in India.
Faith & Service

Going Places

May 31, 2015

“Break” is hardly the correct term to pair with “summer,” as hundreds of Liberty University students and their instructors will soon be spreading out across the globe to serve others and meet needs amidst diverse cultures.

“These trips give many of our students the opportunity to add international experience to their résumés,” said Dr. Kevin Struble, administrative chair for the Center for Student Travel. “But a piece of paper can hardly reflect the life lessons learned while abroad — experiencing new cultures firsthand, serving selflessly, and much more.”

Liberty students, whether traveling domestically or abroad, are up for the challenge and are committed to blessing everyone they come into contact with.
Students will travel this summer to Bolivia, Cameroon, Ethiopia, North Africa, Haiti, Ireland, the South Pacific, the Middle East, Romania, Zimbabwe, France, Greece, South Korea, China, and Japan. Cities across the United States, including Portland, Atlanta, and New York, are also destinations.

Around the World:

Study Abroad

A Liberty University study tour in Israel.

A Liberty University study tour in Israel.

Over June, July, and August, 500 students will participate in 20 study abroad trips arranged by the Center for Student Travel.

Students studying through Liberty’s residential and online programs are eligible for the trips and will receive three credits for successfully completing their courses. Professors accompany the students overseas and teach classes from within the host country.

The center partners with several outside organizations in scheduling the trips and has also formed partnerships with universities abroad to coordinate cultural immersion trips in major international cities.

Many departments offer annual study tours to provide their students with diverse cultural experiences. Students studying psychology, religion, law, education, humanities, history, nursing, counseling, modern languages, government, family and consumer sciences, business, and more can participate. Student interest is gauged, and trips are developed accordingly.

The center hears positive feedback from students who have taken trips. One student, who took a C.S. Lewis tour to Oxford, London, and Paris, called it “one of the most memorable overseas experiences” she has had.

“From the travel preparations to historic details, down to experiences off the beaten path, (Liberty) organized a phenomenal trip,” she said. “I cannot say enough about my tour or the friendships that formed through it — I wish I could do it all over again.”

Some study abroad trips provide opportunities for learning through service. This summer, psychology and counseling students will go to Greece where they will work with a ministry that fights human sex trafficking. Also, students from the Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine will travel to Guatemala in order to combine coursework with medical missions.

The psychology department offers an annual trip to Rwanda where students can earn internship credit.

“God allowed me to see how blessed I truly am and how His people are hurting in other areas of the world,” one intern said. “I would strongly recommend joining a trip led by the Center for Student Travel. You will return to the States a changed person and with a better understanding of what God’s heartbeat for the nations truly is.”

Center for Global Engagement
This summer, the Center for Global Engagement (CGE) is dispatching about 100 students on 10 Global Teams to Bolivia, Cameroon, Ethiopia, France/North Africa, Haiti, Ireland, the South Pacific, the Middle East, Romania, and Zimbabwe.

The Global Teams will assist with sports camps, work with refugees, and build relationships with individuals who need to see the love of Christ demonstrated in their lives.

Trips through the CGE offer students opportunities to roll up their sleeves and reach out to those in need while getting firsthand experience not available to them in the classroom. In Haiti, for example, students will help with roofing a church building and work on a project to provide clean water to a community. They will also assist with some irrigation projects for local field workers. In Bolivia, students will stay in La Paz, a city with an elevation of 12,000 feet, and go on a three-day trek along ancient Incan trails through the Andes Mountains with local families, encouraging them in their relationships with God.

Global Teams are dispatched on school breaks year-round. In the 2014-15 academic year, the CGE will have sent more than 285 students on 26 trips.

Across the United States:

Exodus
One of Liberty’s premier ministry teams, EXODUS, will be on tour this summer. The contemporary praise and worship band will minister in youth camps and churches throughout Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Maryland. The group is expected to interact with more than 5,000 young people during its eight-week tour beginning June 3.

Center for Ministry Training

A CMT team in San Francisco.

A Liberty University Center for Ministry Training team in San Francisco.

The Center for Ministry Training (CMT) prepares students to be mission-minded in whatever occupation they pursue, for the purpose of impacting the world for Jesus Christ. CMT service trips are open to students of any major, giving them experience in a variety of ministry settings, including serving the poor and participating in church planting initiatives.

Over the summer, the CMT will dispatch about 60 students to Columbus, Ohio,  Portland, Ore., Atlanta, Ga., St. Louis, Mo., and New York City.

“These are more than just mission trips,” said Dr. David Wheeler, the executive director of Liberty’s Center for Ministry Training, “they are strategic connection opportunities for evangelism and church planting.”

The Columbus trip is in partnership with the Southern Baptist Convention, which will be promoting outreach events through local churches to thousands of people in the heart of the city. Trips to Portland, Atlanta, St. Louis, and New York are in association with the North American Mission Board (NAMB). Students in these cities will be building relationships with the local community for the purposes of evangelism and hosting Bible studies. They will also be gathering vital data for future NAMB church planting initiatives.

Wheeler hopes that these opportunities inspire students to impact lives with the Gospel and to see their communities and their vocations — wherever they go and whatever they do after graduation — as a mission field.

The CMT offers trips throughout the school year, during fall, winter, spring, and summer breaks, and has 16 trips planned for the 2015-16 academic year.

In addition to opportunities outside of Lynchburg, the CMT oversees 15 local student teams that engage in service projects, lead Bible studies, minister to struggling families, and mentor young children. In 2014 alone, the center mobilized more than 4,000 students. This year, the center is on track to exceed that number with about 5,000 participants.

“We are organizing hundreds of students weekly to be involved in some form of hands-on ministry through our various in-house opportunities,” said Vincent Valeriano, a campus mobilization coordinator for the center. “From ministering to the homeless and doing Bible studies with children in the projects to helping a church with an evangelistic outreach, Liberty students are getting the ministry experience, training, and tools they need to truly make an impact for the kingdom of God once they leave Liberty.”

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