By Janie Magruder
GCU News Bureau
Interested in being a missionary, a role model and a world traveler, gaining new skills, friends and experiences, stretching your limits, being blessed and feeling humbled, and getting an education — all at the same time?
Check out GCU’s GO (Global Outreach) Week, a chance for students to learn about mission trips being offered in summer 2015. GO Week is Sept. 15-19, allowing plenty of time to choose the right journey and get the right training from GCU, raise funds and prepare to, well, GO!
Liz Martin, GCU’s global outreach coordinator in the Office of Spiritual Life, led a trip this summer to India, where a vacation bible school tent swelled from 60 children to 150 children to, with parents included, nearly 200 people praising God. The temperature was well over 100 degrees outdoors, but nobody seemed to mind, especially not the 40 children who accepted Jesus into their hearts at the end.
“It’s was a blast,” Martin said.
This spring and summer, 233 GCU students and 24 staff members visited 16 countries, from Africa and Fiji to Mexico and the United Kingdom. The University hopes to dispatch more than 350 students around the world next summer.
Here’s a partial schedule of GO Week activities:
Monday, Sept. 15 —
• Mission passports handed out at Chapel, 11:15 a.m., GCU Arena
• Mission Trip Experience, featuring food from around the world and information about all summer mission opportunities, 7:30-9:30 p.m., Tell Science building, Room 101
Tuesday, Sept. 16 —
• theGathering: Global Edition, a worship experience in different languages with church simulations from around the world, 8-9 p.m., Antelope Gym
Wednesday, Sept. 17 —
• Refugee simulation, walking through several stages of how refugees become displaced from their countries and eventually resettle in new ones, 7-9 p.m., intramural lawn
• Encounter prayer and worship with music, 9 p.m., Prayer Chapel
Thursday, Sept. 18 —
• Movie screening (title TBD), 6 p.m., Antelope Gym
Friday, Sept. 19 —
• Pray for the Nations Day, throughout the day with an interactive chalk board on the Promenade and interactive stations in the Prayer Chapel
Two new things to keep in mind for 2015:
• Applications will be accepted online only.
• Global Connection: GCU’s Global Outreach Ministry is developing a list of trusted organizations and contacts students can use to plan mission experiences for themselves, over and beyond what the University can do. Watch for details during GO Week.
For more information and application details, drop by the Office of Spiritual Life in Prescott Hall or email [email protected].
Contact Janie Magruder at 602-639-8018 or [email protected].
