Share this story. 
|
2006 Summer Missions:
ORU Students Get Ready to Get Lost
By Rebecca Gehle
Destined for over twenty-five locations in dozens of countries, teams of students have been training all year for this experience. They have a good idea of what they can expect at their respective missions locations, as well as how to be effective ministers and examples of Christ.
Typically comprised of 5-10 students, each missions team has an individual focus and purpose depending on where they are going. Students choose their own missions team, based on the length of time the team will be gone, the focus of the team, and the destination.
Team focuses include worship, drama, ministering to the homeless and children, medical, construction, and evangelism. Recently the ORU missions department has begun special teams, which apply students' academic specialties to the mission field. The School of Nursing has sent its students to Mexico in the past on medical teams, and Dr. Mark Lewandowski, Dean of Business, is organizing missions trips for undergraduate and graduate business students to conduct business seminars abroad.
"They take the skills they are learning in the classroom and use them while on missions trips," explained Tammy Deyo, assistant director of Missions. "We're working to combine the extracurricular with the academic, to give the students practical experience they're not going to get otherwise."
In addition to academics, Deyo hopes to create athletic special teams which would include more of the athletically talented students at ORU. Each missions location has people with different needs, so the missions department wants ORU students to be prepared to minister in all kinds of situations.
"A missions team's focus depends on the region and the specific ministry they're working with. What we don't want to provide is a cookie-cutter missions team that can only do one certain thing," explained Deyo.
Every team goes through training within the ORU missions program, learning how to effectively minister to children, sharing testimonies one-on-one, and receiving specific training about cultural taboos.
The missions department recognized that in order to enable as many students as possible to participate in missions, there needed to be an organized fund raising strategy. At ORU, the students raise money with their respective missions teams.
"Fundraising is a program effort; we don't raise money just as individuals," explained Deyo.
Every student is expected to send out at least 40 letters, and each team holds a fundraiser at least one time per month. Teams decide on their own fundraisers, and some have included bake sales, car washes, home improvement projects, and even an art auction.
Through this group effort, students remain personally accountable while benefiting from the support of their fellow teammates.
Click here to learn more about the missions department as well as the myriad locations students will be heading to this summer.
