Northwestern students to serve during spring break

Nearly 200 students, faculty and staff from Northwestern College will travel across the United States and overseas for the college’s annual Spring Service Projects (SSP) March 4–13.

This year’s teams will serve at 12 sites. International destinations include Ireland, the Netherlands and Nicaragua. In Ireland, students will partner with Dublin Christian Mission, a ministry that works with people who are homeless. In Amsterdam, students will live and work at two Christian youth hostels, sharing their faith with guests from around the world, while those in Nicaragua will do construction work, distribute food and help lead a vacation Bible school in the impoverished area of Bluefields.

Teams in the U.S. will travel to Minnesota, California and throughout the South. A new U.S. partner for Northwestern College is Youthfront in Kansas City, Kan. Students on that SSP team will provide manual labor for Youthfront’s summer camp outside the city, do after-school tutoring, and participate in a feeding ministry at a local park.

In Minnesota, students will help plan and implement a snow camp as part of a youth ministry outreach on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation and across the border in Thunder Bay, Ontario. In California, Northwestern’s SSP team will partner with Emmanuel Reformed Church in Paramount to paint homes, provide manual labor and build relationships in the community of Compton.

Additional U.S. service opportunities include construction, home repair and painting in Annville, Ky.; after-school programs and construction projects in New Orleans; and construction, tutoring and community cleanup in Opelousas, La.

Still other Northwestern students will assist with after-school programs, home visits and a thrift store in Cary, Miss.; volunteer in local schools and after-school programs in Jacksonville, Fla.; and serve with a ministry to ex-prisoners in Lindale, Texas.

Spring Service Project members raise their own travel funds through their individual families, friends and churches and also through fundraisers on campus and in the community.

Northwestern College’s short-term mission programs bear the Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Missions (SOE) seal, ensuring that participating organizations get NWC mission teams that are of high quality. SOE standards include adequate pre-trip training and resources, as well as consistent post-trip follow-up and accountability.