Applying to SMP

Current Opportunities for the Summer of 2019:

Cambodia, Hong Kong, Laos
In Cambodia, students will have the opportunity to serve the community by helping university students with their conversational English, playing sports and games with local Khmer kids, and teaching English to victims of human trafficking alongside long-term teachers in partner organization, ELIC. While in Hong Kong, students will teach conversational English with their own class of 20 middle school students, building relationships with them and spending quality time together outside of the classroom. Students’ final week in a third country is meant to cast vision for long-term service and includes things like assisting in the classrooms of master teachers, learning the local history, visiting famous sites and spending quality time with locals. 

Eastern Europe
Less than 1% of young people in Central and Eastern Europe are evangelical believers. Students will serve alongside Josiah Venture, an organization committed to serving and reaching locals of Central and Eastern Europe with the Gospel in a relational setting. Students will have the opportunity to share the love of Christ with students that have probably had little or not contact with Christians, the Bible, or the truth of Jesus Christ. The SMP Eastern Europe team will also partner with a national youth group to put on camps that empower them to share the gospel with their friends and students from their city.  Additionally, you will give Europeans an opportunity to speak English with native speakers through conversational English classes, playing sports, or music workshops. Activities include, but are not limited to: sports camps, youth outreach, music ministry, and projects tailored to the skills and talents of the students who apply. 

Ecuador
Physical well-being and access to healthcare are essential to a healthy life, particularly in a developing country. Ecuador team members, in partnership with Living/Learning International, will spend a significant amount of time in a variety of clinical settings (community health clinics, emergency rooms, out and in-patient procedures) observing medical practice in an international setting to gain an understanding of international medicine and medical practices. 

Israel/West Bank
Students will partner with Fellowship of Israel Related Ministries in Jerusalem committed to helping students engage the complex realities of Jewish life, as they work and serve with various non-profit organizations in a region often suffused with misunderstanding. Students will also partner with Holy Land Trust, a Palestinian Christian organization in Bethlehem committed to peace, reconciliation, and nonviolence in a region historically fraught with conflict. Students will serve in an interfaith context, while they learn about the complex dimensions of the region.

Dominican Republic
Home to more than 10 million people, the Dominican Republic is one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. Hundreds of thousands of children are desperately in need of care, and without intervention are destined to repeat the cycle of poverty. Students serving with Kids Alive will work alongside local teachers to support an summer academic enrichment program with at-risk children in the Caraballo region of the country.  It is not required but encouraged to have had at least two years of high school or college Spanish. Prior ministry experience working or interacting in a Spanish-speaking culture is helpful/desirable. 

Mexico City
Students on the SMP Mexico City team will be partnering with the Avance Program which provides an avenue for students to take a Spanish language course while engaging in ministry with local leaders involved in various church planting endeavors. Home stays are also a part of students time in Mexico City, which provides for a more focused immersive experience within the culture.  

Peru
Students participating as members of the Peru SMP team will be working with and alongside Paz y Esperanza, an organization committed to empowering, ministering and rehabilitating individuals who have experienced direct physical and/or emotional trauma, including but not limited to domestic physical violence, verbal abuse, sexual violence, psychological trauma, physical displacement, death, and loss. Students participating as members of these teams should consider their own current emotional and mental capacity to take in and process the realities around these situations. A student must have a high capacity for engaging these experiences while maintaining a physical, emotional, and mental presence during their trip. There will be an onsite partner staff presence during the trip and each will offer orientation, debriefing, and individualized support as needed.

Romania
Students will be partnering with One Collective in a variety of innovative approaches to ministry that seek holistic change by blending reproducible disciple-making and asset-based community development. There are opportunities for students in areas of community art, business and ESL. Wheaton College art students will be able to assist and expand existing programming aimed at helping youth discover God and their own worth through art and creativity. Business students are needed to assist with finance and accounting practices for the OC cafe, assist in developing marketing strategies, and proposing models for sustainability. Students will also have the opportunity to tutor Romanian youth in their English classes. 

Southeast Asia
SMP participants in Southeast Asia will partner with CRU to serve in college student to college student ministry which focuses on conversations about spiritual issues, hopefully leading to the gospel and conversations about Jesus. They envision students engaging in peer to ministry on college campuses, talking with them, befriending them, and helping them on their spiritual journey. This ministry provides a great place for using English as a Second Language (ESL) to connect with students.