To the Parents of SMP Summer Participants:
Greetings from Wheaton College! We are writing to introduce you to the Office of Christian Outreach, and more specifically, the Student Ministry Partners (SMP) program that your son/daughter may be serving with this summer.
The Office of Christian Outreach (OCO) is dedicated to offering the Wheaton College community opportunities to learn through service. All seven ministries partner with international and national organizations, along with faculty and staff across departments and disciplines, to offer students unique opportunities to learn by combining their faith and academics through service.
Specifically, Student Ministry Partners provides opportunities during the summer for students to partner with a variety of ministries around the world. Students will spend their summers serving alongside national leaders as well as sharing the Gospel in both word and deed. Through SMP, Wheaton students are given the opportunity to immerse themselves in the global church by living with other Christians around the world for 6-10 weeks. Some different types of ministries that students work with include community development projects, peace and conflict work, teaching, evangelism and discipleship, business as mission, clinic and hospital observation, ethnographic research, and summer camps.
As an OCO staff, we communicate regularly with the students while they are serving abroad, process applications, coach students through support raising, coordinate travel schedules, prepare students through orientation for their service learning, and pray for them as they go. After completing an orientation program, each team will then go and minister alongside a long term partner. Each team member then returns to their home town.
As a ministry, we believe strongly in the participation of the local church and value interaction with the parents of our students and so we invite you to explore the under Student Ministry Partners to get a sense of what your student will be doing this Spring and Summer.
Should you have any questions about the Office of Christian Outreach, SMP, this summer, or our service learning opportunities in general, please don't hesitate to email or call us.
In closing, we want to reiterate our commitment to communicate with you. Thank you for taking an active role in the lives of your sons and daughters—we appreciate you. We look forward to seeing how God will work this summer!
Blessings,
Office of Christian Outreach Staff
E: oco@wheaton.edu | P: 630.752.5076