November 8 , 2005

For several years before 2004, Corban students went either to Mexico or Los Angeles on Spring Break missions.

Italy was added in 2004, and Utah in 2005.

At least five mission trips are planned for Spring Break 2006.

“The incoming freshmen are very open to missions, and from there, it begins to snowball,” said Jim Morris, missionary in residence with his wife, Louise. “I think people have been praying that there will be a missionary atmosphere on campus and it seems like this incoming class is more open to this. They seem to have a sensitivity to missions and what’s going on in the world, and what the needs are.”

It’s not just freshmen; this fervor for missions service seems to be permeating through the campus, said Morris, who is student missions adviser.

New for Spring Break 2006: Peru, Thailand and a possible third trip of disaster relief ministry in New Orleans.

Seniors Jessica Redding and Apryl Pense, who spent four weeks in Trujillo, Peru, last summer, plan to lead a team over spring break to the orphanage where they worked.

“The goal of the Peru trip will be to serve the church, love the children, encourage the missionaries, and grow as servants,” Redding said.

Pense said they are looking for students who have a servant’s heart, a love for children, and life focused on Corban’s theme this year: being dedicated to God.

At least 40 students have expressed interest in the Peru missions trip, Redding said.

“We require people who are willing to put themselves aside for a week and allow God to live through them,” Pense said. “It can’t be about who speaks Spanish the best or who has leadership skills. It can’t be about us.”

One of the missionaries who participated in the recent missions conference is planning a missions trip to Thailand that at least 30 students have expressed an interest in.

Corban alum Rick Caynor, now with the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism, has put together an outreach ministry to tsunami victims, children and public schools. He also wants the Thailand team to teach English as a second language, and to provide counseling with those still dealing with the tragedy of life after the tsunami.

About 70 percent of the people in southern Thailand have never heard the gospel, Caynor said. Since the tsunami, some have begun to open their hearts. This time is a critical opening for him to reach his goal of opening up more opportunities for reaching people with the gospel, the missionary said.

A late-April mission trip to Beirut, Lebanon for Christian journalists also is available for Corban students. Drama students are planning a May 18 to June 1 mission trip to Sydney, Australia; they will use drama as an outreach. And later in the summer, a mission trip to New York City is to include five days of painting classrooms and hallways in Bronx schools, sandwiched between four days of observing the media and drama centers of the nation.

“The students organize their own trips,” Morris said. “I help them work through the process.”

Corban has a Student Mission Outreach Trips Guidelines booklet, which includes an application form, approval requirements from the Vice President for Student Life and the Vice President for Academic Affairs, and related information.

“Going on a missions team gives the student a bigger view of what life and Christian service is all about,” Morris said. “In seeing what God is doing in other parts of the world, you begin to see God needs workers.”

--By Dustin McNab and Karen Willoughby