Every summer, Northwestern prepares a handful of individuals to serve on short term mission trips, called Summer of Service (SOS). This year’s team will serve across several continents.
A few of the participants spending their summer in Africa are sophomores David Soundjaran and Kallie Van Kley.
Soundjaran is headed to Ghana this summer from late May to mid-July to serve with Pioneers, a missions organization, to help out missionaries in the area. Soundjaran will aid the missionaries with “teaching English at schools, helping out with the health clinics and preaching the Gospel.” Soundjaran wanted to participate in SOS because “I wanted to see and be a part of the local church in an international place where they do not have a baseline or have never heard of Jesus. I wonder if the Lord is calling me to be overseas helping the local church.”
Soundjaran asks for prayers “that the Lord will soften the hearts of the unreached people groups out there,” he said. “[and that] I will be able to preach the true gospel and for discernment if long-term missions is my calling.”
Van Kley is traveling to a rural village in Tanzania from June 10 to July 1. “The Lord has revealed His heart for the nations in scripture a lot over the past year,” Van Kley said. “I am so excited for the opportunity to see how medicine can be used as a bridge to share the gospel.”
Van Kley will be working with Siouxland Tanzania Educational Medicinal Mission (STEMM). “We will be assisting in their medicinal clinic, community programs, as well as various other outreaches they are involved with,” Van Kley said.
Sophomore Tatum Schmalbeck will serve in three different European countries with World Team’s Europe internship from May 31 to July 10. “I decided to go on my SOS because I felt that God was leading me to pursuing missions this summer,” Schmalbeck said. “My heart was being stirred with a calling to the nations and learning more about how the gospel is proclaimed in different areas of the world.”
Schmalbeck will visit Paris, France; Madrid, Spain and Chisinau, Moldova. “I will be experiencing a variety of church plants and have the opportunity to learn from and be equipped by long-term missionaries’,” Schmalbeck said. “On this trip, I will learn about the spiritual climate and culture, work alongside experienced church planters and engage with locals. I will be channeling my passion for children through working various kids’ day camps and teaching English vocabulary at English events.”
Schmalbeck will work with long term missionaries at each site, experiencing their work as church-planters. “I will be working with locals as well as with children in various camps and activities,” Schmalbeck said.
Schmalbeck welcomes prayers for her and her team,and “for the relationships we will build with each other and locals,” Schmalbeck said. “For open hearts and minds to see the work the Lord is doing and the things he is teaching us. Pray that the Lord will have His way in Europe, that the gospel would be shared, and the local churches will be stregnthened and upheld by his mighty hand.”
Although all short-term missions are cross-cultural, not all missions are international. Sophomore Jaylin Gaston is going to New Orleans, Louisiana., to help with Urban Impact from May 25 to July 22. “I will be helping them run a day camp for the kids in the community, and also doing some community outreach in the area,” Gaston said.
Concerning prayer requests, Gaston said, “People can pray that I am able to serve the people in the community through the Lord.”
There will be an SOS commissioning service on Sunday, April 21 at 2 p.m.
All the students serving this summer are Kaylee Thorson, Tatum Schmalbeck, David Soundjaran, Mary Walnofer, Hannah Beckoff, Kallie Van Kley, Jacob Lewis, Joshua Lewis, Emma Anunson and Jaylin Gaston.
