6. Invite a professor(s) to go with you for a week or two on a Spring Break, or on a Summer Cru Global trip or a Stateside Summer Project.
Spring Break trips and Summer Projects are some of the greatest ministry training and “God at work” experiences we do as a movement.
Why not invite faculty to come with you and the students as you go overseas or head for a Stateside SP?
Like students professors also need to see, feel, experience God at work in and through them. Overseas, American professors open doors on campuses that we could not. They are like “rock stars” on those campuses. They open the doors and we as staff and students just follow them into new and amazing opportunities to share the gospel that were not open to us when we just take students.
There are also scholarships available through Faculty Commons to help with their cost. As a Missonal Team Leader in the GNWR for 25 years, Ralph Cooley now sees it as a major oversight that he did not take advantage of. If you have any questions please contact Ralph at Ralph.Cooley at cru.org or Brad at Brad.Fulton at cru.org. Brad has been helping the Campus Ministry make a way for “faculty on summer projects.”
Things to Consider when inviting a professor(s) to go with you on an international spring break trip or other mission trip.
- Pray that the Lord would give professors a desire to go on an international mission trip with you from your campus.
- This is a very strategic opportunity. God has a heart for the world, so He will give professors a heart for the world.
- It takes time and effort to cultivate a solid relationship with a faculty member to go with you overseas. There are other smaller steps that may be helpful to take first. (testimony at CRU meeting, name on a faculty ad, etc.)
- Talk with the team leader of the mission trip. Here are a couple of questions to ask:
— Is this trip “faculty” friendly?
—Does this trip provide opportunity for faculty to minister?
—How much will the trip cost?
—-When is the trip? Will it fit with the professor’s schedule? - This will take lots of advance planning. In most cases you would need to challenge the professor to go with you at least 6 to 12 months in advance.
- It may be helpful to confer with a faculty commons staff member regarding this trip. Maybe they could go with you also.