The Global Urban Trek is a seven-week immersive experience in megacities across the globe. Students assume the role of a guest learner in marginalized slum communities (as defined by the United Nations), in places most would prefer to ignore or avoid. Students learn from community development organizations within them, and seek to live out the good news of Jesus alongside the urban poor.
During the Trek, students will fast from home culture, technology, clothes, friends, achievements, and their usual food. They will learn spiritual disciplines like submission, prayer, lament, and celebration. As they hear stories and gain experiences illustrating beauty and brokenness in the world, they consider two questions: what good news does the gospel offer in the face of overwhelming global urban realities? And what does it look like to live the gospel, bringing the Kingdom of God more fully to earth?
Spend seven weeks in living contemplation of these questions, and discern whether to commit two years of your life to serve in a slum community after graduation, considering a longer term calling.
What happens on the Trek?
A typical trip looks like this:
- 1 week of orientation abroad
- 2 weeks in intentional community at ministry site. Students will either live with a host family within their placement neighborhood or all together in a central location, while serving alongside local people. Past ministry sites have included social entrepreneurships, working with children’s programs, aiding in clinics, and spending time in leper communities.
- A weekend retreat to process as a team
- 3 more weeks at ministry site
- 1 week debriefing before returning home
