Students are raising funds for their upcoming mission trip to Latin America. Students in Smiles For Christ are seeking donations of household items to sell at a yard sale at Midnight Oil on Valentine’s Day, whilehosting a car wash across the street in the College Church of Christ parking lot starting at 8 a.m.

“We know there are many mission trips going on[during] spring break andsummer,” senior Stephany Ayestas said. “I think people here are bombarded by so many fundraising activities, but I think there are still people that want to help and that is really encouraging.”

Along with their endeavors to raise funds through the selling of goods and services, these future short-term missionaries have also reached outside of the Harding bubble to several congregations for assistance. According to Bill Richardson, director of the Center for Advanced Ministry Training, this trip is unique in that it serves as a traveling internship.

“When we go to raise funds we write churches, we write individuals and family members, but we’re very upfront about the fact that this is an internship,” Richardson said. “It’s about training and preparing young people for service. This is the training ground for our future missionaries. None of the students are going as tourists, they’re not spectators they are participants.”

Smiles For Christ will also volunteer in the Searcy community doing household chores for donations on Feb. 21.

“I remember years before I didn’t want to take the challenge to raise that much money, like when you have so many things to do it’s really hard to balance every thing,” Ayestas said. “This has not been easy — but you have to have faith, and we’re trying.”

Students will have the option to participate in the internship for four weeks or choose to stay for up to eight weeks. Like any other internship, there will be objectives to be met and the money will help with the cost of travel, training, housing and more.

“It’s going to be a learning experience because as much as we want to help I think we also will learn a lot from the experience, getting to know people, hearing different stories and I think it’s going to be an enriching experience for both us and for the people there,” sophomore Fabio Contreras, vice president of Smiles For Christ, said.

The Smiles For Christ group will be accepting donations until today, and the last day to contact them about doing chores is Feb. 19. The students can be contacted by email atfriveracontreras@harding.edu.