Written by Sammi
Harding University will no longer be sending student-led missions outside of the United States for spring break mission trips this year because of stress on the economy.
Every yearHardingsends out groups of students to places all over the U.S. and parts of the world to do a variety of mission trips over the week of Spring Break. Nate Copeland is in charge of where the trips go and setting up connections for the groups once they arrive. He is the one who decided on not taking the trips out of the U.S. this year. The reason for this is that many of the trips to other countries cost much more.
“It is difficult for teams to raise that kind of money especially in this economy,” said Student Director for Harding Spring Break Missions, Brice Priestley. ” However, we do recognize that with God anything is possible, “
Priestley said that trips, such as the ones to Central America, can cost upwards of $25,000. He said that this year they wanted to see how effective the missions could be within the states.
This does affect some past trips that were looking forward to returning to their previous missions. However one group is attempting to make it on their own without the support of Harding. A few of the members of last year’s mission to Vancouver, Canada are discovering how difficult it is to plan the trips without Harding’s assistance.
“Without Harding’s help we have to figure out plane tickets, who to send money to, liability and insurance issues, how much money that will be needed, and we don’t get the shirts that the Harding trips do,” said student group leader Steven Chandler.
He went on to explain that going without Harding’s help was stressful, but not impossible to do.
“I was upset that I would not be able to go back to Vancouver like I did the previous year. However that did not discourage us from seeking alternative channels to work with the church there,” said Chandler.
He went on to explain that going without Harding’s help was stressful, but not impossible to do.
“I was upset that I would not be able to go back to Vancouver like I did the previous year. However that did not discourage us from seeking alternative channels to work with the church there,” Chandler said.
There is also another group going outside of Harding’s supervision to serve. A small group is also being formed to go to Haiti over the break as well to work with an orphanage there. Even though these groups are not being assisted by Harding, they still believe that God will lead them and help them accomplish what they need to do to get the mission done.
Bjelland
