Baylor Missions Teams Serving in Seven Countries Over Spring Break
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WACO, Texas (March 2, 2018) – This spring break, Baylor Missions is sending 14 teams of 244 Baylor students, faculty, staff and alumni to six countries, including Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti and Mexico. Domestically, two Texas-based teams will focus on Hurricane Harvey relief efforts in Houston and the Gulf coast, a nursing team will volunteer in the colonias in McAllen and students will embark on a Civil Rights tour across the southeastern United States.
Baylor teams are addressing hunger relief, setting up medical clinics, building solar energy systems and much more. These #BearsOnMission embody the spirit of Baylor by sharing the love of Christ while flinging their green and gold afar.
"These thoughtful initiatives are allowing for students to present their respective academic perspective and passions to enhance and diversify the way we approach community challenges and solutions around the world," said Holly Tate, assistant director for missions at Baylor. "Let us keep the Baylor Missions teams in our thoughts and prayers as they travel and make an impact around the globe."
Each team has a discipline-specific focus to their missions projects, actively integrating their faith with service and learning:
Costa Rica Education
This team is focused on helping Costa Rican students in underdeveloped areas learn English and help them prepare for their higher educational pursuits in the 21st century. Baylor students will volunteer in an elementary and secondary school just outside of San Jose, Costa Rica. The group of 20 will plan classroom activities, lessons and field trips for students, as well as build relationships with peers at the University of Costa Rica.
Dominican Republic Alpha Epsilon Delta
Alpha Epsilon Delta (AED) National Health Preprofessional Honor Society will serve within the Azua community in the Dominican Republic alongside Baylor’s global partner, Orphan’s Heart International. This team of 12 will spend spring break working in teams to provide health education to the community and learn more about the different levels of Dominican Republic healthcare by visiting a local clinic, rural hospital and city hospital. They also will give lessons on nutrition, vaccinations, hygiene, growth and development, as well as bring needed objects, such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap and feminine hygiene products to help increase health awareness in the community.
Dominican Republic MAPS (Multicultural Association of Pre-Health Students)
For the fifth year, MAPS is sending a team of 13 Baylor students and faculty members to partner with Good Samaritan Mission Council in La Romana, Dominican Republic, to get a greater understanding of service and cultural competency. Students will serve in pop-up medical clinics in the different bateyes by shadowing local doctors and practicing routine check-ups and vitals. MAPS also is bringing additional over-the-counter medications to aid the pharmacies at the clinics.
Greece Accounting & Friends (Multidisciplinary Team)
For the second year, this group will continue to engage in interdisciplinary work alongside church and business leaders in Athens, Greece. This team seeks to “set the refugee free from poverty and help them integrate into Greek Society.” Students from the School of Journalism will be working on a project that aims to change how the West views refugees, not as nameless people in need, but individuals striving to find a better life. Students from Truett Seminary will be working with the local church to increase its footprint in the city and better position it to respond to the evolving needs of refugees. Students from the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work will work with the local church to conduct asset mapping. This process should help provide the refugees a roadmap to being freed from poverty. Students from the Hankamer School of Business will work to establish a business incubator to help refugees turn their ideas into businesses.
Guatemala AMSA (American Medical Student Association)
American Medical Student Association (AMSA) is sending 20 students, two Baylor team leaders and a small team of guest nurses to serve in villages near Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. Through a partnership with Global CHE, this team will serve rural citizens, who have been unable to receive necessary medical treatments for lifelong problems. The team will set up temporary clinics and provide free health care to locals.
Guatemala Nutrition
This team of 11 from Baylor’s department of family and consumer sciences will share their love of healthy foods and nutrition education to assist with food preparation at Mission Guatemala in Panajachel, Guatemala. Baylor students also will lead a cooking school for junior high students and assess growth of elementary school students.
Guatemala Honors Residential College (HRC)
This team of 27 students, staff and faculty from the Honors Residential College will travel to Guatemala City to partner with Potter’s House, a “Christ-centered organization founded by two Guatemalans who were inspired to take action through their experiences working with the extreme poverty found in Guatemala City’s trash dump.” The Baylor team will serve in a variety of capacities, including leading Vacation Bible School for children, building 24 bunk beds for families in the community, working at a house construction site, providing medical training to local individuals and delivering packages and building relationships with 24 families served by Potter’s House.
Haiti Engineering
Baylor STEM students, including Humanitarian Engineering students and members of the student organization Engineers with a Mission, will partner with the Haitian non-profit organization IDADEE to build a solar electricity system for a new rural hospital. The team of 12 will build on the work they began last year, installing a similar solar electricity system for an orphanage and school. The team has developed games to play with the young children there that teach energy conservation. The project at the hospital is the largest ever undertaken by a Baylor engineering team and will likely require two years to complete.
Haiti Medical
A team of 16 Baylor students will travel to Pignon, Haiti, on a medical mission trip, where they will have an opportunity to help hospital staff use the bar code inventory system that was established two years ago, shadow Haitian physicians during surgery and medical clinic rounds, obtain heights and weights for students that are supported by Promise for Haiti organization and visit families on the Promise for Health Partners program. Students also will deliver food, take their family histories and participate in a school mobile clinic. This will be Baylor’s second time partnering alongside Promise for Haiti.
Mexico Engineering
This team of engineering students as well as students interested in sustainable construction will work with Lazarian World Homes to build a music building for a seminary in Tecate, Mexico. They will be using eco-friendly polystyrene blocks to construct the building and working alongside local tradesmen to complete the project over the course of a week.
Civil Rights Tour
In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Baylor’s department of history is sponsoring a Civil Rights Tour as part of a course on King’s civil rights leadership in the 1950s and 1960s. In addition to participation on the tour across Alabama, Tennessee and Arkansas, students have met several times prior to spring break to hear lectures and discuss readings related to a historical analysis of King’s life and legacy. Following the tour, class participants will meet a final time to share observations and insights on what they have learned about this icon of social justice advocacy and how they can continue his legacy through their own advocacy and engaged citizenship.
Hunger in Texas (Harvey Relief + Hunger Advocacy)
Eight Baylor students will travel to the Gulf coast to help with recovery efforts and understand the impact Harvey had on communities. They also will meet with schools and nonprofits in the area to understand their role in the recovery effort. Mid-week they will head to Austin for meetings with state-level stakeholders who were instrumental in coordinating the response effort or who advocated on behalf of families throughout the recovery effort.
Make Bear Creek Beautiful Project (Harvey Relief)
This team of 38 students from all areas of campus is partnering with community members and relief efforts in the Bear Creek area of Houston, who are already mobilizing, identifying needs and sharing hope as they help communities rebuild their lives. They will help with landscaping and home improvement projects around the neighborhood to increase morale and restore some normalcy to an area truly devastated by the floods following Hurricane Harvey.
McAllen Nursing
A team of 15 nursing students and three leaders will traveled from Baylor’s Louise Herrington School of Nursing in Dallas to McAllen, Texas, where they will work with a Texas Baptist River Ministry missionary, serving the local colonias and volunteering in the Sacred Heart Catholic Church Respite Center. The respite center provides a place for men, women, children and infant refugees to rest, have a warm meal, a shower and change into clean clothing, as well as receive medicine and other supplies, before continuing on their journey.
ABOUT BAYLOR MISSIONS
BU Missions seeks to create tangible opportunities for students to understand how they can use the knowledge and skills they gain here at Baylor to love people around the world and in the Waco community.
As part of the Office of Spiritual Life at Baylor University, Our Mission is to nurture theological depth, spiritual wholeness, and missional living in the students, staff, and faculty at Baylor University by offering integrated formational programming, transformative missional experiences, competent pastoral care, and worship that is responsive to the Christian Tradition and sensitive to the culture.
Global Missions collaborates with faculty & staff from a variety of disciplines & backgrounds along with our global partners in order to implement spiritually rich & challenging experiences for our students. It is our hope that the students who participate in our trips not only enjoy the experience (which is important), but also discover a sense of vocation & calling as they see first-hand how they can use their discipline to serve.
ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.