Below are some incredible (and very different) ways to serve with some of our district international workers!

• 5 months in Indonesia
• 7 days in Chicago

Spend 5 Months Overseas in a Poverty-Focused Experience

BERAKAH WAY is recruiting a cohort of 5-8 young adults to start August 2021 in a 5-month incarnational poverty-focused experience in Indonesia.  The experience is structured so that globally minded young adults will walk the way of giving and receiving berakah, the Hebrew word for blessing.  The purpose is to provide an incarnational, cross-cultural internship to live among, learn from, and serve the poor.

Month 1: A one month homestay, study of the gospel, and unplugging from the noise of life. You will grow in spiritual disciplines of gratitude, humility, mutual respect, Creation appreciation, and presence. Learning survival Indonesian and being stripped of affluence and individualism will prepare you for the next steps on the path of berakah.

Months 2-3: These months will be spent in a language and cultural boot-camp. Mornings will be spent in formal language study, while afternoons and evenings will be in an Indonesian community. During these two months, you and the other participants will study two books about ministry to the poor, inductively study the gospel of Luke, and learn a set of skills that can be used in your field service (like assembling community health packages, growing vegetables in homemade compost, or coaching a soccer team). You will continue to practice spiritual disciplines while living in an Indonesian boarding house.

Months 4-5: The final 2 months will be spent living in a simple home among the less-fortunate, learning from them, and serving with them. Each participant will be given $50 to use wisely to alleviate suffering and empower the poor to meet their own needs. Field service opportunities may include: working with a farming family, serving in a non-profit foundation, teaching English in a marginalized community, supporting young athletes growth in skill and character. You will continue to meet weekly with other believers for worship and study, and bi-monthly with a mentor.

Cost: $6,750 includes air travel, lodging, insurance, in-country transportation, language school, seed money, and more.  Get more information and apply at www.berakahway.com.

Take a Missional 7-Day Trip to Chicago!

Can’t book a flight to your traditional short-term missions trip?  No problem! Come to Chicago!

Our philosophy is simple:  Make sure that participants are served well, have real ministry opportunity, have tangible kingdom impact on the ground, are exposed to various cultures, have a well rounded experience, and are trained to reproduce what they learn back home.

Location:  Although we serve and collaborate broadly across the city of Chicago, we have two primary ministry locations: Family Empowerment Center and South Asian Friendship Center. The majority of teams will be exposed to both of these site locations on their trip.

What will you do? Teams work with active ministries on the ground and among a diverse people. Teams are often empowered to run VBS, soccer camps, day camps, community events, after school programs, help with ESL, clean up in the community, do work projects and a myriad of other things while with us depending on the season.

Many of the people who live in the 10/40 window can be found here as immigrants, students, former refugees, and for business purposes. The nations of the world are on our doorstep and so is the opportunity for teams to reach that world without the high cost of going around the world. We work with pastors, youth pastors and mission coordinators to ensure that we experience God together and that our unique goals are accomplished.

What will you receive? A t-shirt. Oh, and training and experience for a bigger worldview that will impact the rest of your life.

Our trainings will equip your participants to not only serve well during their trip but be equipped to take the skills they learn back home and implement them locally.  We highly value pouring into our teams, and this is what separates Envision Chicago from other, non-Envision, mission trip experiences.  We create cultural immersion experiences that will pull them out of a more monocultural understanding into a broader understanding regarding the peoples and religions of the world.  There is often exposure and discussions that take into account homelessness as well as a myriad of other societal urban and world complexities.

Cost:  Cost includes everything you need to serve for the week, lodging, site transportation, food and supplies.  Teams are responsible for travel to and from the site.  The cost for a trip is $475 per person for a weeklong trip.  Extended trips can be arranged so long as there is room in the week leading up to or after your trip for an additional fee per day. Weekend trips are also welcome, and they cost $75 per night or $150 for a Friday-Sunday.

E-mail Scott Manke to get more information!

2021 Midwest District COVID Discount: $50 off per registrant!!