International Immersions and Service
During the 2005-2006 school years Lutheran Campus Ministry led 3 groups of college and high school students to visit and work with the Costa Rican Lutheran Church through CROSS: Costa Rican Outreach-Simplicity and Service. Funded by a Youth Leadership Initiative grant from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, each trip included preparatory meetings, time in Costa Rica and follow up reflection on the service learning experience. Students raised over $12,000 from local congregations and friends as a gift for the Costa Rican Lutheran Church (ILCO).
In May/June 2007 we traveled to the Albuquerque/Santa Fe areas and participated in Lutheran Campus Ministry at the University of New Mexico’s Pueblo Immersion when we met with Native American spokespersons and visited several pueblos.
In 2008 twelve of us spent Spring Break in and around Mexico City. Working with the Lutheran Center in Mexico City, students explored the Mexico City area, experienced the lives of the poor and learned about the church’s work for global justice and peace. The immersion program at the Lutheran Center in Mexico City challenged and empowered us, as God's people, to become advocates and promoters of a more just and human world in the context of a global order that increasingly robs the poor of life and dignity.
Where will we travel next? One opportunity could be working with churches and campus ministry along the Texas-Mexican border. We will decide this in the coming months! An ELCA program for work in the Middle East is “PEACE, NOT WALLS.” Some Lutherans feel the same way about the “border fence”.