Summer Missions are known for challenging students to pursue a deep, life-long personal walk with God. You’ll be encouraged to make your personal time with God a top priority. An eager team of SOON staff members will help you in this, offering accountability and support as you learn about God’s character and His Word. You will also be exploring Scripture through daily gatherings and small group prayer meetings. The Bible Studies are thorough, faith-building and applicable to your everyday life. We know you’ll leave amazed at how much God has taught you in a few short weeks!
Deep, life-long friendships are often the result of the grace and truth-filled community environments of a summer mission. You’ll live with anywhere from 8 – 15 of your peers from schools across the nation. All of you will have come together for the common pursuit of growing in your walks with God and making Him known. This is community at its best.
Summer Missions are designed to develop you as a leader. You’ll get to be hands-on with different aspects of ministry. You’ll leave with a solid Biblical foundation, practical ministry skills, and experience in sharing your faith with others.
Throughout the summer, you’ll be reaching out to your ministry focus—the specific community you will be ministering to over the summer. At many stateside summer mission locations your ministry focus includes serving coworkers and the local community on the job. For other locations, the ministry focus could be people who live in the surrounding community, classmates, students attending a nearby university or with visiting tourists. Whatever your ministry focus, you will be trained to love those people well, serve them and share your faith with them. Imagine sharing the love of Christ with sunbathers on the beach, students on an international campus, fellow hotel housekeepers, local leaders…who knows who you’ll meet!
Spiritual mentors and staff will help deepen your walk with the Lord through sharing ministry experiences with you and simply living life alongside you. Also, look forward to spending time with other students in small groups, studying God’s Word and exploring His longing for the nations to know Him.
Over the course of the summer, you’ll be trained in communicating your faith with non-believers and believers alike. Along the way you’ll gain practical skills to help you apply Jesus’ teachings to your own life and pass them on to others. The hope is that you will become an effective Christ-centered leader both on your campus and in whatever field God calls you to after college.