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Transforming the world through students
The SMC is a small international network fostering a global movement of university students who are serving Christ's Great Commission through their life-work.
We believe this generation is ready for new ways, new paradigms, and a new heart to make a difference in a world that cries out for mercy, for hope, and for healing. We see student volunteers and mobilizers everywhere. They are the new international community of students and young adults seeking God for justice, for revelation, and for real transformation.
The gospel of Christ is not a private matter. This generation knows that when you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness. (Isaiah 58:10)
Connect here to answer God's call. Tell us your story and sign up for our monthly StudentCall newsletter for global student volunteers.
"It is easy to find professionals who are Christians, but harder to get Christian professionals, who have thought through what they do from a Biblical standpoint, and can articulate that clearly." Dr. Michael Schluter - Jubilee Center, Cambridge.
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Field Ministry Internships
Field Ministry Internships (FMI), a ministry of Youth With A Mission, facilitates practical learning/serving field project opportunities for Christian university students and young adults to re-interpret their course of study/career in the light of Biblical revelation of calling to grasp God's vision for their career and how it relates to the needs of the world, especially issues of global human need. FMI has mobilized 75 Christian student teams (typically teams of 4 to 7 students) from 107 colleges and universities in eight countries to 33 nations since 1986.
The FMI student projects are designed to confront the “giants” of impure water, illiteracy, malaria, HIV/AIDS, and material and spiritual poverty with prayer, training, service, evangelism, and mercy ministries. FMI opportunities are for students and professionals in the fields of Agriculture, Business, Education, Engineering, Environmental Studies, Art, Journalism, International Affairs, Medical, IT & Social Work.
You decide your most appropriate contribution. You will pray, serve, and build relationships with the host community and project staff. You will collaborate with the long-term field project leaders to assess the needs of the community through interviews, probing questions, surveys, and maps. Your key contribution is the final written project report in which you research and present a proposal to complement or supplement the existing field project in the host community.
By serving projects with Field Ministry Internships in the field of your studies on a summer team, you are going deeper into the call of God. You are offering more than a career, you are offering your life-work as worship.
Field Ministry Internships summer outreach teams, are for students and professionals to integrate studies with a service project abroad. Participants form small teams (4 to7 people)for these 8-week internships, while young adult graduates may join teams for just 2 weeks or more weeks.
New opportunities are available now. If you wish to form a small team, or simply volunteer to serve alongside a long term team, contact us. We'll send you details.
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Police Brutality
[Ed. note: The following is the first portion of Chapter 1 of a new book by Jeannette Lukasse, who, along with her husband, Johan, ministers to street children in Brazil. The complete Chapter 1 and information on how to order the book may be found at www.ywamconnect.com/sites/childrenatrisk
Children at Risk is one of the themes for the University of the Nation's upcoming Synergy 2003 workshop in Singapore. Go to www.synergy2003.com for more information on how to register.]
Suddenly a group of angry police officers surrounded our ministry team on a downtown sidewalk. The ragtag street children who were huddled around the team jumped up and bolted. Two of the smaller ones weren’t quite fast enough. A skinny officer, his bony face contorted with rage, grabbed them both by the scruffs of their necks and, yelling obscenities, hit their little heads with a thud against a concrete wall. The children collapsed on the littered pavement. Now the police officer really lost control and moved in on Mati, one of our team members.
It was eleven o’clock Friday night. As was their practice, a few members of our staff had gone to the downtown area of Belo Horizonte. They knew the children’s favorite hangouts, and soon twenty-five or so hungry, grimy street children were gathered around them. The team doled out sandwiches and chocolate milk to the children and bandaged some of their open wounds. Then they all sat down on the pavement in small groups and played board games and checkers.
Julio, the team leader that evening, strummed his guitar and patiently explained some basic chords to a little boy. With his long, slender fingers, he created beautiful music. Fascinated, the little guy watched him and then, with great concentration, tried to bend his dirty, stubby fingers over the guitar strings.
In spite of the late hour, the large red-and-blue city buses were still crowded. Each time a bus rumbled past, the little group was enveloped in putrid exhaust fumes. Pop music blared from the many rundown bars. Bright neon signs pulsated through the stifling night air, inviting customers to the drab tables and folding chairs on the narrow sidewalk. The legion of children who lived here were used to this chaos of odors and sounds and colors. After all, this was their home. They played, eat, and slept on the streets.
Julio scanned the motley group around him. His charges were quiet tonight, he observed, obviously enjoying the games and the attention. That quietness was rudely shattered, however, with the arrival of the incensed law officers.
One tall, angry police officer zeroed in on Mati, a young, muscular Samoan. Two other officers wildly kicked and hit anyone within reach.
Quickly Julio jumped up but could not avoid several blows before he reached Mati.
“Stop!” he yelled. “We’re missio—”
Wham! A well-aimed punch hit Julio right in the face. The frenzied police officers seemed determined to beat everyone to a pulp. More patrol cars, sirens shrieking, pulled up. Dodging blows, Julio and his team tried to explain that they were missionaries and hadn’t done anything wrong, but the enraged law officers appeared to be completely out of control and in no mood to listen to anyone.
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The key to God's character
Revelation 4:8
The apostle John wasn't the first person to have the privilege of looking into heaven. In the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah was given a similar vision (Isaiah 6:3). Both John and Isaiah had the overwhelming experience of seeing the place where God has his throne. They both saw that God is constantly surrounded by special angels who exist to worship him. The primary way they worship is to draw attention to God's holiness.
God's holiness is the foundation on which the whole universe rests. If he ever did anything that was selfish or unjust, everything would begin to fall apart. But God, with all of his power and other unlimited abilities, has never done anything wrong, and he never will do anything wrong. We will always be able to trust him, and he will always inspire us to pray and work to be holy - because he is holy.
Ask God to help you to be more holy, as he is.
Read on: Lev. 11:44-45; Isaiah 6:3; 1 Peter 1:15-16
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