One Story of FMI  
 
Short-term outreach with YWAM's Field Ministry Internships gives university students unique mission field experience

Students from over one hundred universities in eight nations, including some of North America's top universities, are getting an education in cross-cultural missions through a special YWAM-University of the Nations program called Field Ministry Internships (FMI).

The program originated as a way to give students on summer break a chance to apply their newly learned skills in ministry situations, and get them interested in missions. Since it began at the UofN Kona campus in Hawaii in 1985, FMI has sent students on internship teams to over 30 countries.

In 1995, the students worked in Albania, Ghana and Brazil. Julie Cheng, a Cornell University student who served in Brazil, said her FMI experience gave her "new direction" in life. "I'm looking at the world with different eyes...The trials this summer have refined my character and given me a stronger faith in God."

The "trials" she was referring to included a major flood that hit YWAM Virginia's Rose River Center where the students were receiving two weeks of YWAM training before going overseas. Ten inches of rain fell on the day a team of ten students departed for Ghana, Africa, to do health care, education, and church ministries. Flooding that made roads impassable caused the Amazon and Albania teams to miss their scheduled flights.

Despite the constant rainfall, Alison Gresik of Canada's Redeemer College described the orientation in Virginia as "the best learning experience of my life." The students received two weeks of YWAM training in community development, prayer and spiritual warfare, the biblical mandate for missions, and cross-cultural team ministry.

The 1995 participants included students from Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth, Duke, Harvard, Wake Forest, Wellesley, Redeemer, and the Universities of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and British Columbia.

"Our goal is to help them acquire a deepened understanding of the ways of God for ministry and His unswerving purpose for world evangelization, particularly as it relates to a specific field of study," said FMI Director John Henry. "These students are learning the work of the kingdom of God--it's the love of God in action."

While on the field, students work alongside doctors, teachers, missionaries and other professionals. The Brazil health care team was called on to help deliver a baby the moment they arrived in one Amazon tribal village. The interns also examined malaria and tuberculosis slides, dressed wounds, took blood pressures, and learned to give shots and do pap smears.

The Africa team served three villages in central Ghana. They surveyed public health and sanitation needs and ministered to the people in numerous practical ways. "We treated a lot of children's wounds, and we prayed for each patient," said Tony Choi of Cornell University.

Health education seminars were given on general wound care, personal hygiene, oral rehydration, guinea worm treatment, and water purification.

The Albania team trekked to numerous mountain villages to find out how many disabled children were in the Pogradec area. Under the direction of Pogradec's chief pediatrician, they were able to conduct interviews with nearly 100 children and their families.

They discovered that in 34 out of 94 cases the suspected cause of the handicap was a high fever when the child was under five years old. Doctors there believe those fevers were related to a custom of wrapping children aged up to three years old with plastic and blankets. Health education could therefore prevent many of the paralysis cases.

"As a result of the team's work we have an invitation to develop a research center for the handicapped," said Puanana Haug, then a leader of YWAM Pogradec. "We have already followed up with a seminar for parents of children with Cerebral Palsy," she said.

One family asked if they should take their little girl with Down's syndrome to the Mosque for "religious prayers." Sensing their deep need to hear God's answer, the team explained that man's effort to reach God is "religious," but God's love has already reached us through His Son Jesus Christ. After being introduced to Jesus, the family agreed to have the team pray in Jesus' name. "God's love was clearly revealed in their home," the team reported.

Steve Hong of Columbia University said the Albania internship was a breakthrough for him. "I have decided to become a pediatrician and a youth pastor so that I can minister to children physically and spiritually."