As you prepare to go.... (with images, tweets) · BUMissions · Storify

After months of piddling behind the scenes with the awesome social media app Storify, Baylor Missions is happy to launch our first Storify collection today…In honor of all of our may mission teams heading out this weekend and all the buzz that is being created by students, faculty, and staff in their excitement about the journey ahead.

Got stories you want to share with us? Make sure you are using the #bumissions hashtag or follow us on twitter and Facebook so we can follow you back

Enjoy the first of many fun stories during our summer of Baylor missions -holly

In less than 24 hours, our first two baylor missions teams will head off to their international sites! Time sure has flown by the last couple of months! Seems like only yesterday we were recruiting students to join teams and dealing with the sticker shock of how much it costs to travel abroad. But, with a lot of faith, fundraising, and teamwork, we have over 230 students going on mission trips all around the world this month (that brings our participants total for 2013 to over 400 students in spring break, May, and July missions!! Amazing!) not only are there more students than EVER going to serve on behalf of Baylor missions, but we have more teams and more new locations :) we look forward to sharing the stories, pictures, and videos of these teams throughout the summer, especially the next couple of weeks.

To follow our teams, follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bumissions

Or even on Instagram at www.instagram.com/bumissions

For a look at all our team blogs check out: http://www.baylor.edu/spirituallife/index.php?id=81903

We thank you for your prayers and support as we continue to see students go…and be transformed :)

Holly Widick
Coordinator for Global Missions
(Live from Nairobi, Kenya!)

(Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya photo credit: Madeline Mohr, Baylor International Studies Major) Read her story here

One of the best things you can do to prepare for your upcoming mission trip is to do a little research on the people & places you’re going to encounter. If you’re anything like me, the word RESEARCH makes you cringe…so think of this more as EXPLORING :) The internet has some GREAT..and not so great…resources to help you learn about the communities you’ll be visiting. I, personally, am a visual learner, so I like to find documentaries and photography to start learning about a culture. Then, I move my way into articles and new stories. Look for credible sources and seek out the stories of locals vs. outsiders (when you can). 

This summer, over 130 Baylor students, faculty, staff, and alumni will be going to Nairobi, Kenya (in addition to our other 12 locations worldwide!) So I am doing a little research today on Kibera & thought I’d share some of my best finds with you :)

One of the most interesting/challenging places in Kenya that you might see up close or from afar is Kibera Slum. There are approx 2.5 million slum dwellers in about 200 settlements in Nairobi representing 60% of the Nairobi population, occupying just 6% of the land. Kibera houses almost 1 Million of these people. Kibera is the biggest slum in Africa and one of the biggest in the world. (http://www.kibera.org.uk/Facts.html )

There is a very high possibility that you will meet someone who grew up/lives in Kibera, so having a background on the community comes in very helpful! ALSO, the edge of Kibera is less than 4km away from the hotel that most of us will be staying at…so you’ll drive past the outskirts on almost a daily basis.

VIDEOS:
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/international/2012/06/04/inside-africa-kenya-slum-market-business-kibera-a.cnn.html

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2012/06/04/inside-africa-kenya-kibera-slum-b.cnn#/video/bestoftv/2012/06/04/inside-africa-kenya-kibera-slum-b.cnn

Walking through Kibera for the first time was one of the most difficult and challenging experiences of my life, mostly because I had no context for what I was walking into. I didn’t do my research :( . Walking through winding rows of shanty houses made of anything & everything with rusted tin roofs, the crowded streets covered in trash and waste water, and the overwhelming smell of sewage is forever burned into my memory. We were invited into the home of one of the church members from City Harvest Church (one of Baylor’s Global Partners in Nairobi). The front door was actually the storefront for the family’s small business that sold SIM cards and minutes for cell phones. We had to climb/walk in one by one because there was no way that we could all fit in the house that was smaller than the size of my bedroom for a family of 4+.  I was in shock, for sure, and started to feel very guilty about American lifestyle where I have so much and waste so much. However, guilt is not a helpful emotion, nor is pity. I needed to move beyond those feelings and move towards compassion and true care for our global partners. While poverty is great in Kibera, Hope and trust in God to provide and care is much stronger among that community. I have learned so much about God through the faith of my Kibera friends. I’ve also learned about resourcefulness, thankfulness, resilience, and the importance of being a good steward of our resources—no matter how big or how small. 

If Kibera teaches us anything, I hope it challenges our values. How will the experience affect your relationships with your possessions, your family/friends, and God?  How will the experience shift your priorities & opinions about those in poverty?

Enjoy your digital exploration! You’ll be in Kenya sooner than you can say Twende, Twende!! (aka let’s go!)

Holly Widick
Coordinator for Global Missions
missions@baylor.edu

So I know that we talk about Global Missions on our tumblr a lot..but Baylor Missions is SO MUCH MORE than that. We also have opportunities for students to serve the Waco community on a weekly basis through our URBAN MISSIONS teams!

Today, we want to share a story from one of our Urban Missions Team participants on why they choose to volunteer EVERY WEEK with the Friends for Life (FFL) Urban Missions team. Check it out:

“I began volunteering as a way to get involved at Baylor and because my Welcome Week leader was also the leader for special needs. The more I went to Friends for Life the more I loved the people I was volunteering with both from Baylor and at FFL. The first time that I had to miss FFL and someone at FFL asked another volunteer where I was, I realized that the people at FFL had become more than people I volunteered for but rather my friends. Not only did the people at FFL get excited to do a craft and hang out, but I had come to love hanging out with them, and was sad when I couldn’t go. Now every week I get to go to FFL with some of my best friends at Baylor and hang out with more of my friends in the community. Not only do you get to bring a smile to someone else, but going to FFL makes me smile. That’s why I volunteer with Baylor Urban Missions. -Brett Harper (Senior, Baylor Business Fellows)

want to join FFL? Or another Urban Missions team? email us at urbanmissions@baylor.edu 

Read Emily’s story “Why I Go Back” below! We LOVE that our Baylor students commit to serving multiple years with our missions partners.

Last May, I remember walking down that dirt slope path between the same shack houses and turning around the corner, where about 50 anxious Ghanian kids were waiting for our Baylor team to finally arrive. I had been looking forward to this moment of seeing those precious children again all year, who I had prayed for and missed so much. Finally I was going to be surrounded by their laughter and smiles again, after an entire year of wondering how they had been doing. In my first moment of being back at the orphanage, my fifteen year old friend Francisca was waiting at the entrance to tell me that she had skipped school that day to see if I would come back again to see her and that she had missed me so very much. Moments later, I started recognizing dozens of little faces running around and jumping into our arms, desperately wanting that love and care that they yearned for so much.

The past two summers, I have had the incredibly opportunity of going to Ghana through Baylor Spiritual Life, and honestly it has become one of the most important parts of my Baylor story and what has shaped me into who I am. We go with several different missions in mind, but one of the most important is to go to All Nations orphanage and love on a group of kids who come from circumstances where they aren’t used to getting a lot of individual love. But regardless of how little they have materially or even how much love they have received in their pasts, these kids run around with a joy and a desire to learn about Christ in ways I have never seen before. I will be honest and say that my heart has been broken for these kids so much the past two summers, and sometimes I feel so powerless that all I can do is sit and ask God, “Why them?” But when I watch them sing and worship their Heavenly Father with their whole hearts, or get to share scripture with them, or hold them in my arms as they fall asleep, or even cheer them on as they kick around a soccer ball, I find that the Lord has blessed All Nations with hope amidst the suffering, and I have confidence that He is watching over those children and keeping His promises to protect His children each and every day.

-Emily Sue Hood (Ghana Community Development Team 2011, 2012, AND 2013!)

“One of the men that we work with in Kenya is Boniface. He basically gave up everything he had to live for God by leading a street ministry. And when I say everything, I mean everything. With no real source of income, Boniface faithfully relies on God to provide for him, his wife and 2 boys, and the young men he takes off the streets. His house, land, car, kids’ tuition and more are all things that he would have never gotten if it had not been for his faith. While we were in Kenya, there was a pretty bad flood near his country home that caused him to drive his truck into a ditch. So with no way to get back & forth to the street kids, our team pitched in to raise some money that amazingly was enough to fix his car, and pay for his kids’ tuitions. I’ve never seen someone so thankful for our support and its just amazing how he has helped transform our lives and that God gave us an opportunity to help him out too.” -Zoe Adom of the Kenya Sports Team

To learn more about Baylor Sports Ministry in Africa, check out the 2013 team here: http://www.baylor.edu/spirituallife/index.php?id=77588

for more stories from 2012, check out:

http://www.baylorbears.com/sportsministry/

“If I had to choose one story to share from my trip it would have to be my experience working in the Pharmacy at the hospital. I spent a few days working there and compounded a few different medicines and on days that the pharmacy wasn’t too busy I spent the entire morning talking to the pharmacists and techs there discussing topics ranging from their culture to even soccer. From this experience I got to learn more about Ghana and its culture than I probably would have been able to from a book or class.” -Raul Medellin of the Ghana Leadership Team (Health & Wellness Focus)

to learn more about this team, check out: http://www.baylor.edu/engage/index.php?id=89590

“When we were in Musanze, Rwanda we ran across a deaf school in the village. Being in Rwanda, it was hard to communicate with most people because of the language barrier, but to me it seemed like I could communicate even more with the deaf children, and they couldn’t even hear me! It’s amazing how much we communicate through actions. The children were so loving—hugging us all and smiling! We took the older kids to play soccer, and I chose to sit on the sidelines with a girl who also had a leg problem. Most of the other girls came and joined us. They taught me games they play and I also learned a little bit about them. I only had that short time with them, but they already took a piece of my heart. It was so sad to say goodbye to them!” -Mariava Keith of the Rwanda Community Development Team

To learn more about the Rwanda Community Development Team, check out http://www.baylor.edu/spirituallife/index.php?id=77570