High School juniors and seniors take notice: An experience of a lifetime!

Study online at a university level, live in another culture, encounter God in new ways, learn to speak a second language, and make new friends for a lifetime!

Sound exciting and adventurous? Well it is! Hi, I’m Lowell Troyer, and I am the Vice President of Field Operations for Students International. I am super excited about this opportunity for young adults that have finished high school and are looking for what God has next for them. This is a unique opportunity for students that feel God may be calling them to some type of ministry in the future, or that God may be calling them to do something non-traditional. This is one of the most transformational programs that we have going with Students International right now

Here are five reasons why you should consider signing up for this program

1. The Global Bridge program gives you the opportunity to live in a close-knit community. This program offers students an intimate group setting where you can leave home, but still be guided and learn form others and in way that just can’t happen even in the smallest college. You get to live in a very unique setting, a home set up as a college dorm, in the middle of a rural mountain village near Antigua, Guatemala. You learn to live life with this small community of no more than 20 students for nine months. You will study, share, laugh, cry, excel, struggle, and learn who God really is. It is an experience that most students never have the opportunity to do.
2. The Global Bridge program gives you the opportunity to live in another culture. You can confidently know that you will be safe and have leaders to guide you as you live and experience another culture in a real way. Parents can send their sons and daughters and know that they are not going to get lost in the shuffle and rigor of life. You can leave the comforts of home and yet be surrounded by people that are caring for you in a way that you could not get on any college or university campus in the United Sates.
3. The Global Bridge program will give you opportunities to do hands on ministry. The program works alongside the structure that SI has created that has both missionaries from North America and nationals that have grown up in the country you are living in serving in the ministry. You will have opportunities to do occupational ministry alongside of these missionaries. It will give you an opportunity to see what type of work God may be calling you to in the future. Sometimes you find that you thought you would be like to work in one area, but after trying it find that it is not where God is calling you at all. The other might also happen, that you thought you could never do a that for a career and after having the chance to do it, find that you want to go and make that part of your life for the future. This is an experience to work alongside people that can help you seek what God would be calling you to for the rest of your life.
4. The Global Bridge program gives you the opportunity to study on line. Most programs that would contain the first three opportunities would not have an academic component. You can be a part of this amazing community and at the same time not lose anytime toward your academic goals for your life. This program is designed alongside Crown College to give you all the academic structure you need to study while living cross-culturally in another country.
5. The Global Bridge program has great leadership. I have personally known the leaders, Ed and Mable Mendoza, for more than 30 years. They officially joined SI in January of 2016 to help further develop and lead this program. Ed has 35 years of experience in Education. He has been a teacher, principal, administrator, coach, and bus driver. He has a huge desire to see students grow academically, emotionally, and spiritually. His wife, Mable, has a servant’s heart and has been trained as a lay counselor by their local church in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She also has a passion for teaching Bible Studies. Now who would not want to be mentored in a very personal way for almost nine months by these two incredible leaders? It truly is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Let me share now in a personal way. I have personally been able to pour into this program for almost five years. Just like in any development of a program we have had our challenges. A few weeks ago, though, I had the privilege to be a part of the weeklong orientation for the 12 students that joined the program this year. After pouring myself into helping develop this program for almost five years now and finally seeing it developed as intended from the beginning has been very fulfilling and emotional for me. The GB program is a vision that God had given us for students that fits SI’s vision and mission statement perfectly. So now seeing the lives of 12 young adults being transformed into the likeness of Christ is very exciting. I could not help but to tear up and be in total awe of the faithfulness of God. The first two years there were 5 students in the GB program and now this year there are 12. What a blessing and gift from the Lord.

We are dreaming of 20 students next year here in Guatemala, which is our maximum. If you have any interest in this, then go to our SI Global Bridge Facebook page and see what the twelve students are experiencing this year. Also, check out our website. If you have questions or think this may be what God is calling you to, please contact Rebecca Keiser.