A B O U T • M I N I S T RY hood Church of Greenwich Village, where they also prepared some meals. “The outings were fabulous,” said Rohe. “Going out into the city was so much fun… The food was amazing. We had the chance to eat at all kinds of restaurants, and we cooked our own meals sometimes too.” Nick Nowalk, a Christian Union ministry fellow at Harvard, said ministering in Manhattan worked better in many
regards for Harvard students than the usual college road trip to Florida. “It’s a lot closer to Boston,” Nowalk said. “And [urban people] are the type of people that many of these students are going to be around in the future in terms of serving, worshipping, and working.” By Catherine Elvy, Staff Writer
NO MAGIC KINGDOM Spring Break Trip Is an Eye-Opening Experience A group of Dartmouth College students redents face in their daily lives are “very manageable.” Some ceived a snapshot view of the complexities of commented that the situations they encountered in OrDARTMOUTH poverty during a recent venture to Orlando. lando’s urban core were so enormous that “only God could bring hope,” said Gillespie, Brown ’02. Sixteen students and four staffers from Christian Impact (www.dartmouthci.org) spent their spring break working Bethany Mills, Dartmouth ’10, agreed. “A lot of us had with Campus Crusade for Christ’s urban ministry, Here’s our eyes opened to the situations of poverty in America,” Life Inner City (www.hlic.org). said Mills, a classical languages and literatures major. “For many of our students, it was really an eye-opening Ryan Bouton (Dartmouth ’01), a staffer with Christian experience – how complex the problem of poverty and the Impact, echoed those comments, calling the missionary simplicity of what people need,” said Faye Gillespie, a work a “particularly powerful time for the students. A lot staffer with Christian Impact. of them were challenged to think about what they would do “Genuine compassion and care really can make a difwith their lives.” ference in people’s lives.” The preparations and long drive also provided a powerThe students made a nearly thirty-hour trip to the Here’s ful opportunity for bonding between the students. Life Inner City (HLIC) outreach. Through the organiza“We learned a lot about fellowship and community as tion’s Urban Immersion program, the team worked with a we prepared for the trip, meeting for a few Bible studies variety of area ministries to and training sessions,” said help the homeless, at-risk Mills. “We got to know children, and other strugeach other really quickly, gling individuals. and we spent a lot of the “Our purpose was to time talking about what give our students, who God has done in our lives generally come from and what he might have in upper-middle-class backstore for the future.” grounds, exposure to God’s Likewise, staffers with heart for the poor,” GilleChristian Impact, Cruspie said. “They saw a sade’s outreach at Dartlevel of poverty and hopemouth, said they especially lessness that is particularly wanted to help create a heartbreaking.” sense of community among Sixteen students and four staffers from Campus Crusade for The trip was especially students during the getChrist at Dartmouth spent Spring Break this year in Orlando, eye-opening because many away in late March. Florida, ministering in the inner-city. of the problems the stu“It was really neat to
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The Ivy League Christian Observer