NU Vision School Course Brings Missions into Focus

At the beginning of the 2016-17 school year, Northwest University started hosting a course called Vision School. These classes are designed to teach students how to fulfill the Great Commission through short-term missions. On Tues. Feb. 28, the first Vision School class of the spring semester met under the library in Hurst 116.

Organized by junior Mary Kim and co-led by freshman Saniya Nov, Vision School will also be taught by Vision School leaders from other college campuses. Vision School is an affiliate of the missions organization, InterCP, which partners with churches and other Christian organizations to creatively spread the Gospel. The goal of InterCP is to achieve rapid global evangelization. Both InterCP and student missionaries will teach topics such as spiritual gifts, unreached people groups, and world missions history. Classes are held Tuesday nights from 6:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m. The eight week long course culminates with a two-to-three week long mission trip. A fee of $140 for adults or $120 for college students is required to register for the course.

Vision School is offered both fall and spring semester at NU. The fall semester course includes a short-term mission trip over winter break, while the spring course prepares students for a summer mission trip.

Kim decided to start hosting Vision School at NU after getting involved with InterCP ministries in high school. Participating in missions was a very eye-opening experience for Kim and she hopes to offer the same experience to other students at NU.

“I think it’s very relevant [for] a lot of our student body [because] we can tend to be so focused on our [own lives] and tend to forget about the world around us”, Kim said.

At the end of every training course, Vision School sends missionaries to the 10/40 window to preach the Gospel.

According to intercp.org, the 10/40 window is “the geographical region of North Africa, the Middle East and Asia that lies between 10 and 40 degree north latitudes.”

This term was created by Dr. Luis Bush to describe the area of the world which is most unreached by the Gospel.

Along with Vision School’s short-term mission trips, InterCP also offers long-term mission trips exclusively for college students. Student Missions are year-long mission trips that can be completed during a gap year. While the general length of these missions are one year, students also have the option of staying longer, up to two years total.

“Student missions is very unique in that we send these young four college students or five college students in a team and they go and essentially they make their own ministry,” said Kim.

Student missions trips are very open-ended, but have only one goal: to plant a church. Students can use any type of ministry to determine how that church is planted.

According to Kim, church planting includes two components: evangelism and discipleship. Team members use outlets such as media, festivals, and skits to spread the Gospel. Discipleship among missionaries and church members happens through Bible study, prayer and worship.

On her student mission, Kim traveled to Turkey. She described the Student missions experience as “100% training, 100% ministry” because while participants are training in ministry, they are also applying that training to the projects which they are involved in.

“I recommend that you come ready with an open heart and willingness to hear and listen,” advised Kim.

Kim also encouraged others to step out of their comfort zones.

“I think this is a crucial time for you to be challenged and also stretched as a believer and to really step out in faith because I think there are a lot of fears and a lot of doubts that people have. But when…you receive the Father’s heart, you know perfect love drives out all fear,” said Kim.

For more information about Vision School, Student Missions, and other ICP ministries, visit www.intercp.org.