MUKONO, Uganda— The CCCU’s Student Academic Programs Commission (SAPC) recently approved a new Intercultural Ministry/Missions Emphasis within the Uganda Studies Program (USP), a BestSemester student program of the CCCU in partnership with Uganda Christian University. This new emphasis will be available for students beginning in the fall 2007 semester.

Students in this new concentration will complete the required USP Seminar, a required missions course, two core courses of their choice and one elective of their choice for a total of 16 credits. Additionally, students in the Intercultural Ministry/Missions Emphasis will live the entire semester with a Ugandan host family. Students will live close enough to walk to the university and live as their host family lives. Life with a Ugandan family will include eating Ugandan staple foods (beans, rice, potatoes, etc.), bathing from a bucket, and having limited communication (internet is available on campus, but not in homes), among other challenges. The majority of homes will have electricity, but most will not have indoor plumbing.

Students will also develop a plan for creatively engaging the community in which they live. Whether they develop relationships with children, shopkeepers, mothers or other groups in the neighborhood, participants will experience the challenges and successes of relational ministry in a foreign culture. This entire setting is designed for students intending to minister or live cross-culturally in the future.

Travel for the Intercultural Ministry/Missions Emphasis is specifically designed for students interested in cross-cultural ministry. In addition to experiencing different parts of Uganda and East Africa, students will see firsthand how a variety of internationals are living out their faith in this context. They will visit a collection of mission organizations as well as organizations run by Africans. From medical organizations dealing with the AIDS epidemic to evangelistic missions, students will be exposed to the wide variety of kingdom work being done in Uganda.

“We started the Intercultural Ministry & Missions Emphasis because many students attending the USP are interested in long-term missions/development work,” says USP director Mark Bartels. “While we touch on many relevant topics in the general program, we wanted to help students with long-term interest in missions discern more about their future. By staying with host families for the whole semester and visiting many different missionaries and organizations, we hope to really help students discern whether or not missions/intercultural ministry is something they want to pursue in the future. The different experiences are meant to push students in ways they would be pushed in real-life, long-term, cross-cultural settings.”

The 12 semester- or summer-long student programs offered by the CCCU are categorized as either culture-shaping programs or culture-crossing programs. Culture-shaping programs are: American Studies Program (Washington, D.C.); Contemporary Music Center (Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.); Los Angeles Film Studies Center (L.A., Calif.); and Washington Journalism Center (Washington, D.C.). Included in the culture-crossing programs are: Australia Studies Centre; China Studies Program; Latin American Studies Program; Middle East Studies Program; Programmes in Oxford; Russian Studies Program; and Uganda Studies Program. All programs undergo regular site visit evaluations by the Student Academic Programs Commission (SAPC).

 

The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is a higher education association of 182 intentionally Christ-centered institutions around the world. There are now 105 member campuses in North America and all are fully-accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities with curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. In addition, 72 affiliate campuses from 24 countries are part of the CCCU. The Council’s mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help its institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth.

 

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