Trevecca students ‘Submerged,’ ‘Immersed’ in missions

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Zagreb, Croatia

Trevecca Nazarene University partnered with the Central Europe Field to establish two study programs that provide students and alumni with hands-on mission experience.

This past June, Trevecca’s two-week “Submerge” program allowed students to tour Central Europe while they conducted vacation Bible schools and camps in various communities, including two Roma villages near Croatia's capital city, Zagreb.

Teanna Sunberg, a missionary in Central Europe, and Cathy Mowry, a Trevecca professor, wanted students to observe other cultures and to dialogue and connect with the people. The trip was meant to open the door of relationship and trust among the communities while enabling the students to better understand the cultures they were submerged in.

The students felt especially drawn to the Roma people, which Sunberg says is a neglected subculture in most European countries. They spent time conducting VBS and camps among the Roma children.

"This group of people is so neglected and put off to the side," said Stephanie Sherwood, a two-year Trevecca alumnus who is volunteering in Croatia. "They just need love. And that’s easy to do. We just show them love."

Submerge began in 2010 and will be held every two years. The students travelled to various areas where the Croatian population is responding positively to the Church of the Nazarene.

This summer’s students processed their experiences through a class taught by Trevecca professor and chaplain Tim Green. The class incorporated their field work into the paradigm of social justice issues in the Church, such as those faced by the Old Testament prophets.

While Submerge lasts just two weeks, a secondary program, Immerse, involves students and alumni in an international mission experience that could lasts anywhere from 12 weeks to more than a year. 

Through Immerse, Sherwood and fellow alumnus Ben Ponder embraced the challenge to live in the city of Zagreb, Croatia, as Nazarene volunteers, establishing continuity between visits from the short-term Submerge teams. 

Working alongside Dave and Betsy Scott, Nazarene missionaries to Croatia, Sherwood and Ponder spend half of their time in CÂÂÂŒakovec, a small village about an hour from the city of Zagreb, at a dairy farm where they assist the farmers in order to build relationships with the community.

This relational model also translates to the city. From her small flat in Zagreb, Sherwood spoke of the team's plan to meet and get to know youth by offering alternatives to the typical night life scene in the city. As a first step, the volunteers began to open their homes for people to simply come and hang out.

"They loved it." said Betsy Scott. "They would text us every week asking, 'What are we doing this Thursday?' We would have up to 15 people in our home just getting to know each other and hanging out." 

The volunteers and missionaries in Croatia are serving through relationship and love.

"We are trying to seek out what the role of the Church of the Nazarene has in these villages," said Scott. "How can we both come alongside with what people are already doing, but then ask, what are the needs that people aren’t reaching and how can we help fulfill them?" 

The first Trevecca alumni to join the field’s efforts to relaunch the Church of the Nazarene in Croatia did so in 2011 through 365M, Nazarene Theological Seminary's intercultural studies program.
--Church of the Nazarene Eurasia Region

 

< back to Eurasia

next article >