After the second semester each academic year, Providence Christian College administers a three-week May term.  This abbreviated, intensive term gives students the opportunity to experience many varied and unusual contexts with high caliber faculty.  This May term students participated in May term courses studying ghost towns, Belizean culture, and Asian cultures.  Read on for summaries of these experiences.

Following in Twain's Footsteps

May term offered: Ghost Towns

Faculty: Dr. Aaron Belz, English Professor

Participating students: Adrian Crum, Jana Crum, Michelle Green, Emily Van Dyke

By: Emily Van Dyke

This Ghost Town May Term brought three other students, Dr. Belz and me on a journey through California and parts of Nevada exploring historical sites and old mining towns.

We packed all of our gear into the back of a suburban on May 8, 2009, and spent the next 10 days driving through California and parts of Nevada, camping in the wild, reading Mark Twain’s Roughing It and searching for old ghost towns.

We spent our days exploring and hiking around places like Barnwell, Old Ivanpah, the Providence Mountains, Panamint City and Bodie. Our long drives were filled with discussions about the literary genius of Mark Twain’s writing and listening to Dr. Belz explain the mechanics of the old printing press, details of Twain’s life, and why we needed to listen to the Beatles.

We read Roughing It while we experienced “roughing it” ourselves, equipped with tents, sleeping bags, portable pots and pans and enough ramen noodles to keep us alive for years. We read about Mark Twain’s nights in the empty, rough wild while we sat around campfires under the brilliant stars in the middle of the desert, surrounded by many terrifying things like wild bears and cougars, I’m sure, armed with our pepper spray and a snake bite kit, which included a nifty little device called “The Extractor.”

My favorite part of this trip, second only to stopping at adorable little coffee shops, was the way we learned about the old West by reading and experiencing at the same time. As we read about Twain’s experiences in places in California and Nevada like Mono Lake, Death Valley, Lake Tahoe and Virginia City in Roughing It, we were there, camping on the Shore of Mono Lake, swimming in Lake Tahoe, sweltering in Death Valley. As we read about the activities and tragedies of life in the mining towns, we spent time exploring the places of those events. I was able to read about the history of the early West while I camped and hiked where it had taken place. Reading Twain while we traveled and explored opened my eyes so that the old stone foundation I saw in the Providence mountains or modern Virginia City had a story behind it, a vitality to it, because through Twain, I was able to be in on a history filled with personality and life that had happened in the place we were able to visit through our Ghost Towns May Term.

Cross Cultural Ministry in the Belizean Context

May term offered: Cross Cultural Ministry: Belize

Faculty: Mr. Steve Kortenhoeven, Education Professor

Participating students: Bekah DeRuiter, Jennifer Ellis, Justin Kay, Tim Scheuers, Ruby Snieder, Chad Tyler, Josh Van Grouw, Brian Vanden Heuvel 

By: Justin Bleeker

13 days of new experiences, challenges, and rewards would be a general way of describing the Belize May term group’s trip to Central America. 

After a flight to Belize City via Dallas, the group settled in for a two hour bus ride to Corozal, a town of 8,000 in northern Belize 15 minutes from the Mexican border.  The Hok Ol Kin Hotel was the group’s humble abode for the two week stint serving as a base for rest and relaxation and for excursions into the city.  It was also located on the Caribbean Sea providing beautiful, scenic views from the room balconies.

The Providence students had opportunity to serve in a variety of capacities such as construction work, vacation bible school, and encouraging the local church leaders during the two week trip.  A good share of time was spent at CornerstonePresbyterianHigh School painting, cleaning, laying rebar and concrete, and moving dirt.  In the second week of the trip, the Providence students also worked at the Christian school in Conception cleaning and painting for the school.  Each afternoon would culminate in a three hour VBS program- the first week in the village of Cristo Rey; the second week in the village of Xiabe.  Through these VBSs, the Providence group was able to articulate the Gospel message to many kids and encourage the local church.

Another aspect of the May term experience was for students to learn about the Belizean culture.  Students traveled to the Lamanai Mayan ruins via a 30 mile trek down the New River.  While at Lamanai, students were able to see a rich, deep history of the Mayan people as well as understanding the Mayan influence in the Belizean culture yet today. Many forms of Belizean wildlife were also observed such as crocodiles, monkeys, iguanas, and a wide variety of birds.

Overall, students were challenged in their views of culture and cross cultural ministry.  Much of the week of reflection upon the return to the United States was spent discussing the utility of short term mission trips, cross cultural experiences, and the students’ interactions with the Belizean local people and the missionaries there.