World Wide Witness students gathered in Moody Coliseum during Chapel for their official send-off on Friday. 

Thirty students will travel to various locations across the globe for mission work. 

World Wide Witness has partnered with missionaries for 18 years, with more than 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students involved.

Comprised of 25 percent medical and nursing majors, 15 percent Bible majors, 15 percent psychology and social work majors, 10 percent business majors and 35 percent miscellaneous majors, the ministry is not limited to one group of people or specific majors, said Larry Henderson, adjunct professor of Bible, missions and ministry and director of World Wide Witness.

Henderson said around 40-45 different majors are involved in global trips, and the trips can be individualized based on what the students prefer.

This opportunity sends teams of two people to different locations to serve.

“By doing this, it helps us communicate with locals by eating their food, speaking their language and learning their culture,” Henderson said. “We truly want to come and serve under their leadership.”

Henderson said the students are partnered with supervisors in the places they are assigned to live. This provides the opportunity for them to be taught and mentored while also being integrated into the surrounding culture. 

In his 35 years of serving as an intern host, Henderson said it is rewarding to see people able to worship and work in a context and a culture that is completely different.

“It was most rewarding to see the lights come on in the hearts of college students,” Henderson said.

Lauren Meandro, senior multimedia major from Austin, will go to Nairobi, Kenya, for the summer as a filmmaker intern for Made in the Streets, an organization that serves children in Nairobi.

“I will work to relay stories from around the organization, through short documentary-style films, to those who cannot be there to serve physically,” Meandro said. 

Meandro said being involved with WWW is meaningful because she felt called to combine multimedia and missions for about five years and is excited to step into it.

Joel Moschetta, sophomore biblical text major from Cypress, will go to Nairobi, Kenya, from June 25 to Aug. 6.

Moschetta said this ministry opportunity is something he’s looked forward to.

“When I visited ACU as a senior in high school, I went to the WWW breakout session and heard Henderson’s inspiring story of being a missionary in Thailand for 35 years,” Moschetta said. “It was such a great opportunity and it was one the reasons I came to ACU.”

Moschetta said his excitement for experience stems from the opportunity to work with high school students at bettering their English by guiding them in the reading of the Gospel of Luke.

Students will leave for their summer destinations depending on when each site needs help. 

WWW begins recruiting for the summer of 2020 next fall and Henderson will teach the training course, BMIS 391, offered in spring of 2020.