WorldWide Witness has canceled or postponed summer mission trips scheduled before July 1.
“The decision was made by ACU to cancel all mission experiences, including Global Service Trips and WorldWide Witness, along with all Study Abroad trips, which were planned to leave prior to July 1, 2020,” said Dodd Roberts, missions area coordinator and director for Halbert Center for Missions and Global Service.
The decision was made by ACU leadership to ensure the health and safety of all participants.
“For the missions experiences, this decision was made in consideration of the safety and well-being of ACU students, faculty, staff and alumni who were serving as trip leaders,” said Roberts, “In addition, we considered the health and well-being of the countries, host partners and locals of the receiving ministries. The Halbert Center made recommendations to ACU leadership, who made the final decision, with which we agree and support.”
Though the decision was made for the safety of those involved, students are now uncertain about completing summer internships and areas of safe service.
“I was so looking forward to my summer internship in Mexico City, and I am so sad that it has been canceled due to COVID-19,” said Lexi Jaramillo, junior ministry major from Austin. “My internship was going to be through Christian Missionary Fellowship (CMF) in which I would have been in Mexico City from May 26 through July 18. As of right now, WWW is looking for ways for each student to complete their internships, especially the juniors like me, but everything is still uncertain.”
All trips scheduled for departure after July 1 have not been canceled. The Halbert Center and ACU leadership will continue to monitor the situation when it comes to making a decision in regards to later trips.
“Trips planned to depart July 1, 2020, or later, have not been canceled,” said Roberts, “We will continue to monitor the local, national and global situation as that date approaches and determine the best course of action closer to July 1, 2020. At this time we do not have any reason to believe that circumstances related to COVID-19 will have any effect on missions experiences for the 2020-21 school year. However, we will monitor the COVID-19 situation next year and make determinations at that time.”
