Here in Minnesota, January is typically the coldest month of the year, and I’ll admit that our students do a better job than I at embracing this weather—playing broomball, taking a course in downhill skiing, or sledding down seminary hill on dining trays. Some escape the cold for the three-week period—interim by studying abroad, but the reasons for offering these international options go far beyond escaping bad weather.

One of our core values is that we would be world-changers, preparing graduates who will shape and change the world through exemplary leadership in the church and throughout society. Because of our faith, we want our students to gain a passion for how their greatest desires can meet the world’s greatest needs, with the ultimate goal of spreading the Good News and caring for the “least of these,” whether that is here in Minnesota or across the ocean.

January interim courses are helping our College of Arts & Sciences students to grow in ways that simply can’t be replicated in a classroom. Take, for example, these classes:

• Band of Brothers: A Study of Uncommon Leadership (Europe)
• Christian Social Justice: Issues and Praxis in a Global Context (Cambodia)
• Cultural Diversity in Health Care (Uganda and United Arab Emirates)

I get chills (and not from the cold) when I think about the experiences our students are having right now, meeting people of other cultures, seeing places and studying events that have changed our world forever, and learning how they can be world-changers. I know there are many students whose lives have been forever changed by these three-week immersion opportunities—some have developed such strong passions for other countries and cultures that they have returned to those areas after graduation to live, work, and minister.

And students don’t travel abroad just during interim. We have students from all areas of Bethel: from the seminary where several San Diego students recently went to Uganda to train pastors, to the Graduate School where MBA students have traveled to China to learn about international business leadership, to record numbers of undergraduate students studying abroad throughout the year and serving on spring break trips.

And you don’t have to leave the Twin Cities to become a world-changer. Students are learning, living with, and ministering to people from all walks of life and cultures in the Twin Cities area through Twin Cities Outreach. We hope the cumulative outcome of these experiences is that our students will not just learn about the world, but gain a passion for how they can change it.