Student Open Enrollment
Our trips leave from Denver and go to Costa Rica or Ecuador. This is a good option for high school students 14-18 years old that would like to meet other like minded young people. Students need to arrange their own transportation to Denver the day before the flight for trip orientation.
What are the trips like?
All the open enrollment trips include: community service, Spanish lessons, Christian growth activities, and adventure travel.
Service and Spanish
Students will have the opportunity of serving and interacting with a rural community while in Latin America. Our community service focuses on relationships and allows cross cultural friendships to form. Students will organize and host a day camp that serves children in the local community. A day camp involves doing art, singing, playing soccer, or other activities that enrich the lives of the children. It is a great time to practice speaking Spanish and because of the natural openness of Latin American children, connections can be formed even with limited Spanish speaking skills. In addition to being immersed in a Spanish speaking culture, small group Spanish lessons are given. We have found that even students who have never enjoyed studying Spanish look forward to their lessons while in Latin America. Learning Spanish is the first step in forming cross cultural friendships and imperative for any cross cultural work or in the Spanish speaking community back home.
Christian Growth
God lives in our hearts and gives us a desire to serve others and lead them into new amazing learning experiences. The spiritual learning that takes place on a trip to Latin America may involve putting love into action, humility, learning to listen, seeing Jesus in the “poor,” or understanding better our own spiritual poverty and need for a savior. Our Christian values are lived out. We struggle to create an authentic, loving environment that nurtures each person into a better relationship with God and others. As 1 John 3:14 says “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other...”
Our focus is that students experience Christ's transforming love through serving others, a local church service, reflection time, prayer, or just the smile on a child's face. Open enrollment trips include a time of reflection, worship, and Bible study that is designed to disciple students into a closer relationship with God.
Adventure Travel
Latin America has many exciting and fun things to do and see that include: the Andes, colonial buildings, rainforests, diverse native cultures, arts and crafts markets, coffee and cacao plantations, white water rafting, waterfalls, beaches, and the list goes one. We pick adventure travel activities we feel are safe and beneficial for the group and which allow them to see different parts of the country. For more specific information see the trip itineraries for Costa Rica and Ecuador.
