Serve people with developmental disabilities in the redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains, California, living out the love of Jesus Christ 24 hours a day. Activities experienced with the developmentally disabled include worshiping God through song and praise, hiking, swimming, arts and crafts, a trip on the Roaring Railroad and more. Special Friends offers individuals an opportunity to gain leadership skills while growing spiritually as we form a close community with campers and other servants. Come ready to be thoroughly exhausted in service and relationship. Developmentally disabled includes adults – some with special needs that servants are invited to help attend to.

Senior high, older adults, families

1010 E. Yandell Drive
El Paso, TX  79902
Phone:  915/544-6545
Fax:  915/532-0524


Contact:  Pastor Rose Mary Sanchez-Guzman

The Border Immersion experience offers a time to step out of everyday life out of comfort zones and into in-depth, experiential learning and cultural immersion. Participants worship with the Cristo Rey congregation; hear personal accounts of border life; work with youth at the church's after school program; visit the colonias of Juarez, Chihuahua and El Paso, Texas; listen to presentations from people involved in social justice ministries and experience Mexican and Mexican-American culture. Come to the border. Come to be changed.

Intergenerational, high school, young adults, older adults, families, clergy, seminarians
Year-round
Scheduled at request of participant group
Custom-designed

6650 Montezume Road
San Diego, CA  92115-2828
Phone:  619/227-4644


Contact: Rev. Bill and Ann Bruggerman

(T.W.O)

T.W.O invites you to cross borders - international ones and personal ones. Come immerse yourself in the life and culture of Mexico. T.W.O arranges three-six day "Transformative Education" trips which begin in San Diego, California, and cross the border into Tijuana and Tecate, Mexico. There we visit persons, places, and projects to put a face on global issues such as hunger, poverty, trade and immigration. Work and service projects like house construction or helping out an orphanage are often part of the experience. Trips, however, will be custom designed to fit the interest and needs of those visiting. Bible studies will guide us as we explore solutions to these complicated current issues and discover partnerships that might make them happen. At the same time, we will get to enjoy the beauty and traditions of Mexico. Expect to go home with homework that can last the rest of your life.

Additional trips can be aranged crossing the border in Texas as well as to Guatemala. For those not having passports, we can now also offer similiar service/learning opportunities on the U.S. side of the border as well.

Come Learn! come serve! come make a difference in your life and the life of your neighbors.

Year-round
Senior high, young adults, intergenerational, older adults

3383 Sweet Hollow Road
Big Island, VA  24526
Phone:  800/333-4597 or 434/299-5956
Fax:  434/299-5949


Contact: Steven M. Waldmann

Gleaning is the Biblical practice of hand gathering crops left after harvest. The Gleaning Network coordinates volunteer gleaners, growers, and distribution agencies to provide fresh produce for America's hungry people. Growers offer their fields and orchards for hand gleaning by volunteers from church, schools, civic and other groups. The salvaged produce is donated to local food banks, shelters, soup kitchens and other agencies for free distribution to hungry children and adults. Tens of thousands of volunteers each year hand pick more than 15 million pounds of food to help relieve hunger in their own communities. The Gleaning Network operates in Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and in selected areas of 20 states. Interested groups should contact the Society of St. Andrew office for information about gleaning in their area.

Year-round
Junior high, senior high, young adults, intergenerational, older adults

Harvest of Hope Mission Work Camps

Harvest of Hope provides gleaning and study mission work camps that educate youth and adults about the realities of hunger, its causes and effects. Harvest of Hope combines gleaning (salvaging fresh vegetables and fruits from fields to provide food to hungry people,) activities that help explore hunger issues and worship to build a Christian community of service to help meet the needs of those in our world who live with hunger and poverty. Harvest of Hope provides participants with a basis for an ongoing commitment to responsible living in a hungry world. Designed for youth, young adults and intergenerational groups, weekend and weeklong mission work camps are conducted in the summer and fall at various locations. Interested groups should contact the Society of St. Andrew office early in the year to register for Harvest of Hope.

Junior high, senior high, young adults, intergenerational, older adults

1660 Ogden Street
Denver, CO  80218
Phone:  303/894-0076
Fax:  303/894-0076


Contact: Laura Folkwein

Urban Plunge is a life-changing experience for youth and adults. Plunges take place on weekends during the school year and weeks during spring and summer breaks. On this journey, participants are immersed into the city of Denver to learn about homelessness and poverty and how to put their faith into action. The schedule includes service work, group reflection, devotions, prayer, a chance to eat at an ethnic restaurant and worship in a congregation different from their own tradition.

Year-round
Junior high, senior high, young adults, intergenerational
Custom-designed

Urban Servant Corps

The Urban Servant Corps (USC) is a Lutheran volunteer program involved in ministries serving inner-city Denver. USC provides 18-24 full-time volunteers to community service agencies. These agencies provide stability to the most volatile people in the neighborhood, such as people who are homeless, women and children living in poverty and kids living in "at-risk" environments. The overall goal of the USC is to minister to the needs of people in the inner city of Denver as an expression of God's love for the world. USC carries out its faith commitments by: living in a Christian community house in central Denver, promoting our mutual growth in faith and ministry; working openly and in cooperation with other organizations and churches that provide immediate assistance to the disadvantaged; seeking an understanding of the issues that arise in the neighborhood and addressing and responding to these issues; hosting foreign exchanges to broaden our range of issues to include global perspectives; and sharing experiences with others and encouraging those persons to pursue their own education through experience and involvement. Volunteers begin their one-year term of service at the end of August each year and finish service in mid-August of the following year. USC encourages prospective volunteers 21 years and older to apply and prefers those with college degrees.

Young adults, older adults

Come and work with us as the hungry are fed, children find a healthy space to play and study, cultural diversity is celebrated and the Word becomes flesh and lives among us. Central City Lutheran Mission, located in the midst of poverty, offers high school youth, young adults, adults and intergenerational groups the opportunity to assist in the kitchen and food pantry, cultivate friendships with the children, participate in the youth led Hip Hop Jazz Mass and "walk with Jesus into the city." The Mission is a great place to experience comprehensive community organizing. Each day begins with the reading of the Word and the celebration of Holy Communion, then we go to work lifting high the cross in a community that is being reborn. Our neighborhood is 75% Latino and Spanish is the dominant language in our area! A great place to practice your Spanish and experience Mexican culture at its finest.

Senior high, young adults, families
Custom-designed