Serving From City to City

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Something unique that Northwest University offers each of its students is the opportunity to pursue spiritual growth. As a Christian university, it is important to us that our students have plenty of resources to help them grow, as well as a strong community that will support their faith. Some of our most meaningful opportunities for growth are our annual summer mission trips.

Last summer, Micah Lorenz and Mason Britsch were two of the many students who signed up for a mission trip together. They didn’t know it at the time, but their trip would consist of several weeks of homeless outreach, youth camps, and street evangelism alongside three other students. They started in Seattle and drove all the way down to Los Angeles, partnering with different ministries along the way.

 “It turned out to be a five-week long (wasn’t expecting that) mission trip driving down the West Coast in a minivan, stopping in a different cities,” Micah remembered. “We served in Seattle for a week, San Francisco for a week, Hume Lake for a week, and then we went to Santa Cruz, a Nevada AG camp, and Teen Challenge in LA.”

“In Seattle, we were working with Union Gospel Mission helping out in the kitchen serving food to the homeless people coming in,” Mason added. “Then in San Fran, we helped out with City Impact, which was more street ministry. Hume Lake is a camp with a bunch of churches that get together, but we went with NewLife. The Northern Cali trip camp was smaller, but we ended up staffing that trip. And then Teen Challenge was a lot of street ministry. So street ministry on Venice beach; we worked on Skid row—we were all over the place.”

Though the group didn’t completely understand what they were getting into at the beginning of their trip, Mason explained that they made it a point to prepare as well as they could: “The first week we had more time to set aside for prayer, and that was establishing for us.”

With these rhythms of prayer in place, the team saw themselves grow both in confidence and in faith throughout the trip.

“The week in Seattle, we were pretty uncomfortable talking about our faith, but by the last week we were very comfortable,” Micah recalled. “That growth of boldness and desire to tell people about the Gospel was definitely transformational in my own faith.”

As the minivan traveled down the coast, the five students experienced real spiritual formation. Through overcoming conflict and serving in high-pressure situations, their friendships and faith deepened. By the end of the trip, the group could look back and see how God had worked through each individual.

NU is designed to be a community that nurtures your faith and equips you academically and spiritually for a future of effective ministry—no matter what your career path looks like. In Mason’s words, “Northwest truly is a school with the soul of a church.”