Immersion & Service

Following Jesus from Solitude...

To Community ...

... & Into Ministry.

The Office of Spiritual Life (SpiL) offers students annual opportunities to participate in Immersion and Service Trips or SpiL Trips: Road-Trip style pilgrimages to encounter & serve Christ amongst those experiencing more vulnerability than most (Matthew 25:34-40). During Winter & Spring breaks, SpiL Trips challenge students to listen, learn from, and serve alongside partner organizations in the context of the other cultures, communities, and complexities, modeling empowerment, peacemaking and Christian Community Development at its best, taking advantage of opportunities to share the University’s "Be Known" promise beyond our own campus and borders!

The basic purposes of SpiL Trips are:

• To help students think with clarity by prayerfully immersing and serving in closer proximity to people and resources with perspectives and experiences are outside of our own;
• To help students act with integrity by partnering with others in mutually-benefiting, Asset-based and empowering approaches to connecting across differences (rather than perpetuating Need-based approaches);
• To help students serve with passion by sacrificially working to make sure our impact matches intentions as we attempt to share the Be Known promise with people beyond our campus & borders who so often labeled or only seen as statistics.

Winter Break & Spring Break trips:  T.B.A.

Post-Disaster Recovery & Development Trips  with World Renew

Like in previous years when our SpiL Trips visited Yosemite National Park area (where we worked with Tuolumne River Trust to learn about & assist with wildfire recovery for the 2015 mega/"Rim Fire"), we are aiming for more Relief, Recovery and Development oriented trips organized with World Renew.

Dates: (Winter & Spring Break 2023)
Cost/Person: $95 ($45 deposit due Jan 31)  
Application Deadline: TBD 
Mandatory Training Dates: TBD
Apply: Application Form

Yakama Indian Reservation with Mending Wings

Mending Wings is a Christian nonprofit, First Nations youth organization located in the Yakama Indian Reservation in Wapato, Washington. Trip participants will have the opportunity to learn and to reimagine “Missions”, immersing in a cross-cultural experience only a few hours away from campus! Students will also focus on community service projects with Elders in the community (like chopping wood and painting houses), and on spiritual formation through participating in worshiping God alongside indigenous leaders and seeing the power of Creator God at work through all of us across cultural differences.

Dates:  (Spring Break)
Cost/Person: $95 ($45 deposit due Jan 31)  
Application Deadline: TBD 
Mandatory Training Dates: TBD
Apply: Application Form

Seattle, Washington with Urban Impact

For several years, teams of Fox students have learned and served with Urban Impact in Seattle, focusing on building relationships and serving in the community through the local church. We assist with a variety of projects and Christian community development opportunities from tutoring to administrative and cleaning projects to community service amidst one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the nation.

Dates: (Spring Break)
Cost/Person: $95 ($45 deposit due Jan 31)  
Application Deadline: TBD
Mandatory Training Dates: TBD 
Apply: Application Form

Border Trip (Sacramento, L.A., San Diego, California & Tijuana, Mexico) 
with World Relief, Homeboy Industries & Global Immersion Project

This “Learning Lab” is made possible by partnering with World Relief (Sacramento), the Global Immersion Project (San Diego/Tijuana), and even a brief visit to Homeboy Industries/HomeGirl Cafe (Los Angeles).  It is an unforgettable week-long road-trip of listening, not only to the lived experiences of refugees, immigrants and ex-gang members, but also in learning from local peacemakers (shelter workers, advocates, Border patrol agents and more) as they addressed the lived experiences of the issues resulting in marginalization and often dehumanization.  Students can also expect the personal challenge of cultivating tangible spiritual practices that will help them follow Christ’s call to be everyday peacemakers wherever we live. We invite you to learn a little more with this video .  

Dates: (Spring Break)
Cost/Person: $850 ($100 deposit due Feb 10)  
Application Deadline: TBD
Mandatory Training Dates: TBD
Fundraising Campaign: TBD
Apply: Application Form