At the age of 16 years old I had the amazing opportunity to live for the summer in a developing country. This was ONE of the many things my parents did for me that was life changing. (Excepting the Lord as my Savior is the #1 thing that was life changing.)
I will add that this was *before* cell phones, texting, internet and fb. So I was *away* from family other than by phone call.
For an entire summer I resided away from my family in Guatemala with a Christian missions organization – Teen Mania.
At 17 years old I went again for an entire summer with the same organization but to Honduras.
Later, my new husband and I would live in Spain for three years. We lived on the economy, attended a Spanish church, had a Christian spanish singing band that traveled all over Southern Spain and birthed our first child there.
After my third child was born again I was able to travel. With my church’s mission team El Salvador was the next location I served as a missionary for a three-week period.
My husband too had his fair share of travel all over the world.
So I think it not odd that our children, or at least the oldest three, would have that same type of blood flowing through their veins of desiring to travel. See the world. Be used of the Lord abroad.
Our oldest has traveled to a few states in our country and lived five weeks in Norway.
Our third oldest desires to study to become a professional violinist and travel the world.
NOW our second oldest desires to travel to Japan as an exchange student. :/
He’s taught himself Japanese. He’s studied and learned a lot of the culture. It appears that his *heart* is smitten with Japan.
So the research has begun. And prayer has ensued for how he should go there. And if he should go there NOW. 🙂
There are two resources I’d like to share with you that you may find of interest:
1. People to People Ambassador Program
Neither of these I am familiar with so I can’t give voice to the program. However, I’ve read quite a few comments about how excellent the programs are.
If your student is interested in studying abroad you may want to do you research as well into these programs to see if they are a good fit for your family.
Perhaps you have other resources that you know of for foreign studies as a student, I’d enjoy reading about them.
Please post them in the comment section of this post. 😀 Thank you.
Enjoy!
Angela P.