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Short Term Mission Trip - Costa Rica Mission Trips - Students from Indiana Wesleyan University will travel to Costa Rica in 2008 to help build a bridge as part of a leadership training course, and at the core of their curriculum is Experience Mission's Model for Mutual Influence.

The model is EM's foundational philosophy and is designed to help missionaries focus on developing trust, dignity and respect when establishing new relationships.

The one-credit course - which satisfies a university intercultural learning requirement - will take place during IWU's spring break and should include about 20 participants, IWU Vice President Bill Millard said.

Millard said the class, which is to be held on the Bribri indigenous reservation in Talamanca, will likely throw students out of their comfort zones both culturally and physically.

"There's no doubt about it - that trip takes you out of the comfort zone a lot. Not only is there the language thing, but you're eating different food, you're sleeping in different situations, and then there's the colored frogs that can kill you," Millard said. "When everybody's put out of their comfort zone so quickly, there's a real pressure to respond to the need to work in collaborative teamwork and leadership. It's going to be a great laboratory."

Millard said initial interest has been high and he expects the course to fill quickly since the venue should play an important role in generating excitement among students. While many IWU students are excited to serve and gladly use free time to do so, Millard said they generally do not choose to during the much-coveted spring break.

He thinks holding the course in Costa Rica might make students think differently.

"It's kind of one of those things where it's the best of all worlds," Millard said. "A little bit edgy on the comfort side, but yet it is exotic, so you get some bonuses out of that."

Millard said that aside from the Model for Mutual Influence, the course would focus on servant leadership and emphasizing the strength that can be achieved by maximizing the diversity of a team.

"There are people who when you see them the first time you think, 'Man, why did we bring this guy along?' Then the next thing you know, you're saying, 'Boy, am I glad we brought this guy along,'" Millard said. "You can learn to hold back and appreciate people for what they bring."

The students will finish the course by rafting the Class 4 rapids of the Pacuare River, about 90 kilometers northwest of the Bribri reservation.

The idea to hold the course in Costa Rica was hatched out of conversations between Millard and EM Executive Director Chris Clum during a mission trip to the Bribri village of Coroma this summer. The two joined a team of 27 in building a suspension bridge to help school children and the elderly cross a river there that becomes impassable for most when heavy rains cause it to rise.

But Millard said the general idea of a leadership course in a cross-cultural setting has been in his books for years.

"We've had the course and curriculum and been waiting for the proper venue, and now that venue has come," Millard said.

Clum said he was both thrilled and flattered to learn that the course would use the Model for Mutual Influence to help the students learn how to establish lasting relationships even in the face of vast cultural differences.

"We put this together at the inception of the organization to try to really address our interaction with people in this post-modern world," Clum said. "It's pretty neat to see now that a university has embraced it and wants to develop a curriculum around it."

The model consists of a three-step approach: love and accept, listen and learn, and serve and partner.

"We have to consider how we build relationships with people who see the world and see faith differently than we do, and keep the principles of trust, dignity and respect as intact components of a healthy relationship," Clum said. "What I do and my posture is so important to me being able to build a relationship where there's true, genuine trust - and if they feel small and I feel big, they won't trust me. They'll patronize me, but they won't trust me."

To serve in Costa Rica with Experience Mission on short term mission trips or a specific mission trip for all ages, call us at 360-732-0986. To check out additional media about Costa Rica, visit our news website at www.ExperienceMissionNews.com. Register now for a future mission trip with Experience Mission.