Global Service Opportunities with the SBU CGC
Each year, the Center for Global Connections (CGC) organizes and equips dozens of projects in locations across the globe. Use the map below to learn more about CGC opportunities or to donate to a project team.
Donate to the CGC General Fund
Current & Upcoming CGC Projects
Local Projects
Baptist Hill
This ministry team will serve two weeks at Baptist Hill Assembly in Mt. Vernon, MO to assist in preparing the retreat center for future summer camps, as well as serv one week as assistants and counselors in summer camp. Service may include cleaning, landscaping, painting, and power washing the facility, as well as assisting camp leadership in a children's/youth camp. Enjoy this beautiful location and give back to a conference center that has served as a ministry location for churches for many years, equipping others to serve and providing a place of retreat for many.
Dates: May 12-16, 2025 | Cost: $190 | Leaders: Colleen and Henry Shuler
Give to the Baptist Hill Project
CGC Support Team
This team provides support for other CGC mission teams as well as mission projects on campus and throughout Bolivar. They assist mission teams through planning and coordinating events for prayer, encouragement, communication, and fundraising. They will partner with various agencies in Bolivar to gain greater awareness and serve alongside of community outreach programs, non-profit groups, and church ministries. This will include sharing the gospel as they help meet the needs of the most vulnerable in our community.
Dates: Fall 2024 - Spring 2025 | Cost: FREE | Leaders: Hannah Bowe and Zoe Cook
U.S. Projects
Boston
Boston is a historic city that is home to a rich and diverse collection of people. There are more than 60 colleges and universities that serve over 150,000 college students per year. Boston has 25 different neighborhoods, each with its own sense of identity and set of values. In addition, the city has a global appeal, which has led to about 29% of the population registering as foreign-born or international. The Send Relief ministry center is in downtown Boston at the intersection of many different human experiences. Only 200 yards away is the famed Boston Common, which is often frequented by many tourists, employees from surrounding businesses, locals from adjacent affluent Beacon Hill and Back Bay neighborhoods, and a large population of people experiences homelessness. The ministry center sits at a crossroads and is strategically positioned to be a catalyst for ministries of mercy and compassion throughout the rest of the city. Students will participate in a variety of opportunities that can include homeless outreach, community development, canvassing, prayer walking, trafficking outreach, and ministry to internationals.
Dates: March 8-15, 2025 | Cost: $1880 | Leader: Tyler Johnson
Cross-Country Cycling
Serve God and each other through an opportunity to cross the US on an adventure of a lifetime. This cross-country bicycle adventure will raise money and lend hands to help families around the world have homes through The Fuller Center for Housing, a Christian 501(c)(3) non-profit that partners with the poor to build and repair homes. This mission project is not a race, but an invitation to break from the routine of daily life and follow Jesus's call to love and serve our neighbors. This partnership between SBU and The Fuller Center will allow participates to serve God and others while biking across the US, receiving support in preparation for the event, and navigating the US in a way most will never experience.
Dates: 1 to 4 Weeks Summer 2025 | Cost: TBD | Leader: Dr. Tim DeClue
New York City
With a population of more than 8.6 million, New York City is a thriving, dynamic place. But within this mass of people living int he city, there are nearly 79,000 who are homeless, while others are enduring a poverty rate of more than 43%. SBU will partner with NAMB SEND Relief and will serve Graffiti 2 Community Ministries which seeks to Revitalize, Revive, and Revolutionize the Mott Haven neighborhood of the South Bronx by enabling individuals to develop physically and mentally (revitalization); emotionally, socially, and spiritually (revival); and become servant-leaders within their families, community, and beyond (revolution). Projects will include various forms of community engagement and evangelism in the Mott Haven community. Many of these projects will involve working with kids to help encourage them and grow their confidence through after-school tutoring and mentoring, helping with homework, playing games and activities, as well as Bible study.
Dates: May 25-31, 2025 | Cost: $1820 | Leader: Jacob Banks
International Projects
Bosnia-Herzegovina
The Bosnia-Herzegovina team will serve in the beautiful city of Trebinje near the Adriatic Sea coast at a faith based American style school. The team will be conducting an English camp for the international high schoolers staying over summer break. The team will minister to teenagers who live away from their families in order to attend VARNA as well as support school staff. English enrichment lessons will integrate music, arts, recreational sports, games and conversations during the two-week trip with travel opportunities on the weekends.
Dates: June 12-28, 2025 | Cost: $2670 | Leader: Tamara Samek
Give to the Bosnia-Herzegovina Project
Costa Rica
Through Young Life Costa Rica, young people in Costa Rica have experienced God's transformative love and amazing grace through the lives and dedication of hundreds of local leaders. Young Life leaders enter the world of adolescents, build bridges of authentic friendship, and introduce them to Jesus Christ. This week of ministry will be filled with opportunities to encourage and serve local staff, leaders, teenagers, and their families. This team will stay and serve in a community where YLCR reaches out to teenagers and young adults. The ministry will help make a Young Life property more inviting, beautiful, and useful for the Gospel to be presented to future Costa Rican adolescents and students will make new friends in relational ministry opportunities.
Dates: March 9-16, 2025 | Cost: $2670 | Leader: Elsy Shuford
Give to the Costa Rica Project
Colombia
Currently there are more than 500,000 Venezuelans who have relocated to Bogota, Colombia. Partnering with Go in The Name Missions, this team focus will be to assist in planting churches in the Venezuelan communities. Ministry could include prayer walking, feeding ministries, evangelism, discipleship training, sports, children's ministry, and music ministry to establish connections and plant cell groups that will ultimately become a church.
Dates: May 17-24 | Cost: $2450 | Leaders: Abigail Hammontree and Elizabeth Neasby
Guatemala
The CGC holds a long-standing partnership with Casa Bernabe in Guatemala City. This is a home to more than 100 children on a beautiful 13-acre campus. All the children come from difficult living situations. Some of the staff members are former recipients of the care of this home and now serve the ministry by teaching, caring, and working at the orphanage. At Case Bernabe, each child belongs to a loving, nurturing family made up of house parents and their own children. Together, they live in individual houses with 10-12 children of the same age group. As a family, they eat, pray, play, and work together. Join this team and assist the orphanage ministry through a variety of projects. Work on service/humanitarian projects in the morning and in the afternoon share God's love with the children of all ages after school.
Dates: March 8-15 | Cost: $2270 | Leaders: Abby Preston and Brice Knoll
Nepal
The team will work with The Glory Project serving first with Revolution Church in Katmandu to host events in the city and in homes to share the gospel. You will also visit homes praying for new believers and encouraging them in the faith. You will then travel to the hills of Nepal and host a conference of young adults on the gospel and lead in a worship event. Afterwards, you will travel to Southern Nepal and share the gospel in Bhojpuri villages where native missionaries are planting new churches.
Dates: May 12-19, 2025 | Cost: $3800 | Leader: Dr. Jonathan Woodyard
Paris
The Paris Mission Team will serve in Paris, France during Spring Break, 2025. They will be working with International Mission Board missionaries and journeyman to develop connections and share the gospel. They will be seeking out persons of peace and will be trained to invite new connections to "sit-to-share" meetings where they will get together with a new friend and learn to bridge the conversation to the gospel. There will also be directly bold "on the street" gospel sharing to build new connections. They will then focus on bringing those new connections into experience new community with the intention of forming discovery Bible studies. They will broadly be contributing to the work of new church plants in targeted areas.
Dates: March 8-15, 2025 | Cost: $3160 | Leader: TBD
Thailand
Most Thai people adhere to Buddhism. Ornate wats or temples grace the countryside and dot the city streets. Approximately 99% of the people in Chaing Mai practice the Buddhist faith and hold the generally accepted belief that to be a Thai is to be Buddhist. Due to the culture's breezy nature and the population's reputation for congeniality, Thailand bears the nickname "The Land of Smiles". Ministry in Chiang Mai will include serving alongside an orphanage by caring for the children, performing service projects, and providing a much-needed retreat for the Thai staff. The team will also work with children and youth; share their testimonies in churches; and prayer walk the streets of Chiang Mai.
Dates: December 26, 2024 - January 10, 2025 | Cost: $3000 | Leader: Duke Jones
Taiwan
The Taiwan Mission Team will serve alongside of Taiwan Sunshine, a ministry that works with families that have children with special needs in Taiwan. The ministry center is located in Taitung, a beautiful city in southeast Taiwan, directly on the Pacific Ocean. Ministry teams typically work in local special education schools - working with students on the school's mini-farm, teaching sports, crafts, and even English; adult centers for those with intellectual disabilities - planning fun events and cultural exchanges; and in other community projects centered around special needs: visiting a home with clients in a permanent vegetative state, hosting beach days for families, and helping out wherever needed. People with special needs are not always included in Taiwan and we want to support and encourage them in any way we can.
Dates: May 15-29 | Cost: $2820 | Leader: Benny Fong & Dennis Siegried