Discover Faith & Belief

Some of us grew up in the church; others may have found their way to Christ through friends, teachers, or on their own. No matter your journey, we want to give you the opportunity to learn and engage with your faith by asking what it means to live out your faith in Jesus, how to take ownership of your beliefs, and how to see God more clearly in creation, yourself, and the people around you.

Flourish in Authentic Christ-Centered Community

Community is messy. It requires us to embrace people's quirks, learn to work through conflict, and practice setting healthy boundaries. It also creates relationships that can last a lifetime!

During your 9 months together, our hope is this can be a time of intentional community for you. A place where you make friendships that go beyond the surface level. As you learn and serve together, we want you to encourage each other in your faith journey, learn from each other's experiences and life, and experience what it means to show and receive belonging.

Develop Resilience & Joy Through Meaningful Relationships and Experiences

During this Gap Year program, you will meet people from many different lifestyles and backgrounds. Some of their stories will encourage you, some may challenge your convictions, and some may bring you to tears.

Through this 9-month program, our hope is you can learn from the relationships you form, practicing skills of empathy, intentionality, and resilience. We want you to wrestle with questions of fairness and injustice, to learn to understand people from all sides of a conversation, and reflect on God's promise to redeem, restore, and make all things new. And through this journey, our hope is you come out a stronger and more intentional person.

Mornings

Each morning, teams will start their day early, with prayer and devotion together, spending time in Scripture as they apply what they see God doing in the community to their own faith journey. The rest of the morning will center on living in community: sharing breakfast together, cooking and cleaning, and starting the day with intentional presence with each other.

Afternoons

Monday through Friday, teams will be active in the community, engaging with local ministries, volunteering their time, and investing in relationships with the community members they interact with.

Evenings

After each day serving locally, the team will end their day back in community together as they make and serve dinner to each other. After dinner, evenings will be split between outings in the local community, learning discussions about books and films, and time debriefing their experiences thus far.

Ideal IMMERSION Gap Year Candidate:

• Between age 18-20
• Interested in pursuing faith and serving others
• Willing to engage in various projects and serve the local community
• Able to adapt to a flexible schedule
• Eager to participate in conversations with locals and build relationships
• Able to do engage in physical labor (construction, farm work, painting)
• Willing to adjust and abide by the norms of a different culture
• Able to work through conflict and problem-solve well
• Willing to follow and abide by safety guidelines and expectations

IMMERSION is an opportunity for young adults to step outside of the normal cadence of their lives in order to gain a broader picture of: 1) the world around you, 2) the way God works in that world, and 3) the value of relationships and quality service alongside people whose lives are just as valuable as your own.

Simply put, IMMERSION is about focusing on the “how we do it” of international ministry and service rather than just “what we do.” Our central focus is on the importance of authentic relationships as the keystone to healthy ministry, and engaging in what it means to truly “love our neighbor” as people of privilege in the 21st century.

Teams spend their time equally split between service opportunities, cultural immersion in the community, and relationship building with community partners and host families. This means there is plenty of space to give your time and attention to others—a necessary part of doing missions well—prioritizing people over the simply seeking out projects to complete.

Safety is a huge priority for the IMMERSION program! We are up to date on all potential safety concerns in the countries where teams volunteer and would never send a team to a location where we have active concerns about their safety and well-being.

Experience Mission local staff and partners are experienced residents or welcome guests in the communities you are serving in, and they communicate to all team members the safest way to move about during their time on the program. Regular communication is also established between partners, team leaders, and EM U.S. Staff, allowing for quick responses to any emergencies should they arise.

For medical issues, IMMERSION team leaders are CPR/First Aid certified, and carry trauma medical kits equipped to deal with a wide range of injuries and ailments.

In the case of a larger emergency, EM staff members will support team members by helping them communicate with home and making sure they get to a place to receive care.

Often, local medical clinics are a short distance from where team members are staying. However, outside of big cities, large hospitals can often be several hours away by vehicle. Team members would not be left to do this on their own.

To ensure medical care is readily accessible, EM secures travel medical/evacuation insurance for all team members. Participants are also required to come with a Personal Emergency Fund—a debit or credit card with $1,500 available and $300 of reserve cash—in case they were to have a medical issue requiring upfront payment or need to travel home from the program unexpectedly. This amount may seem high, but it's purely a precaution. Most team members do not touch their emergency funds while on the trip.

Preventatively, during initial training, all team members are encouraged to enroll with STEP (Safe Traveler Enrollment Program) through the U.S. State Department. This allows team members and staff to receive official travel alerts if there is an issue in the region including political protests, civil unrest, increased crime, weather alerts, natural disasters, terrorism, or specific threats for foreign travelers.

An EM emergency phone line is also available to all emergency contacts.