USA (MNN) — 'Nomads' from the United States are taking the Gospel to the world. But what are they?
"Nomads are our internship program. It's the next step that we've put together for young adults — high school through college and career age, who maybe have done a 10 day or two week short term missions trip, and they're saying, 'What's next? How can I go a little bit deeper?'"
That's Book of Hope International's Randy Young, who spearheads the Nomad program. He says young people will spend anywhere from five weeks to a full year helping Book of Hope's ministry abroad.
"This summer we have 35 young adults going in three different directions. We've been in Southern Africa, primarily Namibia. We have a group in Central America. And we have a teen Nomad group [16 to 19 year-olds] that have been in the Philippines for the past three and a half weeks."
Young says the work of these young people have been nothing short of astounding. "They have, in the last three and a half weeks, reached over 160,000 children–elementary, high school and college aged kids–with the Gospel."
The Nomads are involved in various aspects of Book of Hope's ministry. Young says, "We're involved in distribution — taking the Gospel to the world's students — elementary, high school and college age as well. We work in partnership with nationals. But Nomads is also a commitment to developing young adults. We just really want to see another student volunteer movement explode on the earth."
Young says the program is growing, and they're working with colleges and universities. "Summer interns participate in the programs for credit. We've got partnership with Christian Universities where young adults can be working on their bachelors degree and their masters programs online while they're serving God around the world."
According to Young, he loves this generation of young people. "There's a real fearlessness. I think they're hungry for expressing their faith in a community context globally. I think they're looking for non-traditional ways of learning and development. And they really have a heart for the nations of this world."
More students are needed for future outreach. If you'd like to be a Nomad, click here.
