11 GAP-YEAR IDEAS: Thanks gang!

A couple days ago I wrote a post titled, “IS THE ‘AMERICAN DREAM’ DYING? Today’s teenagers seem to want more than college” and it created a lot of traffic and comments. I took some of the ideas people presented via Twitter and Comment sections and did a cut/paste job and listed them below (thanks for your input gang).

I didn’t vet any of these and this isn’t an endorsement of any one program, instead it’s simply a list gathered for youth ministry friends. Hope you find something helpful here:

1. Check out an Australian program called year 13. www.year13.youthworks.net (@mattyjacobs)

2. Mission Waco Internships http://www.missionwaco.org/intern.html & it has close relationship with http://churchunderthebridge.org (@Len_Evans)

3. Awesome south African led gap year program engaging issues of poverty and injustice http://purehope.co.za (@chriskamalski)

4. 24/7 from Church of the Highlands Birmingham, AL is terrific. http://www.churchofthehighlands.com/hli/247/ I am sending 4 students next year and have 2 there this year. (@jradhouser)

5. A great gap year missions is Ventana Ministries in Mexico! www.ventanaministries.com (@sandyhughes)

6. The Presbyterian Church of Ireland has a program called SWIM (students working in missions) (@brit_windel)

7. The best one I’ve heard is @theworldrace http://theworldrace.org/ (@mclanea)

8. emergingleadernetwork.com and http://getignited.org (Shawn Michael Shoup)

9. I have had many students work with Youth with a Mission (YWAM). They can literally go anywhere in the world to do this. (Sarah Vestal)

10. I did a year of service after college with the Jesuit Volunteer Corp, totally life changing. (Chris Wesley)

11. J-Life is a great organization and I have sent two students to serve for a year there http://www.jlife.org.za/ (@grantbyrd)