Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Spring 2013 | Page 28
YoUR MUSt-ReAD foR
Short-term
Missions
Debates over short-term mission trips are nothing new. But a theological argument that
approves of teams spending a day at the beach? Coming from an anthropologist?
for everyone who’s ever thought about a short-term mission trip, Dr. Brian Howell’s
thought-provoking new book offers insights that may help shape the experience.
by Jeremy Weber ’05
“Where have you traveled outside the United States?”
Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Dr. Brian Howell has long
asked this question of students in his introductory anthropology classes.
In St. Louis, where he taught before coming to Wheaton College in 2001,
students would usually cite Caribbean cruises or family trips to Canada. But at
Wheaton, students often mention countries such as Ghana, China,
and Bulgaria—places American students don’t normally go on vacation.
Groups of students travel to Honduras every year to help remote communities assemble gravity-fed
water systems.
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