Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Winter 2014 | Page 48

wHEaton in

the world

Why Send Faculty?

i

Every intern receives a faculty visit at the midpoint of his or her six-month
term with the Human Needs and Global Resources (HNGR) Program.

magine leaving ever y thing familiar
behind for six months.
Since 1976 more than 750 students

have traveled to the Global South to

par ticipate in the unique integration

of cross-cultural experience, ser vice,
and academic study called a Human
Needs and Global Resources (HNGR)
internship.
Dr. Christine Goring Kepner, associate
professor of Spanish, has visited
some 24 HNGR interns throughout
South and Central America. Her visits
have taken her to Peru, Ecuador,
Bolivia, Colombia, Nicaragua, Costa
Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, and
El Salvador. Dr. Kepner has also
directed/co-directed the Wheaton in
Spain program since 1992.
The daughter of missionar y parents,
Dr. Kepner grew up in Colombia,
so not only do these visits nur ture
her spiritually and professionally,
they also sometimes allow her to
reconnect with her roots. In August
2013, Dr. Kepner traveled to
El Salvador to visit HNGR intern
Molly Jamison ’14, an interdisciplinar y
studies major working with Semillas

de Nueva Creación (“Seeds of New
Creation”), a ministr y of the Christian
Reformed Church that holistically
trains and suppor ts national Christian
leaders. In their own words,
Dr. Kepner and Molly describe why
these faculty visits are so vital to the
program, and to Wheaton.

62     W I N T E R   2 0 1 4

Twenty-Four Visits in
Twenty-Two Years
by Dr. Christine Goring Kepner,
associate professor of Spanish

During a visit to HNGR intern Stephanie
McCue ’97, I arrived in Honduras to the sad
news that a member of the local church had
been shot and killed in a gas station holdup.
Attending the wake that same afternoon was a
powerful experience.
We sat in silence with the deceased’s wife
and three children. It was a very simple home.
The main room had been emptied and the
edges ringed with benches. The body was in
a coffin laid across a bed under white gauze
canopy curtains. Simple pots of geraniums and
daises arranged around the coffin provided
graceful ornamentation.
Some 24 hours later our tears were turned
to joy when we attended a wedding at a
small local church. Being invited into these
dignified commemorations of such profound
moments of transition was a privilege and
a blessing.
While these experiences are only two of
the many memorable opportunities I’ve been
given since partnering with HNGR in 1991,
they are representative of the unique, lifegiving dimension of the HNGR faculty visit
experience. The periodic immersion I receive
by connecting with HNGR students and their
hosts provides me with important professional
development opportunities, renews my
heart by reconnecting me with the Latin
American church, and revitalizes my language
skills and cultural awareness.