Being a summer missionary can be a rewarding experience, if you know what to expect.

What do you do with your summer vacations? Do you work in a factory and come back to school pale but rich? Do you work as a lifeguard at a pool and come back tanned but not rich? Do you return to school wishing you had done something significant? There is a way to invest your summer directly for the Lord—like Rick, who helped to build a hospital in Africa; like Ruth, who taught Viennese children "Jesus Loves Me"; like Bob, who visited house-to-house among Mormons in Utah; like Jackie, who got "dish pan hands" in a German camp; and like Tom, who painted a Christian bookstore in Italy. They joined hundreds of other students in a new and growing program: summer missionary apprenticeships.

Differing from short-term programs which place skilled people on the field for one or two years, summer apprenticeship programs place college young people in home and foreign mission work for two weeks to three months ...