Nicole Rosenbaum and Julie Boggs didn't know exactly what to expect when they applied to spend a year teaching at St. John's Lutheran School in St. John's, Antigua, after they graduated from Martin Luther College (MLC), New Ulm, Minn. But they did have some thoughts on what they wanted to gain.

"I hope to learn how to adapt to people of another culture, to live and serve with them, learn my strengths and weaknesses as I learn theirs, and experience the many rich opportunities God gives his people around the world," says Rosenbaum, a member at Living Hope, Wildomar, Calif.

Rosenbaum and Boggs are serving through the Daylight International Program, an MLC organization that offers graduates short-term ministry opportunities in international settings. This past May, 20 men and women—13 percent of the graduating class—elected to volunteer in a foreign setting for a year or two before taking full-time calls into the teaching ministry or continuing their education at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Mequon. Other graduates are serving in east Asia and the Dominican Republic.

"We love for our graduates to get a year of experience in ministry in a different setting," says Prof. Tom Hunter, coordinator of the program. "We think that makes them more rounded people and gives them a whole different perspective on ministry."

This is the first year teachers are traveling to Antigua through the Daylight International Program. Pastor Andrew Johnston from St. John's Lutheran Church in Antigua requested MLC graduates to teach at the school so that its teachers—all from the Caribbean—could go back full time to the local college to get their degrees.

"Our teachers at our school are all members of our church," says Johnston. "However, in keeping with local practice, many became teachers without any formal training in education. This [practice] has begun to change in Antigua, so it also needs to change at our school." This year, Rosenbaum and Boggs will teach second and third grade respectively so the teachers of those grades can go back to school full time.

A grant from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans helped fund the project for this year. Hunter says that MLC hopes to continue to partner with St. John's, Antigua, in this way until all of its teachers are certified.

Johnston sees other advantages to having MLC-trained teachers at the school.  "At MLC these women were immersed in training not just to be teachers but to be ministers of the gospel," he says. "You can see this attitude benefitting our entire faculty as well as the children in their classrooms."