SLAM FAQ
SLAM partners with local churches and schools to provide space for sleeping, showers, and team time with your group. A typical week includes sleeping in a classroom on the sleeping bags and padding that you bring and taking showers in private stalls. Your students will be under the supervision of your own adult chaperones but may share space with students and chaperones of other groups.
SLAM would suggest a 7:1 ratio of students to adults (21+). Mixed gender groups require both a male and female adult regardless of group size. Reach out if you have specific questions about your group dynamic.
Yes. SLAM staff have all undergone background checks.
SLAM is an interdenominational ministry with leaders and participants from a wide range of Christian backgrounds and ethnic origins. We focus on teaching the significance of serving like Jesus as modeling in his life and taught throughout the canon of Scripture. Our goal is to reinforce the expectation that followers of Jesus are engaged in serving practically as a part of bringing God’s kingdom to earth. It is not our intention to teach on topics that have been historically divisive but to pursue the unity that Jesus prayed for his disciples to experience as we work together as his body and share his mind.
We have worked with groups including: Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Nazarene, Wesleyan, Christian, Non-Denominational, and more.
During a typical week, SLAM provides all meals Tuesday though Friday (12 total). Your group will be responsible for meals during travel (including dinner before check-in on Monday) as well as breakfast as you depart on Saturday morning. Customization can be made for unique travel schedules with advanced planning. Breakfasts are often a breakfast burrito or sandwich with fruit, sack lunches are packed for flexibility regardless of the type of work project, and most evening meals have an ethnic element as part of our value to create global awareness in the midst of a domestic experience.
Yes, we have worked with students with all of the major categories of food allergies. If you have students with highly sensitive and life-threatening reactions, please bring up those needs early in the registration process so we determine the best way forward to serve you well.
Yes, thanks for asking! SLAM is a program of Global Outreach Developments International (www.godintl.org) and largely facilitated by alumni and students of The Institute for GOD (www.instituteforgod.edu). Our heart is to educate people in God’s Word and equip and empower them with practical skills that will be used to bring the abundant life and hope that Jesus came to offer and called his disciples to work toward. Students Living a Mission is just one of dozens of our programs with this goal in mind. If you’d like to learn more about our other programs and efforts, we are always excited to share more.
