Ministry Opportunities

While abroad, students will be partnered with a Veritas Mentor who will help them get involved with ministry opportunities and connect them with a local church and the Christian community in Rome. Students will meet regularly with their Mentor for prayer, reflection, and spiritual accountability; the spiritual support and opportunities will make their time abroad transformational! 

Ministry opportunities in Rome include refugee ministry and English language ministry. Il Soggiorno is a day refugee center that the mission mentor is directly involved in that opens Thursday and Saturday afternoons and welcomes an average of 30-40 people, mainly coming from Afghanistan, but also Kurds and Africans. Students serving at Il Soggiorno are asked to help set up alongside local volunteers and welcome the refugees. As there is not a set program, flexibility and responding to whatever the need at that moment is (whether listening, teaching, playing games, or having spiritual conversations) is key—always with an attitude of restoring the dignity of the person they are interacting with. Before getting involved, students will have an orientation providing Biblical and practical guidelines for working with refugees in Rome, and there is a dedicated prayer time before and after volunteering.   

Students can engage in English language ministry through Rome Baptist Church, which hosts English lessons for Italian students of all ages on Tuesday nights. The classes are attended by friends of the church and are at various language levels. There is always a need for English-speaking volunteers, mainly getting involved in conversational English. Usually ISA-Veritas students also attend Rome Baptist Church, since it is an English-speaking church. Two Saturdays a semester, students can also use their English language skills and support an art lab in English for children, Bimbi ai Fori, where students are asked to support the work of the teachers there by both helping the children and using English with them while helping.  

Learn more about what US missionaries are currently doing in Rome:

*Ministry opportunities differs by site & term. For ministry details for a specific term, please email info@veritasabroad.com.