Cedarville Magazine, Spring 2014

CU in by Megan Coffman ’13 A s long as I can remember, my dad has always thrown random phrases fromother languages into conversation. Commands in German, funny insults in Chinese, an expression in pache — I grew up hearing them daily. He is not fluent in any of these languages, but since he studied Spanish in high school, he remembered those phrases best. Perhaps that is why I’ve always had an interest in language, particularly in Spanish, and yearned to experience other cultures and languages, to travel beyond the world I’ve always known. I studied in Seville, Spain, for both semesters of my junior year. Spain is an incredibly diverse country with beautiful people and history. I lived with a Spanish family the entire eight months and remained a full-time student with classes at local universities in Seville. I also had a professional internship for my major in Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) at a local marketing agency, where I designed social media and web content in Spanish. I traveled to various Spanish cities as well as Morocco, Venice, Florence, Rome, and Paris. When I wasn’t traveling, I took a train to a Spanish church in a nearby village and spent time with missionaries I met there. It was a great blessing to experience the Spanish evangelical church, witness the lives of missionaries in Spain, and serve during events they hosted throughout the year. My eyes were opened to the incredible beauty of the international church, and I have glimpsed what it will be like to worship one day with “every nation, tribe, people, and language” (Rev. 7:9). I extended my time abroad by taking a May term class with other TPC students. We spent two weeks in Strasbourg, France; a weekend in Luxembourg; and a week in Paris. It was wonderful to spend three weeks with Cedarville professors and students, complete a required class, and experience another part of the world. The cultural and language experience in a three-week course abroad isn’t as extensive as a full semester, but these shorter trips are definitely great for students whose majors may not allow enough flexibility for an entire semester abroad. Three days after returning from Spain, I went to the Dominican Republic for a week and served as an interpreter for a team from my church. It was amazing to turn around and use the skills that I had been studying to then serve alongside members of my church in a short-term missions trip. It was also wonderful to still have my senior year left at Cedarville; I had a “second chance” to enjoy the close-knit community, daily chapels, and friends I had missed. God used both my education at Cedarville and in Spain to shape me into a professional with a missional purpose to live out my faith through my work. Studying internationally gave me 24 | Cedarville Magazine