Learning Beyond the Classroom

Seminarians Join Global Partners for Summer Immersion in Disaster Response

In the days following the recent earthquake and tsunami warning that affected communities across the Philippines, we are reminded of the fragile realities that many communities around the world face with increasing frequency. While we continue to follow the situation and remain in prayer for all those affected, we also give thanks for the faithful presence of local churches and partners who are often among the first to accompany communities before, during and long after a disaster. 

That witness is at the heart of this summer's Disciples Seminarians Summer Immersion in International Disaster Response. Through this experience, future church leaders are invited to learn not from a distance, but alongside communities and partners who have developed deep wisdom, resilience, and hope in the face of climate-related disasters and other crises. This summer two seminarians from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) will spend their summer learning alongside Week of Compassion partners through the program. 

The program invites future church leaders to step into a different learning environment - one shaped not by classrooms, but by communities navigating disaster recovery, resilience building, climate realities, and hope amid challenge. It is an opportunity to witness firsthand what locally led humanitarian response looks like and to better understand how faith communities accompany one another in moments of vulnerability and rebuilding. 
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In Pakistan, seminarian Fiyori Kidane will spend eight weeks working alongside our longtime partner Community World Service Asia. Her experience will include supporting civic space initiatives, documenting stories of resilience, contributing to educational and anti-oppression work, participating in mental health and psychosocial support programming, and visiting communities connected to Week of Compassion-supported programs in Islamabad, Hunza, Karachi, Murree, and Umerkot. 

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Pakistan faces significant challenges connected to climate change, disaster vulnerability, and social inequality. Yet communities there continue to model resilience, dignity, and collective care. Through story collection, learning exchanges, and community engagement, Fiyori will have the opportunity not simply to observe humanitarian work, but to walk alongside local leaders already carrying deep wisdom and expertise. 
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In the Philippines, seminarian Amelia Richter will work alongside our partner National Council of Churches in the Philippines and communities recovering from devastating storms and flooding that affected the Cagayan Valley region. The Philippines remains one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, facing increasingly severe climate impacts, repeated typhoons, flooding, and agricultural disruption. 

Amelia's learning experience will place her within local recovery efforts focused on food security, agricultural restoration, livelihood recovery, cash assistance programming, and community resilience. She will witness how local churches and ecumenical partners respond not only to immediate needs, but also to the longer work of rebuilding livelihoods, strengthening preparedness, and restoring dignity.  

​This program reflects something central to Week of Compassion's mission and values. 

We believe communities closest to challenges are also closest to solutions. Our role is not to arrive with answers, but to accompany local partners who carry knowledge, relationships, and leadership rooted deeply in their communities. Learning to serve faithfully means learning to listen first. 

For seminarians preparing for ministry, these experiences offer formation that cannot happen in a classroom alone. They invite church leaders to wrestle with questions of justice, climate resilience, disaster response, accompaniment, faith across cultures, and what it means to bear witness to Christ's compassion in a fractured world. 

Summer often brings renewal - gardens grow, schedules shift, students graduate, and communities prepare for what comes next. This summer, as two seminarians step into unfamiliar places and new learning contexts, they carry with them not only curiosity and a willingness to learn, but also the prayers and support of the wider church. 

At Week of Compassion, we believe learning happens most deeply when we sit together, listen well, and discover that God is already at work in communities around the world. Sometimes that learning happens in a village recovering from floods, or in a gathering of farmers rebuilding livelihoods. Sometimes our deepest learning emerges from a conversation about dignity and mental health, or from a local church responding after a disaster. 

This is the work of the global church taking shape: when student leaders accompany communities with respect and compassion to build a world rooted in justice, resilience and hope. 

Interested in the Disciples Seminarians Summer Immersion in International Disaster Response Program for 2027? Learn more here!

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