Discovering Global Discipleship Throughout 10 Nations
From the busy streets of Kolkata, India, to a quiet church in the German countryside, 28 Westmont students spent their fall semester navigating a 100-day journey spanning continents and redefi ning their understanding of the Kingdom of God. More than a study-abroad trip, the Westmont Global Semester sought to shape global disciples and citizens with visits to 10 different countries.
Charles Farhadian (religious studies), Anna Jordan (English) and Phil Beccue ’81 led the new program, with Jordan teaching online before joining the team in person toward the end of the course. The one-of-a-kind semester fulfi lled a 15-year dream for Farhadian, who envisioned a program of global scale and scope that prioritized spiritual formation.
“I wanted to focus on students’ spiritual life and discipleship as well as their studies,” Farhadian said. While many institutions offer international travel, the Global Semester’s secret sauce merges discipleship with the encouragement to live as global Christians in any career.
The logistics of moving a delegation through countries such as Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and India required specifi c expertise. Farhadian found that partner in Beccue, a logistics professional. Together, Farhadian and Beccue designed a curriculum that immersed students in diverse settings to witness the triune God’s work worldwide.
“We wanted them to see firsthand the creative ways God works to make himself known among the nations,” Beccue said. The semester helped students clarify their specific calling as they engaged in service and developed relationships that often ended in tears on both sides due to the depth of connection.
Reflections for Jordan’s Travel Writing course reveal the impact of these friendships. In his essay, Germany: Beyond the Cover, Wade Teal ’26 compared his initial assumptions about Germany to a visitor judging California based solely on a trip to Death Valley. After assuming that no German youth believed in Christianity, he learned differently in the town of Auerbach, where he joined a local youth group. “It felt exactly like a youth group back home — just ‘Germanifi ed.’ In a few hours, I built cross-cultural Christian friendships faster than I may have at home.”
In Da Nang, Vietnam, Katelyn Lyons ’27 experienced a similar breaking of barriers, which she described in her essay, My Buddhist Cab Driver. Communicating via Google Translate with her driver, she noticed a Buddha hanging from his mirror. After discussing their respective beliefs, Lyons shared she was a “follower of the way of Jesus.” The driver responded, “We both have very good teachers,” which struck a chord. “While I’d been thinking about all the differences between Buddhism and Christianity, I savored this moment of connecting based on our similarities,” Lyons wrote. “It’s moments of connection like this … that will stay with us forever.”
Through Beccue’s course on global decision-making, students gained practical skills to think more clearly about their personal lives and how to apply those lessons within their future careers.
“We were surprised with the impact cross-cultural workers make through profitable businesses among groups of people with few Christians,” Beccue said. “Whether through IT companies, bagel shops, CrossFit gyms, coffee lounges, language schools or adventure tourism, we saw firsthand how these teams bless their local communities in Jesus’ name.”
Farhadian’s Global Religions in Context course provided a global direction for students’ lives. “I overhear conversations where students say they were going one way, just plugging along at Westmont, and then a global experience happened, and now their lives take a different trajectory. Praise God for that.”
