Bryan Johnson, director of the program, reports that the “students were able to spend time listening to former enemy combatants, both Protestant and Catholic, as well as experience how Belfast is still a city divided along sectarian lines.”  Here’s a short summary of Dr. Johnson’s report:

Our students will tell you they learned a lot about peace and reconciliation and how important that is to their own service work. The most important part of the trip was getting to spend time working with children and teenagers in Catholic and Protestant youth centers. Our hosts couldn’t emphasize enough how valuable it was to have American college students give these young people a sense of hope that they can finish high school and attend a university.  With University Fellows and Micah Fellows we spend a lot of time emphasizing the importance of being good ambassadors for Samford, for their families, for their country, and for themselves. These students, every one of them, took that seriously. They are mature beyond their years, trustworthy, kind, and entirely decent.

The world is better because of the calling of Samford students to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God.