Baylor Missions: Serving and Learning Around the World

Show Notes

Each year, Baylor students travel around the world on mission trips that combine service, learning, and calling. Baylor nursing faculty member Katy Vogelaar and Baylor student Julia Pitts recently returned from missions trips in Kenya and Peru. They join the program to immerse viewers and listeners in their experiences. 

On the program, they share what it looked like to serve alongside Baylor's global partners, apply what they’ve learned in the classroom, and grow through experiences that challenged their perspectives. Along the way, the conversation highlights what makes Baylor Missions distinctive.

The conversation highlights:

• how Baylor Missions sends students around the world to serve alongside global partners 
• what makes Baylor’s approach different—integrating academic disciplines with meaningful, long-term service 
• how students apply their studies in real settings, from healthcare to engineering solutions 
• the importance of working with local organizations that build sustained relationships in their communities 
• what daily life looks like on a mission trip, from clinics and projects to community engagement 
• the role of faculty mentors in preparing students and guiding reflection throughout the trip 
• why many participants return with a lasting sense of connection—to their work, their faith, and a global community

Transcript

Derek Smith:
Well, Baylor students and faculty are all around the world this summer as they are each year on missions trips taking place in Africa, South America, islands around the world and more. And we've got two visitors with us today who are just back from summer missions trips to Kenya and Peru. Katy Vogelaar, a member of the Louise Harrington School of Nursing faculty just back from Kenya, and Julia Pitts, a rising junior who's just back from a trip to Peru. And we're excited to learn more about the service that they did while they were there, the lessons they learned, and the ways they combined their callings with what took place on these trips.
Katy Vogelaar, Julia Pitts, thanks so much for taking the time to join us for fresh back off these trips. We're really glad to have you.

Katy Vogelaar:
Thank you.

Julia Pitts:
Yes. Thank you for having us.

Derek Smith:
Well, looking forward to really diving into the work that you all did to the experiences. Mission trip is such a big part of the Baylor experience for so many people in such a great missional alignment with who Baylor is as a Christian university. And let's just start simple. If I asked you to go back in your head to Kenya, Katy, and then Peru, Julia, what's the first thing, experience, or place that pops into your mind when I ask you that?

Katy Vogelaar:
Well, the first thing I think about is the people. The Kenyan people are so warm and hospitable and welcoming. And the second thing I think about, if I can give you two, is the front porch of our guest house overlooks in Kenya, this beautiful inactive volcano called Mount Longonot. And every morning we drink our delicious Kenyan coffee. And it was 75 degrees, so much nicer than Waco, Texas. And we would just look out over this mountain, reading our Bibles, and hearing the giggles of the school children as they came in for their school day.

Derek Smith:
Wow, that's a very vivid picture. Thank you.

Katy Vogelaar:
That's wonderful.

Derek Smith:
Julia, you get two if you want as well.

Julia Pitts:
Oh, goodness.

Derek Smith:
We said one, but you get two if you like.

Julia Pitts:
Okay. The first thing I tell people about the trip is a reality visit we did before we started the days of service. So we start in the city of Lima, which is where we were. And they point out the roads, the buildings, the running water, and then we slowly move out to the communities where we served. And the roads disappear into dirt roads. We learn about how people come and settle on these hills basically and build their homes and how water has to be brought to them from water trucks. And then they have to have stairs built for their houses. And so I think having that visit before we started our service really set us up for knowing why we were there and what we were doing.

Derek Smith:
We're going to dive into that, what you were doing here a little bit more. But Julia, if you had to summarize your trip in one sentence, or maybe even two, what would it be?

Julia Pitts:
Okay. I would say that no matter how much you read about a place, the going and seeing the struggles of people is really the biggest way to change your perspective on it.

Derek Smith:
Great. That's great. What about you, Katy?

Katy Vogelaar:
So to summarize our trip, our trip was interdisciplinary. So we had several different disciplines that were really seeing and experiencing health inequities and working with an organization to empower their community to live more healthy, thriving lives.

Derek Smith:
That's great. Well, let's dive into that a little bit further because I think people will see if they don't know already as you described these missions trips. The way Baylor does it is a little bit different where you combine your vocation with you as a faculty member or you as someone interested in the health field, Julia, you combine calling and the service aspect.
So Katy, the name of your trip was Pre-nursing, Engineering, and Social Work in Kenya. So obviously very interdisciplinary. Just take us inside what that was and what you were doing and how that interdisciplinary nature impacted the trip.

Katy Vogelaar:
So this was our second year going to Kenya with an interdisciplinary trip. The first year it was Pre-nursing, Engineering, and Social Work. And then we learned some things about how we wanted to bring nursing students and we decided to bring pre-nursing and nursing students a little bit of mentorship between our before they go to Dallas and in Dallas students. And then our social work faculty was unable to go. So this year it was really pre-nursing, nursing, and engineering. And how that worked is we were able to show the students that some of the really complex issues that are facing the world today, things like poverty and health inequities, they cannot be solved through one singular professional lens. So how do we work together? How do we learn from other disciplines and work to problem solve with our community partners to help with some of these issues across the world?

Derek Smith:
That's great. And where did you all come together there in Kenya to do this?

Katy Vogelaar:
We were at Naomi's Village. It's an organization in Mai Mahiu, Kenya. Actually started by two Baylor grads, Bob and Julia Mendonsa. And it's a school and a children's home there.

Derek Smith:
That's great. That's great. Okay. Similar question for you, Julia. Your trip was MEDLIFE in Peru. What is MEDLIFE? And for you as a health science studies major, how did that benefit you?

Julia Pitts:
Yeah. MEDLIFE is a global nonprofit organization. It stands for Medicine, Education and Development for Low Income Families Everywhere. I didn't know this until we got there with our group of about 15 Baylor students that there were 170 volunteers total for the week, and 170 people had just left from helping with them the week before. And that immediately said so much to me about MEDLIFE and what they do because they partner with these communities year round and have built these relationships with them and continually work with them. Yeah, we really got to see how they do follow-ups and it was just really amazing.

Derek Smith:
So Katy was at Naomi's Villages. As she mentioned, Baylor has great partnerships with organizations like Naomi's Village, nonprofits, medical organizations like it like MEDLIFE. When you're there in Lima, Peru, Julia, were you embedded in one general area or did your service take place all over?

Julia Pitts:
Yeah, we stayed in Miraflores, which is a section of Peru. And then we would travel out into outskirts of Peru to the different communities that they have living there. So we served with three different while we were there.

Derek Smith:
So take us inside some of that service that took place if you would here, Julia. Let's lean into the Peru trip here for a few minutes. Take us inside. Was there any such thing as a typical day or typical days? What did that look like?

Julia Pitts:
Our three service days or our three mobile clinic days is... We had three mobile clinic days and then a service day. So the mobile clinic days we would go to a community, all of the volunteers would help set up the clinic. And then MEDLIFE partners with local physicians and they use local medicine to work with these communities. And so we would help assist with the different stations.
I helped with a dentist station one day in an OB-GYN station, and both were so neat. And during the clinics, they really focus on educating the people. At one of the communities we went to, their OB-GYN station just had patient after patient and they told us that the first time they had come to this community, that no one had wanted to go because the women didn't know the necessity of monitoring women's health. And so it was neat to see how their education impacts that.
And then after the clinics, we would help with a service day. So the communities live on ... Well, in Texas we would call mountains, but they just call them hills. And they need stairs to access their homes, so we helped build a staircase. And those give access to the home, but they're part of a bigger legalization process where people that settle there can then own their house and then they get access to those water trucks into electricity.

Derek Smith:
The two kind of distinct threads on the trip, kind of giving people access, easier access in their homes and then the medical education part. What aspects of that were stretching to you? What aspects did you find yourself really having to maybe dig deeper than normal things for yourself?

Julia Pitts:
MEDLIFE's focus is on being a movement to look for root causes and to address those to empower people to really be able to sustain themselves in. And I've never really thought about looking for a root cause. And so the staircases are a root cause. And they encourage us after the trip to start looking for those things that have a bigger impact than maybe we would think.

Derek Smith:
Obviously when you're doing an international missions trip, you're in a foreign country, a place very likely you've never been before. What was that aspect like of practicing all this in a new country and all the exciting and just challenging things that come with that?

Julia Pitts:
Yeah. It's neat because we were able to learn about Lima and Peru in the first few days of the trip and also through meetings throughout last spring semester. So we knew a little bit about the history. And then just meeting the people was so amazing at the clinics because we're working with the communities. And they were all so kind. They would bring us food and drink. You're in a foreign country and I don't speak Spanish, which it makes me really sad because a lot of people do. And were able to talk with the patients and with the doctors, so I think they probably got more out of being able to build a relationship with them than I did. But just being in a different country, it really was a big perspective change in seeing how they view their lives and even our lives in America.

Derek Smith:
What was it like sharing that experience with some of your classmates, whether they be in health science studies, biology, or other majors?

Julia Pitts:
It was really meaningful, I think, because we were seeing so many things that did change our perspectives. And being able to come together and talk about them and just talk about what we had experienced and how it was changing our views was really neat to have that. And now I have so many more friends at Baylor because of this trip.

Derek Smith:
You talk about what changes your viewpoint when you see these things. What's something that maybe you take away as you come back and prepare to begin your junior year that is you're studying different health disciplines, that it's going to impact the way you see that?

Julia Pitts:
One of the big things they taught us were the five levels of listening. The first being hearing what someone's saying so that you can respond. And then the last being hearing what's unsaid, understanding someone's circumstance and hearing maybe what they're not saying, but what they need you to hear. And that was a great lesson to learn and something I hope to implement in any role I take or any career I pursue, not assuming I know the fix, but looking at the whole and trying to understand someone's circumstance.

Derek Smith:
With your major, you could go a lot of different directions, but do you have an idea of what you'd like to do when you're done at Baylor?

Julia Pitts:
Yeah, I would really love to pursue occupational therapy. I love how holistic it is addressing people's mental and emotional as well as the physical and helping them try to gain their independence in everyday activities.

Derek Smith:
Well, Julia, you paint such a great picture of the trip, the MEDLIFE trip to Peru. And now Katy, I want to ask you some similar questions about the trip to Kenya. You mentioned Naomi's village. It was really the home base. So take us inside some of that if you would. Was there typical day, typical days? What did that look like?

Katy Vogelaar:
We didn't really have a typical day, but we had some projects that we were working on. So as an interdisciplinary team, the engineering and the nursing students were working on three primary sort of issues that we really worked with the community at Naomi's Village and the school, Cornerstone Preparatory Academy, to identify. The first one was unsafe drinking water. And so that being the cause of a lot of gastrointestinal and sort of communicable diseases when you're not able to have safe drinking water. So we did things like install rainwater collection devices. The engineering students were putting together some sustainable filters made of local equipment that the local Kenyan community could source themselves. We didn't have to bring it from Waco, Texas with us.
We also focused on indoor air quality. That was kind of my baby, given my background in allergy and asthma. And in a lot of rural and Eastern Africa, women and children are exposed to really poor indoor air quality in their homes because they're cooking on open flames in their homes without a lot of ventilation. And so we worked with the engineering students to redesign a stove that was culturally appropriate, still allowing them to cook on open flames, which is the way that they want to cook and we want to support that, but also to get smoke out of their house. And the nursing students did some respiratory assessments and air quality assessments.
And the last thing was focused on maternal child health. So Naomi's Village and Cornerstone has a really cool program called MTOTO, which means baby in Swahili. And they find low income at risk first time moms and they pair a nurse with that mom through pregnancy in the first two years of that baby's life, very similar to the nurse family partnership that we would have in America. We got to do some home visits, which I think was our favorite thing to do. We were welcomed into these mom's homes. We got to see a pregnant mom and do an assessment, listen to the baby's heartbeat. And that was important because the engineering students were trying to ruggedize, is the word I didn't know, but I'm learning, ruggedize some of the equipment that we use to assess pregnant moms to make it easier to use, not require batteries and things like that. So we got to teach them how do we listen to baby's heartbeats and mom's bellies and did a bunch of health education.
At the school, the nursing students did a lot of health education. We taught little preschoolers how to brush their teeth and taught some really important things to the older girls, things like feminine hygiene and how to recognize sexual violence, which was really, really rampant in that part of the world.
And then really fun, we got to do a STEM fair. So the organization really is about empowering these kids to be the next generation of world changers coming from Mai Mahiu, Kenya. And so they're always talking about what's your potential. So we got to show them all the cool jobs you could have with a healthcare or engineering sort of background. So it was really fun.

Derek Smith:
In both cases, very hands-on, very interactive. And for you, Katy, you... And what you saw with the students on the trip as well. Just take us inside, really any direction working with the individuals out there that you got to work with, the people that you got to serve while also learning from.

Katy Vogelaar:
Yeah. I mean, we learned more than we could ever teach. And that's something that is one of the goals of Baylor Missions, is that you go as a learner. And I think that is sometimes a little bit of a shift in the way that we think. We think, "I'm going to go and I'm going to make such a big impact." But really I learned so much from the partners and the Kenyans on the ground that we partnered with about prioritizing relationship over anything else, about knowing somebody's name and recognizing somebody's name. Every time you would go someplace, they would know my name. I was there last year and talked to a couple of people that knew my name the second year that I went, which was just really impactful.
Also, just the idea of community and how we are all working together. Kenya's not a very individualistic country and so they're all about working together as a community. So we really learned way more about community and about seeing other people than we probably gave in terms of our health education.

Derek Smith:
What moments or experiences did you find stretching or did you see, you're kind of looking at your students and you see like, "Oh, this is stretching them a little bit"?

Katy Vogelaar:
Oh, absolutely. I mean, I prepped my students really well that the word that we're going to use on the mission trip is "flexible." You cannot go with a rigid schedule, right? "We had an itinerary, here's what we're going to do, but we have to be flexible." And one of the examples that I'll give is we went to install a water tank, engineering students. We have 10 engineering and 10 nursing students. And it was very clear very quickly that the nursing students would not really be very helpful. We were digging a trench and there was concrete involved and the nursing students were like, "We'll let the engineers handle this."
And so we were kind of looking around, what do we do? We hadn't planned anything. And in the community we were, there were a bunch of kids. And so my nursing students just went outside into the little community area and they just started playing with the kids. And I have a picture on my phone that I'll probably always look at of one of my nursing students just cradling one of these sweet little kids and just loving them so much, going towards them and just investing in them when that wasn't what we were planning to do. We were planning to put in a water tank, but they got down and played with them, sang songs over them. Forrest Frank was playing all the time doing the Forrest Frank dances and it just meant so much to those kids. So that's probably a memory that sticks out that we didn't have it planned, but it was so impactful for my students.

Derek Smith:
Well, that's great. And as you're watching this happen, obviously it's meaningful to you as someone who's educating future nurses. And for you as a faculty member here at Baylor and a practitioner, what did it mean to you to share this experiences with people who will be, whether it's specifically in allergy or asthma or other areas, will be really the following in your footsteps one of these days

Katy Vogelaar:
I've been on a lot of medical mission trips, and there is something incredible about going with students. And I kind of equate it, Derek, to going to Disneyland with your kids. So you at Disneyland as a parent are having fun, but the joy comes from seeing your kids experience Disneyland. And my students would ask me, "Dr. V, what's the best part of this trip?" And I said, with total authenticity, "It's seeing you guys experience this for the first time." It's seeing you experience what it means to step out of your comfort zone and really care for somebody across cultures, to see somebody, to experience firsthand, like Julia mentioned, some of the things that we may not see very clearly here in terms of really stark health inequities.
I am a Baylor nursing grad. I'm really proud to be a grad, but going on mission trips with my nursing students makes me super, super hopeful for the future of my profession. I took some amazing students with me.

Derek Smith:
Julia, she shares the perspective of a faculty member. For you, that faculty interaction is a big part of Baylor Missions trips and again, that discipline-specific nature really leads to some great interactions it sounds like. For you, what impact did being able to learn from faculty members and interact with them in a different way than you do in the classroom? What impact did that have on you?

Julia Pitts:
Absolutely. So the faculty on our trip were Dr. Lahoos and Dr. Pitts. They're both in the science department at Baylor. They first really enhanced our trip by leading meetings before we even went during the spring semester to build a community between us students and them going and to learn about Peru and the histor of MEDLIFE. And then while we were there, even though they already have their careers seeing the way, they still are so focused on learning and growing in that. And they just really modeled asking thoughtful questions, getting to know everyone we were around and then also leading discussions later in the evening for us to talk about the day and our experiences. And just they really modeled what it's like to go to a country and serve humbly to learn.
And Dr. Pitts is actually my mom, which is a unique experience.

Derek Smith:
That's right.

Julia Pitts:
So it was really amazing to see her as a professor and to see her lead. It really did give me a whole new appreciation for her.

Derek Smith:
No, that's pretty cool that you got to share that with your mother for sure. And it's your second missions trip.

Julia Pitts:
Yes, it is.

Derek Smith:
So you've had some very different experiences each of the first two years. And I assume you got to keep going in this direction. This isn't your last one?

Julia Pitts:
I would love to.

Derek Smith:
Yeah?

Julia Pitts:
Yes.

Derek Smith:
That's good. That's good. Let me ask you this. I'm going to put you each on the spot. Has anything that the other one has said, does that raise any questions in your mind for the other one? Julia, did anything Katy said-

Julia Pitts:
Oh, wow.

Derek Smith:
... make you want to ask anything, or Katy, vice versa?

Julia Pitts:
I just really love how you've talked about empowering the people there and to focus on their potential for the future. I think that's so important. That's not really a question. That was just really...

Katy Vogelaar:
And what you said about getting to the root cause, we can teach that in a classroom all day long, but then going and experiencing and seeing, "Oh, these people need steps to their home," something that we don't even think about because typically our homes are built where we can get into them, right?

Julia Pitts:
Absolutely.

Katy Vogelaar:
That just shows me the incredible benefit of taking our students on global service trips because it makes what you learn in the classroom and what you'll keep learning as you continue on in your OT studies about really getting to what's the underlying cause, you're going to think about that and it's going to be really cool.

Derek Smith:
Well, I'm not a health student or a medical practitioner, but I assume in a lot of ways, in a lot of medicine, there's definitely a, well, ask a question, you get this answer and you move on to this. But I think sounds like what both of you are saying, it really helps you break out of just a paradigm that's too linear and just see them see the bigger picture.

Katy Vogelaar:
Absolutely.

Julia Pitts:
Absolutely.

Derek Smith:
Yeah, that's good. That's good. Well, it sounds like you had tremendous experiences. And you both really paint a great picture of, I think, what makes Baylor special. So as we wind down, I want to ask each of you. And Julia, I'll start with you. A student comes up and says... One of your classmates said, "Hey, I heard you went on a missions trip. I was thinking about going on," what would you say to them? What advice would you give to them?

Julia Pitts:
I would say if you're able to go and give the time and money to it, you absolutely should. As a Christian, I believe we are called to be the hands and feet of God and to love others the way Jesus did. I think the manifestation of that is service and going and doing what you can for others, but doing it humbly with a mindset that you're also there to learn. And so if they have the opportunity, then they should go.

Derek Smith:
Well said. Katy, what about you?

Katy Vogelaar:
I would say go as well. Again, if you feel called, go. Even if it's scary. I'm sure it was scary for you to say yes even though your mom was on the trip, which probably helped a little bit. It was scary the first time I stepped out of my comfort zone and went on a global service trip. But go and you will learn more about yourself, you'll learn more about your future profession. I often tell my students that God sometimes uses these experiences to really refine your calling in life, whether it's continuing on your profession or really narrowing down a specialty. And then you learn more about God's church all over the world, and it gives you a lot of hope to know that you and your church back home are singing some of the same songs or doing the same Forrest Frank dances or reading from the same Bible and it really helps to make God's church come alive in a really cool way. So go. Apply and go.

Derek Smith:
That's a great pitch for it. And this was your second trip that you've helped play.

Katy Vogelaar:
Yes.

Derek Smith:
Hopefully more in the future.

Katy Vogelaar:
I'm planning to go next year. Yes.

Derek Smith:
Absolutely. That's good. Well, Katy and Julia, I want to thank you both for taking the time to share. It sounds like tremendous experiences. And you all did a great job really standing in for your fellow colleagues, your fellow classmates in painting that picture. So I want to thank you both.

Katy Vogelaar:
Thank you so much.

Julia Pitts:
Thank you.

Derek Smith:
Appreciate that. Katy Vogelaar from Baylor's Louise Harrington School of Nursing, and Julia Pitts, a rising junior health science studies major, our guest today on Baylor Connections.
I'm Derek Smith. A reminder, you can find this and other programs. The video archive is the Baylor University YouTube channel. And you can find each program online baylor.edu/connections. And you can subscribe on iTunes. Thanks for joining us here on Baylor Connections.