John Brown University is offering students a chance to go to Ukraine and India this summer.

For the first time in JBU history, students interested in the Soviet Union and ministry have the opportunity to visit Ukraine and get six hours of credit this summer.

Dan Lambert, professor of biblical studies, who has been to Ukraine before, will lead this trip with Lisa Corry, assistant director of discipleship.

This will be a trip where students will encounter a language and culture different from anything they have experienced before, Lambert said.

He said Ukraine is not a healthy country financially, politically and socially. He also said that there will not only be learning opportunities within a classroom setting but that the students will be out talking to people and learning what the church is doing in the nation.

"Students will be spending time with children, orphans and families," he said.

The group will get out of Western Europe and see the impact communism still has on the country 20 years after its fall.

"It is like stepping 100 years back in time," Lambert said.

The students will stay at Kiev Theological Seminary, which has a new five-story dorm, for four weeks and spend one of the weeks at a language camp teaching English. There, the students will experience how the majority of the population lives, Lambert said.

The cost for the trip will be $5,600 with everything included, and the goal is for 12 students to go. A due date for the applications is not set yet, Lambert said.

JBU has also added a mission trip to India to the summer programs.

Ronald Johnson, director of Walton international scholiarship program, said the trip is for people who have India on their heart.

Johnson said the purpose of the trip is to emerge students in the Indian culture, get a countercultural experience and a closer walk with the Lord.

Johnson's son-in-law is Indian and will be organizing activities for the students to do in India. The students will learn about the Hindu faith, the gospel in India and how to evangelize to Indian people. Also, the students will be going to villages to evangelize, go on prayer walks, and visit Hindu temples, Johnson said.

"This trip will prepare the team members to be spiritually and emotionally equipped," he said.

Johnson said that it is good for us to be shaken up as believers and think about what we really have to offer people in the villages,

"Jesus is not just another god to put on a shelf," he said.

When Johnson came back from India with a group of 18 students in 2007, he said he knew he wanted to go back. He said the students that were on the last trip said they came back changed. Unfortunately, sickness stood in the way of him going back to India the following year.

Now, three years later he wishes to take a small group of five to six students.

Johnson said that India is a place where Westerners are respected, and Indians are open to having students come in.

The trip will cost about $3,500, and applications are due on Nov. 13.

Life is full of complicated, awkward relationships. For this reason, Jackson Dunn, University Relationships Coordinator, said the Center for Relationship Enrichment (CRE) dedicates one week every semester to try to help students deal with problematical issues.

During October 26-30, the CRE brought Acts of Renewal to Relationships Week. Dunn said the goal was to open up conversation about common problems that most people deal with.

Acts of Renewal is a performing group comprised of a married couple who travel the country and use comedic theatre to help students learn and laugh about difficult situations.

"What they bring is so unique and hilarious," Dunn said.

During Tuesday's chapel, Jim Shores and Carol Anderson-Shores performed a skit demonstrating how a dysfunctional family can make it hard to enjoy visiting home during the holidays. This skit was full of eccentric family members including a lesbian aunt, a grandmother with Alzheimer's disease and parents who recently divorced and cannot stop fighting with each other.

However, the key point anchoring this performance is that in every difficult situation, having a healthy, wholehearted relationship with God will help heal whatever wound life has inflicted, Jim said.

Jim also gave the advice to seek counseling, have honest friends that will keep you accountable, and of course, laugh.

Sophomore Gibbs Kuguru said that he thought what they were doing is good, and although he did not laugh as much as most people, he enjoyed chapel and wanted to go the performance dealing with gender differences.

"I don't know that much about girls, so I thought that they could definitely help me," Kuguru said.

Jim and Carol met at an acting academy in Houston, TX called A.D. Player. Carol said that her desire was to express a worldview that hungered for God through theatre. Her first performance was at Harvard University performing a skit called, "Size Seven Forever." This act brought attention to her talent, she said, and when she was asked to make more skits, she invited her fiancŽ Jim to perform with her. Their first major conference was one week prior to their wedding.

Carol said that when they go to college campuses, they ask what the campus needs to hear, and then they write a skit that promotes a specific change in the hearts of students.

Carol said that when students tell them their stories, they often start with the phrase, "I've never told anyone this, but..." She said that students tend to feel safe telling the couple something private because the group will usually be gone in a week, so it is not too intimidating.

They have been involved in their ministry for 18 years, and although the work does get tiring, Jim said, they are thrilled to engage with students and help them heal.

However, the couple stresses that they are not counselors, so the advice they give is to go get professional help and have a relationship with God. They do not want students to assume that they are therapists as well as performers.

"We just want to speak to their hearts and help students not to feel alone," Carol said.

Along with regularly scheduled chapels, the Acts of Renewal performed additional skits throughout the week. Together, they addressed stress and the Sabbath, and communicating with the opposite sex Tuesday afternoon and evening. They also met separately with At the Well to discuss eating disorders and Stone's Throw to discuss healthy male sexuality Wednesday night.

Three classroom projectors were stolen from Walker Student Center sometime between Oct. 18 and Oct. 19, totaling a loss of $6,000.

Mike O'Neal, campus safety coordinator, said that the classrooms robbed - 223, 230, 231 - had been locked on Oct 18, and then officers discovered at 3:00 a.m. Oct 19 that the Sharp projectors were missing. O'Neal said the thieves would have "had to break in to do it," but he and the Siloam Springs Police Department would not provide details because neither wanted to compromise the current police investigation into the theft.

Initially, it was not thought to have been a theft. Lee Schrader, coordinator of communication technology said that he had been asked after his morning IT meeting on Oct. 19 if there had been any remodeling going on in Walker to explain the missing projectors. After saying there had not, he went to Walker to see the classrooms.

"It just looked like a normal classroom," Schrader said. "Someone had covered their tracks because nothing was out of place, except the projector was gone. The wires were pushed up in the ceiling. Ceiling tile was back in place."

Both Schrader and O'Neal thought the crime had been somewhat planned.

Schrader said the thieves had knowingly only taken what was valuable, leaving the remotes and power cords behind, and that they had to have brought wire cutters to cut through the cable locks that secured the devices.

"Honestly, it's fairly easy for someone who plans it out, which is unfortunate," Schrader said.

O'Neal said that those responsible would have needed "prior knowledge of what was going on inside of Walker," such as the fact that the center is open 24-hours a day.

The thieves may have a difficult time if they want to sell the projectors, as Schrader said each has a serial number registered to a national database which is supposed to be checked by people operating places such as pawn shops.

Theft of projectors is nothing new. On April 6, a projector was stolen from WSC 223. Both the Oct. and April incidents of projector theft are still under investigation.

Schrader said that each device was worth $2,000 brand new, coming to a total of $6,000 for three. According to the Arkansas State Legislature, those responsible could be charged with class B felony, meaning possible prison time because the value of property exceeded $2,500.