APU’s Night Market returned on Tuesday night as a fun activity for students to help raise money for summer mission trips and promote clubs on campus.

Last week on Tuesday, Feb. 21, the Night Market returned to Cougar Walk on east campus. The event ran from 5-8 p.m. and featured student-ran booths selling baked goods, food, handmade crafts, clothes, art and more. 

Along with the lights, Cougar Walk was decorated with flags of different countries hanging above the booths. 

“What is happening tonight is that everyone is fundraising for their teams because global mission trips leave this summer,” said junior Emily Guerrero who is going to Romania this summer.

Each booth represented the country that the students are traveling to during the summer for missionary work. To raise money, booths hosted fun games, like hitting a piñata and Mario Kart and sold items from the country they are going to, such as handmade jewelry, art, vintage clothes, accessories, books, plants and more.

Each team will do different types of missionary work within each country. 

“A lot of the ministry we’re doing is evangelizing to kids who never heard about God through sports. We’re also getting enriched through Egyptian culture. We hope to see God move over there,” said Daniel Hunsaker, a senior accounting major, who is going to Egypt this summer with his team.

Junior nursing major Hannah Linebaugh, sophomore psychology major David Herring, freshman honors and psychology major Jordyn Caviness and junior allied help major Shaleia Wall-Wilson are one of the teams going to Ensenada, Mexico.

Specifically, they are a part of the education team and will be working hands-on with children in Ensenada. They will share the gospel through educational activities to help with learning and cognition skills.

Another team represented at the Night Market is going to Uganda. Kylea Moshier, a junior business management and honors humanity major, and APU alumna Alison Bylsma will be serving at a Ugandan primary school.

“We’ll be doing a lot of community development, teaching, and ministry within the church there,” said Moshier.

Besides the mission teams fundraising that night, campus clubs also hosted booths to help promote and bring awareness to their clubs.

Jocelyn Brambila, a junior journalism and political science major, came out to represent the Latin American Student Association. “We represent a large portion of APU. Since APU is an HSI [Hispanic-Serving Institution], we try to represent the Hispanic community on campus and bring people together,” said Jocelyn.

To cultivate a community, the Latin American Student Association hosts a talent show at the beginning of the year and provides resume-building workshops and professional headshots to its members. 

Overall, Tuesday’s Night Market was a fun way to socialize with friends and fellow students, learn more about clubs on campus and help out our community for their upcoming mission trips.

Photo courtesy of Luke Perez