Silence.

A sea of blue and white uniforms begins to move as the teens fidget and squirm. Jay Dannelley and Chris Reasner wait for someone -- anyone -- to bail them out. Just as they're about to toss this exchange into the hall of fame of awkward moments, some of the students at this school in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, start talking.

"Drugs," says one. "Abuse," says another. "Anger."

Slightly stunned by the response, Dannelley and Reasner encourage the class to share their struggles with others. They also discuss how faith in God can change lives.

"They come to school having a lot of baggage with them," says Dannelley, wearing a Texas Tech baseball cap from the school he attends and a T-shirt with the words "Jesus Christ: King of Kings" on the front.

"We try to tell them, 'You can change your school. You can make it better ... if you are on fire for the Lord.'"

During a four-month stint with the IMB's short-term "Hands On" missions effort, Dannelley, a member of First Baptist Church in Pecos, Texas, and Reasner, a member of Easthaven Baptist Church in Kalispell, Mont., worked in several high schools in Port Elizabeth. They taught classes on self-esteem and shared their Christian faith during sports clinics. At the end of each day, they hoped to have influenced young lives and learned something more about missions.

They are two of 44 college and seminary student participants in Hands On throughout Africa. Dannelley and Reasner recently completed their assignment and a new team will arrive on the field this fall.

Others are working in Tanzania, Niger, Senegal and the Ivory Coast. In 2009, opportunities to serve will be available around the world.

A TASTE OF MISSIONS

Hands On is designed to give young people a taste of life on the mission field by spending a semester or two overseas working alongside missionaries sharing the love of Christ. Various Baptist seminaries and colleges are working with the International Mission Board to offer bachelor-level missions studies that include participation in Hands On.

"I think with coming for a longer period of time you really get to experience the culture," says Reasner, a student at the University of Montana.

"You really get to see what life is like because it becomes your lifestyle."

With its scenic beaches and warm temperatures, Port Elizabeth attracts tourists, but Reasner and Dannelley saw a darker side.

They worked with the Cape Malay, a people of mixed races who trace their ancestry to Malaysian slaves of Dutch settlers. The slaves intermarried among a group of South Africans, now known as the "bushmen." The Cape Malay live in some of the roughest areas, where 70 percent of the city's crime is reported.

"The schools are the most dangerous of all," says Wayne Barros, a Cape Malay and local Baptist pastor who has been working in high schools for the past 12 years.

"There have been a lot of cases of stabbing, getting guns into school."

One evening while riding on a street near his church, Barros spots a couple of young people behind a bush lighting what looks like a cigarette. Barros says they're not smoking tobacco.

"Dagga," he says, pronouncing it da-ha. It's what Americans know as marijuana. Continued...