RIVERSIDE, Calif. (June 25, 2014) – California Baptist University sent out its 400^th volunteer service team June 24 with a celebration that included prayer, cake and commemorative T-shirts.

The team, which will work in New York for three weeks, was also the 45^th group of students, faculty and staff of the year and part of the fourth and final wave of International Service Projects (ISP), U.S. Projects (USP) and Summer of Service (SOS) teams for 2014. The last 11 groups for 2014 went to France, Spain, United Kingdom, Japan, Thailand, Central Asia, East Asia, South Asia and Baltimore. This year, more than 400 participants have served in 16 countries.

CBU launched its flagship global mobilization program in 1997. Jared Dobbins, assistant director of mobilization, noted that the university sent out the 100^th team in 2007 and took just seven years to send out another 300 teams.

"California Baptist University trains and sends out more short-term volunteers in the summer than any other university in the country," said Kristen White, director of global mobilization. The reason CBU has such a strong number of volunteers is because the university is tapping into what God has already put in people, she said.

"They've come to CBU to get a professional skill set and we're saying ‘look, you can use this to be a kingdom professional,'" White explained. "That's the new phrase we're really trying to stress. We tell them: ‘Live your purpose by being a kingdom professional and we don't just want you to prepare for the world when you graduate, we want you to engage the world while you're here. We're not going to just tell you to do it, we're going to go with you and do it.'"