Zeke Wachtman & Cross-Cultural Living

(From the left) Zeke Wachtman joins fellow interns Will Harry and Grace Hamilton, and TWR staff member Fiona Kennedy for the summer serving in West Africa. 

College students often spend summers enjoying freedom from the classroom but working hard to earn enough for the next semester. Purdue University student Zeke Wachtman chose a different route. This summer, he followed God’s will by crossing the Atlantic Ocean and sharing the love of Christ.

As a rising junior, Zeke is gaining cross-cultural experiences by serving with TWR in West Africa. Although the foods are different and he can’t pronounce any of the African dishes, Zeke says it’s all been tasty. Using his electrical engineering skills, Zeke works with the broadcast operations team on multiple projects.

What projects have you been doing?

I’ve had a wide variety of projects. Some are traditional electrical engineering tasks, like working on a power supply and a radio frequency buffer, which is part of the chain of things that we need to create a signal to broadcast. I’ve also gotten to work around the site, dig a culvert with a backhoe and smooth out our roads with a tractor.

What led you to joining TWR?

I heard about TWR from a friend who met the traveling team, a group that mobilizes Christians at college campuses. He presented the internship as combining my major with missions, and I thought that sounded pretty cool.

What’s your favorite part of the internship?

I’ve really enjoyed getting to know some locals, and there’s a lot of freedom when we’re not at work. If we want, we’re free to go and explore the city, which is a blast.

What is one of your biggest challenges this summer?

Definitely the language barrier. It can be frustrating not being able to communicate, but all the locals are very patient, and we can usually figure it out.

When and how did you get interested in missions?

I got interested in missions in college. It wasn’t a big revelation or anything like that, just a gradual change of the heart through seeing the Lord’s desire to be known in all the Earth in the Bible. I've been on a mission trip once before to the Dominican Republic for a week with Students International. I got to work with their media team, so we went around and took pictures to help promote the ministry.

How is this internship preparing you for your future?

The internship is preparing me for the future in a big way. First off, I’m learning about engineering, which will be useful in my classes, future internships and jobs. I’m also learning a lot about this culture and living cross-culturally in general, which I’m positive will be useful for the rest of my life.

What have you been doing for fun in West Africa?

Athletically, this summer has been a lot better than I expected. I wasn’t planning on a gym or a place to play basketball, and we have both! That’s been a lot of fun and a great way to meet locals and build connections with them.

Fun fact: Zeke played on 17 different intramural sports teams last semester!

Images: (top, banner) (from the left) Zeke, fellow interns Will Harry and Grace Hamilton, and TWR staff member Fiona Kennedy explore the local town, (middle, right) Zeke (left) spends time learning from a member of the local TWR staff in West Africa.