Students go off the grid at Heart Village in Lake Wales

LAKE WALES, Fla. (FOX 13) - Off a rocky dirt road, on the campus of Warner University in Lake Wales, Florida, there's a different way of living for students.

"We are a simulated developing world village right here in Central Florida," said Phillip Murphy, the executive director of Heart Village.

It's a 15-week, hands-on course preparing students for missionary work in remote regions of the world.

The lodging isn't like a typical dorm room.

"Our beds are bunk beds. They're built into the wall. There's no insulation in the walls, so it gets kind of cold," said student Trenton Crain.

There's a full garden of fruits and vegetables to tend to every day.

"There's several hundred different crops growing here. Things from all over the world, conventional vegetables as well as all sorts of things from all around the world," said garden manager, Josh Jamison. 

The students cook all of their meals from what's grown there. They care for animals too.

All contact with friends and family is cut off. They cook all their meals from what's grown here.

"The first four or five weeks you live without a phone or without outside contact so it was hard to adjust because you were doing things you've never done before," said student Kaylee Conklin.

Students come from all over the country for this experience.

"I want to be able to take the things that I've learned here and go on the mission field and use them and help people out where they're at," said Crain.

They are giving up their first world comforts for a higher global purpose.

"If we can help a family or a community not just survive but thrive and help our students to thrive while they are working with them, it's successful," said Murphy.

For more information on Heart Village, visit https://heartvillage.org/.