Adventures in Missions

Why My Heart’s Not Broken for Lesvos

While in Greece on a short term trip, Adventures Fellow Alice Sudlow found something completely unexpected pretty much everywhere she looked: hope. I went to Lesvos prepared to cry. I’d read the news, seen the pictures, heard the stories. I imagined the perilous, sometimes fatal sea crossing from Turkey to Greece and the collective mourning of thousands of families passing through chaotic refugee camps. I expected my heart to be shattered. I expected to be broken by what I would experience, broken in a way I’d never been on the World Race, broken to a depth that would...

Announcing the 2015 Storytellers Contest Winners!

A few weeks ago we announced the 2015 Best of Adventures Storytellers Contest. We asked you to view our favorite pictures, watch our favorite videos, and read our favorite blogs. And we gave you this reason: “We are our stories, so it’s important to live good ones. But living a good story isn’t the end. Good stories need to be shared. God has given many of our missionaries unique abilities to tell stories beautifully, through writing, photography, and videography, and we want to celebrate the best stories.” So for the third year in a row, we hosted the Best of...

Can You Tell Us How to Talk to Jesus?

While in Ghana on her World Race, Adventures Staff Nicole Ricketts was asked a surprising question by a crowd of children. It happened one night after showing the Jesus Film in northern Ghana. My teammate, Will, gave a message after we finished the film, and we gathered to pray with whoever wanted it. This was a very interesting moment for me. I knew God was up to big things that evening. At the same time, I felt a heavy spirit of religion over many people. By religion, I mean repetitive practices without understanding of what was truly going on. So many people were repeating the prayers...

Click Here to Change the World

January 19, 2016
Adventures
Staff

As we begin a new year, Adventures Staff Nate Hauser shares his secret to living life to its fullest. Does your 2016 already feel just like 2015? Think for a moment on two things: your childhood and your now (whatever it is). As a child, I remember being consumed with hope of an infinitely possible future. I was going to be an astronaut, explore distant lands, go where no one had gone before. I was going to be a filmmaker. I spent my youth studying the likes of Kubrick and Spielberg. I’m a sucker for a butter-soaked popcorn blockbuster. Then as I matured, I wanted to be a pediatric...

2015 Storytellers Contest: Vote For Your Favorite Stories!

We are our stories, so it’s important to live good ones. But living a good story isn’t the end. Good stories need to be shared. God has given many of our missionaries unique abilities to tell stories beautifully, through writing, photography, and videography, and we want to celebrate the best stories. So for the fourth year in a row, we’re hosting the Best of Adventures Storytellers Contest. We’ve been accepting submissions from our missionaries of their best stories from the mission field for the last month. We’ve narrowed the field to 18 finalists—six...

We Are All Refugees

Seth Barnes, the founder of Adventures in Missions, shares his thoughts on our refugee status in light of the refugee crisis. Not since WW2 has there been such an exodus of people. Nearly half of Syria’s population is either on the move or trying to get to a safe place. How will we respond? In the wake of the incidents in Paris, Beruit, and Mali, fear is rising. Many are saying, “We need to build bigger walls around our borders.” Kevin Gray, my partner in Lesvos Greece, wrote me to discuss the refugee situation. He’d been given responsibility for a camp that...

Skateboards and Jesus

December 29, 2015
Adventures
Youth Missions

Trip leader Dayna Bickham saw some of the most powerful ministry in Western PA happen in a skatepark instead of a church. They flew past us with the whirl and bump of practiced skaters. Grinding the rail and landing the ollie. But more than that, these guys exuded Jesus: all from the deck of a skateboard – or on top of inlines. There was even a 10-year-old dominating a scooter in ways I have never imagined. Tricks were happening everywhere. In the middle of rural Pennsylvania, these kids are given a crime-free place to skate. and in return they listen to a quick 15 minute sermon....

Can Dreams Come True in the City that Never Sleeps?

While doing homeless outreach in New York City, participant David Prill was able to share God’s love and hope with those who need to hear it most. While in New York, we were able to work with the relief bus, which goes around helping to those in need. They supply the homeless population with shelter, food, information regarding health, information regarding detox, and other helpful items. As our team worked specifically in the serving food, drinks, distributing socks, and praying with people, I didn’t expect my favorite part to be talking and praying with strangers. We...

My Last Night With the Refugees

On her last night in Greece, Kelly Anne Broderick of 2015 Y Squad reflects on all experienced in her 5 weeks serving on the front lines of the Refugee Crisis. We left the way we came. It was fitting. Around 10:45 PM it started to sprinkle, which turned into a pretty heavy downpour. I’d just brought all of the boxes of clothes in from outside of the gate and was sorting baby clothes on our newly-installed shelves. Stopping, I sat and listened to the rain hit the tin roof above, once again listening to Jesus romancing my soul. He knew what I needed to close out my time with...

They Said He Would Die, but God Said He Would Live

Bit by a spitting cobra at age 17 and told he would die, Austin promised God to serve Him with his life if he were healed. Now — a year later — Austin is making good on that promise. One year ago in Swaziland, 17-year-old Austin* rolled over in his sleep and was bitten on the finger by a spitting cobra. Half asleep, Austin didn’t realize what happened and fell back into his dreams. When he awoke the next morning, Austin’s arm was grossly swollen. He was in a lot of pain, and immediately went to the hospital to receive anti-venom. But by the time he was treated, his...

Why It’s Better to Give Than Receive

December 1, 2015
Adventures
Youth Missions

While helping a local church in Puerto Rico, Ashton Hamlett experienced one of the greatest mysteries of mission trips – finding those she went to serve teaching her more than she ever could have imagined. It’s funny the things we take for granted – the things we don’t realize are truly special. The church my team partnered with in Puerto Rico wasn’t going to be able to have a VBS this year. They had 15 children who wanted to attend, but no volunteers to run it. So that’s what my team did. Everyone in the church was so excited to have us there. They...

I’m Not From Philly and He Could Tell

November 24, 2015
Adventures
Family Mission Trips

Adventures short term teams in Philadelphia partner with our long term missionaries and churches in local communities. In a city where the street you live on and family is everything, Adventures Staff Melinda Gute saw the work God is doing there firsthand. “You’re not from Philly, are you?” a man in the park said to me on our last night in Philly. Our host church was hosting its weekly cookout in the park across the street. I stood in line for burgers and hotdogs, when the man nearby spoke to me. I responded with a small smirk and said, “No, how can you...

Author: Adventures