Adventures in Missions

A New Wave of Gap Year Routes: 5 Countries in 9 months

Sign-ups for WR Gap Year are exploding! We’re responding by launching a new route this September to FIVE different countries. Sign up and change the trajectory of your life. Costa Rica 1 month Costa Rica is a hot spot for surfing and just enjoying “pura vida” – literally, “pure life”, it’s a concept of a “chill,” relaxed, laidback way of life. The beautiful beaches that line both coasts are the perfect setting. Among the Central American countries, Costa Rica (“Rich Coast”) lives up to its name. While the natural...

From a Mother Who Lost Her Son: I Still Have Hope for this Generation

World Race Expedition Coaches Gary and Lisa Black serve as missionaries in Spain. They have dedicated their lives to raising up and pouring into the next generation. Almost three years ago, the worst form of tragedy imaginable shook their family: their 19-year-old son, Michael, committed suicide. Today, they are still on the front lines of fighting for this generation. Lisa says it best: despite everything that has happened, she still has hope for this generation. I get it—the lack of hope in our current society: the shootings, the violence, the elections, the human...

This is What Happens When Women Experience Freedom

World Race Alum Erika Michael is on a 6 month Kingdom Journeys trip, sharing hope and healing with women throughout the world. While in Peru, her team held a retreat for women who were able to experience hope, healing, and the freedom of choosing forgiveness. Purple table cloths on tables. Journals written in, and set on the tables. Flowers in tea cups. Banners on the walls. We were all set up and ready for the women. The day we had been planning and praying about had come. We waited on the balcony for the comvie bringing the women. The comvie came and the women poured...

They Sleep on the Streets of Jamaica

When Passporter Katie Hassler set out to pass out food and drinks to the homeless of Jamaica, she had no idea just how much this ministry would impact her. Every week, my Passport team does street ministry in Mandeville, Jamaica. We go into town, buy food and drinks, and walk around, passing out these items to the homeless around town. I’ll never forget our first week of street ministry. It was a beautiful day and the sun was hot on our backs. Cars drove past us blasting reggae music as we walked to the grocery store. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a dirty sheet in the road. But...

Because High School Students Can Change the World

World Race Alum and Adventures Staff Deborah Jones has a few things to say about high school students and her job with the Ambassador program—and it might not be what you think. In July of 2015, I led my first Ambassador trip for Adventures in Missions. Was I expecting it to be a breeze? Maybe. I mean, I had just finished the World Race – 11 countries and 11 months. How difficult could one month be? So I went to the Philippines with one co-leader and 10 high school girls. And let me tell you, it was hard. Try taking ten 14-18 year old girls who have never met...

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....

Author: Adventures