Adventures in Missions

Celebrating The People And Places We’ve Fallen In Love With

This year, we’ve focused on stories inspired by our We Are the World Race Campaign. This month, we’re sharing stories inspired by women on the mission field. (Don’t worry guys, your turn is coming next month!) Our experiences with women worldwide have taught us what womanhood really means. Women are wired for intimate relationships and deep, abiding love. And even when that “love” is used to take advantage of them—things like human trafficking, prostitution, and exploitation, to name a few—women teach us about beauty, femininity, joy, and...

Not OK: When Something Beautiful Is Used for Evil

February 6, 2014
Adventures
Human Trafficking

How a Ladyboy Found Freedom in the Red Light District

February 4, 2014
Adventures
Human Trafficking

Sometimes it doesn’t take long to change someone’s life. Justin Farmer, of the September 2012 World Race J Squad, learned what God can do in a month when we’re willing to serve. His name is Q. He’s about five feet, four inches tall, like most of the Thai men around here, and from the moment I met him, I loved him. Actually, we met him twice. The first time, he was dressed from head to toe like a woman. Blending in with all of the other ladyboys, he sat behind the bar and smiled at us. We asked for his name, and he replied, Q. Nothing more was said. He left,...

How the Desire to Learn Spanish Changed My Life

January 30, 2014
Adventures
Long Term Missions

This week we caught up with Noe Rivera, the Co-Field Director of Adventures in Missions’ new base in Guatemala to ask him a few questions about his story and the vision of the Guatemala team. Noe Rivera has played every role imaginable in the World Race. He’s been a Racer (on the January 2010 M Squad), a raised up squad leader, an alumni squad leader (on the January 2011 T Squad), a trainer, a squad mentor and a field support staff member. All told, Noe has been directly involved with 26 World Race squads over a three-year span. And now he’s playing his newest role –...

Announcing the 2014 Storyteller’s Contest Winners!

January 28, 2014
Adventures
Mission Trip Stories

A few weeks ago we announced the 2014 Best of Adventures Storyteller’s 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 second year in a row, we hosted the Best...

Singing Songs, Fixing Hearts: What I Learned About Disaster Recovery

When Ashley Peterson heard about the typhoon barreling toward the Philippines, she knew her upcoming trip wasn’t going to go as planned. Instead of meeting with ministry contacts, she shifted her focus to disaster recovery work. Like many who traveled to the Philippines just after Typhoon Haiyan, Ashley wanted to assist with relief work in hard-hit Tacloban. But she wasn’t able to get there. “I was really upset,” remembers Ashley. “We couldn’t do what I thought we’d come to do.” But then Ashley met a missionary who suggested a different...

Because It’s Not About Us

January 21, 2014
Adventures
Staff

This weekend Stephanie Bernotas, one of our staff writers and World Race alumna, served at Passion 2014 here in Atlanta, Georgia. As someone familiar with ministry, she thought she was ready. But this is her story of how God rocked her with truth she had forgotten. Missions. Ministry. Calling. Those three words evoke images of Mother Theresa feeding starving children, world-renown musicians on stage in front of thousands, and maybe a book deal or two. They sound just glamorous enough to make you well-known, just difficult enough to prove your love for Jesus is well-founded, and just...

Why Short-Term Missions Matters for Social Justice

January 16, 2014
Adventures
Short Term Missions

Last January some of our Adventures in Missions staff members attended the Passion 2013 conference in Atlanta. They worshipped alongside 60,000 college students from around the world and learned about practical ways to fight against modern-day slavery and human trafficking. Passion 2014 starts tomorrow, and we’re excited to hear what this year’s group of students learns and see the impact they make in the world in the next year. Today we’re pulling a post from the archives from one of our staff writers, Emily Tuttle. At Passion 2013 Emily learned how...

Announcing the Finalists for the 2014 Best of Adventures Storytellers Contest: Voting Begins Today!

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 second year in a row, we’re hosting the Best of Adventures Storytellers Contest. We’ve been accepting submissions for the last month from our missionaries—blogs, videos, and photos—of their best stories from the mission field. We’ve narrowed...

How I Learned to Live

Before Laura Kurtz‘s trip to Nicaragua, she didn’t know what to do with her life. After 56 days of living in community with her Passport team, she returned home with a vision. When I signed up to go to Nicaragua, I was running. Running from reality, from growing up, from the future. My college graduation loomed large only a few weeks away, and I was spending entirely too much time wearing suits, shaking hands, and talking about where I saw myself. The trouble was, I didn’t see myself anywhere. While I’m not too proud of my splendid display of cowardice in what...

7 Tips For Being A Short Term Missionary

Racers Jay and Jenn Dannelley, of the January 2013 M Squad, were on a team that hosted two World Race Exposure girls for a month of their Race. These girls joined with the Dannelley’s team to see what life on the Race is like. In honor of them, Jay and Jenn wrote this list of tips for being a short-term missionary. Since we’ve sent out over 100,000 missionaries, we wanted to share them with you. 1. Pack, then leave half of it home. You don’t need as much as you think you do. Even if you do end up forgetting something, you’re just giving God the chance to show up for...

9 Reasons To Resolve To Spend Summer Overseas

The New Year just began and you’ve probably made and broken a few resolutions. But we think resolutions can be made every day, not just on January 1st. If you’ve resolved to do something awesome this year, or if you want to resolve to do something awesome, we’ve got just the ticket. If you’re a college student wondering what to do with your summer, wonder no longer. We’ve got trips from Nepal to Swaziland, China to Guatemala, Thailand to Kenya, and many more. So, why consider it? 1. You’ll see true thankfulness firsthand and learn to appreciate even the...

Author: Adventures