Adventures in Missions

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...

Our Best Stories From 2013

December 31, 2013
Adventures
Mission Trip Stories

It has been a year full of great stories. We’ve seen God show up for his people – both the people we’ve set out to serve in the nations as well as our participants themselves. Below we’ve put together this list of great stories from our programs. We hope they encourage you and remind you that God is always up to something good behind the scenes — even when we don’t see it. And if reading these stories prompts you to be a part of it, we’ve attached all the info you’ll need. We hope you join us in 2014 for another adventure! ...

A New Christmas Tradition

December 26, 2013
Adventures
World Race

Meghan Tschanz, of the July 2012 World Race H Squad, spent last Christmas in Malawi, Africa. It wasn’t the typical Christmas she remembered, and it definitely wasn’t the Christmas she expected. But she learned what the day is really all about. We hope you celebrate today full of love, and we wish you the merriest Christmas. If you know me you know that I love everything about Christmas, from the special drinks at Starbucks to the houses adorned with glittering lights. Last year, I spend Christmas in Malawi on the World Race. At first it was difficult to be in Malawi, without a...

Merry Christmas From the Philippines

December 24, 2013
Adventures
Mission Trip Stories

The Philippines is a country that’s been on all our hearts lately. Besides the relationships that we’ve had with the Filipino people for years through our mission work, it’s been on our hearts after being devastated by a major typhoon this fall. Here at Adventures, we have the privilege of sending teams from all our programs to this island nation. From one week disaster relief trips, to college students spending a semester abroad, to establishing a long-term mission base, we have an ongoing ministry there. This story comes from Allyson Quinn, one of our World Racers, who...

That Weird Feeling After a Mission Trip Is Normal, Promise.

December 19, 2013
Adventures
Missions (General)

At Adventures, we understand that weird feeling you sometimes have after a mission trip. It’s like our normal is no longer, well, normal. Well, that’s — for lack of a better word — normal. In other words, if your life feels a little bit wrecked after a mission trip, congratulations. That’s supposed to happen. We have learned that a mission trip is the perfect opportunity for God to turn your world upside down. Living in true community weans us of our addiction to technology and artificial “social”...

Ice Cream and New Friends: The Missionary Life

Life on the mission field isn’t always construction projects and playing with orphans. Mandy Mackey learned about the importance of building relationships and blessing others while on a World Race: Gap Year trip in Guatemala. Riley, Timmy, and I had one goal as we strolled through town: to bless someone. Sidewalk vendors, construction workers, and shop owners surrounded us, but we didn’t feel drawn to any of them. So we kept walking — until we saw a group of women sitting on the curb. As we approached them, one woman stood up with her toddler. She would have walked right...

Author: Adventures