Adventures in Missions

God Encounters All Generations

August 22, 2013
Adventures
Youth Missions

If taking care of orphans and preaching is not your thing, don't let that stop you from doing missions. All you need is a willing spirit to let God change you. A group of youth discovered this during one of our Adventures Encounter trips to Chicago, where the happiness of God went above all barriers and went straight to the heart. Our youth participants found themselves shocked at where God showed up, and they shared this story. During our time in Chicago, we had the chance to visit a couple different senior centers. Some of the students have never been to one...

Help Us Make Anthony’s Dream Come True

One of the best things about being a missionary is getting to be part of individual people's stories. We've met and fallen in love with thousands of people around the world, and we've gotten to help write little pieces of their stories – pieces where they understand how much God loves them, pieces where they learn to love each other, and pieces where their dreams come true. But sometimes someone's story stops early – it gets cut off when tragedy strikes, and we don't get to see how it would have ended. That's what happened to Anthony, and...

5 Reasons Married Couples Should Go On Mission Trips

Recently, Joe and Brandi Mendenhall went on a short term trip to Haiti with Adventures Encounter. They left their two young children for a week and trusted God to do something huge on their first mission trip. After their return home, Brandi joined us in a brainstorm about why married couples should go. 1. You'll fall more in love with your spouse. Well, we can't exactly promise that – you've gotta want it. But we've consistently seen God do incredible things in the marriages that have gone to the field. You get to see your spouse step more into who God...

The Day Our Translator Asked Jesus Into Her Heart

August 13, 2013
Adventures
Youth Missions

Adventures staff member Nicole Ricketts recently led an Adventures Youth trip to Nicaragua where God taught her that sometimes the people he sends us to reach aren't the ones we planned on. I could tell our team was a little uneasy when they found out two of our translators weren't followers of Christ. It seems natural to want translators for your missions team who understand the basis of what you are trying to communicate, but God had bigger plans for our team this week. As I was preparing for this trip, the Lord told me a lot of my ministry would be outside...

Running to a Crazy God

Laura Kurtz wanted to run from a lot in life (becoming an adult, changes, what her life was), and she thought a Passport trip was the perfect means to run away. Instead, what she found was much deeper, and more life changing than she ever expected. When I signed up to go to Nicaragua, I was running. Running from reality, from growing up, from the future (futile), and mostly from fear. However, I didn’t run to a third-world country, or an orphanage, or even into the arms of a smiling child; I ran to my Savior. Francis Chan tackles this topic in his book Forgotten God, where...

Announcing New Mission Trip Opportunities for 2014!

"Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.'" -Matthew 28:19 Therefore go. Jesus told us to do it. All followers of Christ are commanded to go into the world and share the gospel with people who don't know him. Going looks different for everyone, but we're all supposed to do it. Going can mean moving to Africa, or going...

I Bought a Girl for $23

August 1, 2013
Adventures
World Race

Katie Olson, of the July 2013 World Race Q Squad, was ready to fight sex trafficking with all that she had. However, when she arrived in Thailand, she found it harder than she expected. Thailand was darker than she imagined and it was hard to form relationships through the language barrier. But through persistent prayer and love, Katie was able to shine a light into the darkness of human trafficking that she will never forget. Let me tell you about a story about my squad mate Brittany. Brittany is the loveliest woman of God I have ever known. In a short amount of time...

I Left Training Camp Wrecked

Meredith Moyer, of the September 2013 Passport Immersion squad, just finished Training Camp. She came a hot mess and left wrecked for ordinary life. Read more of her story below. I came into training camp a mess. I came into training camp hating myself. I came into training camp blaming myself. I came into training camp wrecked. Have you ever just felt like giving up? Like nothing is even worth your energy that day? God knew what I was going to get out of this week and He didn’t let me clock out. I had wanted to just go home after a couple of days at training camp. Satan knew how...

Passport Immersion Training Camp in a Nutshell

This past week in North Georgia, our new September 2013 Passport Immersion squad trained for their nine-month adventure around the world. We thought the best way to tell you about their training camp was to do it in their own words and photos. Photos via samccomb, dyannarenee, mandymay13, lipstickgospel, thopp37, and Katie Rowland What's one thing about Training Camp you didn't expect? + "The amazing teachings and staff!" (Tara Hoppman) + "How much God spoke to me – overwhelmingly!" (Taylor Horwood) + "The awesome community within...

Open Arms

July 22, 2013
Adventures
Guatemala

It all started one day at the orphanage when I was left alone in a room with one of the nurses, Angelina. Being the extravert that I am I couldn’t stay silent long and attempted to start a conversation in my very broken Spanish. Within 5 minutes we were both very confused, and Brent came and saved the day with his perfect translation skills! I have been desperate to maintain some traditional Guatemalan recipes, so Brent asked Angelina if she would be willing to write down her favorite one for me. She did and I looked at it…very, very confused. The directions...

In Good Time

July 22, 2013
Adventures
Guatemala

I knew these eight weeks would fly by. I knew I would be at the end of the trip wondering how it could have gone so fast. So here I am, trying to grasp the fact that this time next week I will have already been home for a day, that I will be getting ready to start my senior year of college while planning and praying about what to do next. I went into this trip believing God would give me an answer about what to do after college, even if it was just knowing whether or not I would stay in the States or go abroad. It...

night two at the orphanage: complete!

July 21, 2013
Adventures
Guatemala

I don’t know what it is about that place that draws me in. Our first time working the night shift at the orphanage was so hard, so when I heard myself asking the director to let us come again I immediately began dreading it just a tiny bit. But maybe this excerpt from my journal entry from the first night at the orphanage (written at 2:26 AM) will help you understand why I had to go back: +++ “Me and Joybelle are sitting in a closet in room #4 at the orphanage. I can hear teeth grinding, people snoring, and moaning. It’s kind of eerie. It’s been an amazing experience...

Author: Adventures