Author: Adventures

Why Human Trafficking is Not OK and How You Can Help End It

  Slavery is wrong.  You know it, and we know it. So we're teaming up with END IT to shine a light on modern slavery.   Every Tuesday for the next five weeks, we'll be highlighting stories of trafficking, injustice, and freedom. We'll share stories from Passport participants and other Adventures missionaries about their experiences with human trafficking around the world – stories of heartbreak, stories that shock you, stories of how slavery is just not OK.    And stories of hope.  ...

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Cliche But True

      Well people prepare yourself for the most cliché and typical missionary post of your life. I’m about to tell you how blessed I truly am after being here, even after such a short time. I know what you’re thinking “oh great another missionary telling me how I need to eat all my food because there are starving child in Africa”, but that’s NOT what I want to say at all.       So here we go, I was sitting at the dump today talking to this family while they ate lunch. (When I say talking I mean barely picking up any of their...

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Missions in America: Philadelphia

Missions. When you hear that word, it's natural to think of exotic locations and faraway lands. To see hungry African children who may have never heard the name Jesus. To imagine the smell of garbage on the streets in India. But the mission field starts here in America. Elizabeth and Frank Varaso serve in Kensington — one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Philadelphia. Mission teams helped convert the empty lot beside their home into a safe place for neighbors to gather, build relationships, and grow in their faith.         ...

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Guillermo and Pedro

It all started with God telling me to "be ready to recieve." He also went on to tell me "be ready to recieve bad news, but venture forth with good news." So, that left me with a shaky assurance that God was going to do something. The good thing is that I was assured that that bad news was not that my family wasn't in trouble or something worse.  So, my team and I went to the Santo Tomas market to pray for the bars, and the marred gentlemen who reside there. We walked to a very shady and dark bar that said something in Spanish. The men in the club across from...

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Can a College Mission Trip Change Your Life?

Gloriel Taylor and her Passport team spent last fall semester in Thailand, serving with a local ministry and ministering to the girls enslaved in prostitution on Bangla Road. She knew she would change lives but the life that changed most was hers.   Others who have been around the block will tell you, "You're going to be the one who gets impacted. You're going to be the one who changes." Looking back, I never expected this much change.   Before I came on this trip I NEVER prayed out loud unless I had to, not even in a small group of people, even if...

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Oh the irony…

Lord please give me the eyes to see how you see. Pausing to absorb the scenery as I walk along the dusty roads of Puerto Barrios, I notice to my left sits a hibiscus bush intertwined in a metal fence. I come up close and gracefully lift the delicate red flower that hangs there, perfect in form. My eyes follow the plant down to the roots where garbage of all kind is scattered there below. Hmmm, waste birthing beauty instead of beauty birthing more beauty. Not what you'd expect.  Merriam-Webster defines irony as "incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of...

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We are not alone

We started out last week going out to the children’s hospital here in Puerto Barrios. I was a little nervous walking in, not knowing what I might find. The rooms reminded me of something out of an old war movie. Old, uncomfortable beds and a handful of patients all put together in one room with different injuries and illnesses. No privacy at all. It being a children’s hospital, the room was also filled families and parents sitting with their sick children. Looking around the room, one little boy in particular stole my heart. He was wearing old, ratty clothes made for man twice...

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Life over here

Life in America taught me to be self sufficient. It taught me that we are what we do so we better be doing something pretty great with our lives We better be writing ourselves a pretty great story to live out and to tell.  But life here in Guatemala, with God and my lovely team, is teaching me something completely different.  For so long I have taken it upon myself to be the grower of my own spiritual fruit, the keeper of all my emotions, and the controller of how I am presenting myself to others and how they receive me. But God told me to abide in him. He directed me to John 15...

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How I operate

I can still hear the child screaming. We were in the children's hospital prayer walking over the building and for the staff. We had one more area to pray over. As we were standing there, there was a child down the hall screaming in agonizing pain. I had never heard anything like it. The screaming continued, the child barely took time to take a breath. The more I listened, the more my heart broke, the more this sound pierced my ears. I felt like I could almost feel the child's pain. This drove me insane. My emotions were high. I asked God, "Why is this happening? Why does this...

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Made in His Image

As the weeks go by I am continually being immersed and challenged by new situations, concepts, and beliefs. God is challenging me everyday to live outside my comfort zone and walk with in His boldness and authority. By abiding in Christ, I can rest in the promise that He is leading me to peaceful streams in midst of battle. God has been teaching me about loving people purely, without attaching any labels to them. And that started at the garbage dump. These families live on the edge of the garbage pile, sleeping and cooking under scraps of wood, plastic, and tarps. In tattered clothes these...

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Celebrating Unsung Heroes – Epoch Awards 2013

Celebrating Unsung Heroes Unsung hero n: a person who makes a substantive yet unrecognized contribution; a person whose bravery is unknown Epoch 2013 honors the unsung heroes; the people who cross the boulevard or the world to serve where poverty, drought, HIV/AIDS, sex trafficking, homelessness, and fear reign. For these heroes, this is more than planting churches and discipling – this is life. This October, we're hosting presenters like Jon Acuff ("Quitter," "Stuff Christians Like"), Bob Goff ("Love Does"), and All Sons &...

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The Best of #AdventuresInLove

Last week we asked you to share stories about how you fell in love on your mission trip. We asked you to post them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram so that we could showcase all that God is doing all over the world. And you responded. You told us stories of little ones who captured your heart. Stories of the elderly that spoke wisdom into your life. Stories of countries that became home. We've been keeping track of your stories – and have been unexpectedly blessed by your hearts. So we wanted to share our favorites of #AdventuresInLove. Love really is an adventure,...

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