Adventures in Missions

Lessons from Passion 2013: A Child Should Never Be Sold

January 8, 2013
Adventures
Human Trafficking

This past week 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. This week on this blog and our World Race updates blog we’re sharing posts from each of them with their perspectives on Passion 2013 and how you can get involved to end slavery. Today’s post is from one of our staff writers, Stephanie Bernotas. Stephanie did the World Race in...

One Easy Way To Celebrate Great Stories

“We live in a world where bad stories are told, stories that teach us life doesn’t mean anything and that humanity has no great purpose.” We wake up, we shower, we leave the house. We spend our days at work or school doing the same things over and over again, with slight variation. We dream of the life we wanted and lament that the dream hasn’t come true. We itch with the understanding that we were made for something more — something deeper, something grander — the story we were meant to live. What story are you meant to...

10 Truths for New Year’s from Thailand

Ryan Basden and the Passport Immersion squad rang in the New Year last night in Bangkok, Thailand. They danced in the streets, worshipped God, and sent lanterns floating into the night sky. And Ryan realized for the first time that New Year’s resolutions don’t change his identity – God has already decided who he is. New Year’s resolutions: claims we all make, whether we keep them for a day, a week, a year, or the rest of our lives. How strange to think that by simply choosing something better for ourselves and speaking about it in groups of friends...

Why This Was the Best Christmas Ever for 10 Street Kids

December 27, 2012
Adventures
World Race

Jessica Francis and the World Race September 2012 K Squad spent this Christmas in Cambodia. Jessica’s team decided to make Christmas as extravagant and special as they could – but not in the way you might think. Thanks to generous donations they got to overwhelm a group of street children with gifts and blessings and to show them what it truly means to give. After finishing out an amazing month of ministry in the slums of Cambodia, my team was left without any plans for Christmas day. We envisioned a day of giving some children the kind of Christmas morning that we all...

What Does Christmas on the World Race Look Like?

December 25, 2012
Adventures
Mission Trip Stories

Raychel Manko and the rest of the World Race September 2012 I Squad spent last month in Swaziland. Leaving home for 11 months to travel the world means missing holidays back home. Christmas in Swaziland doesn’t look much like Christmas in America, but Raychel and her teammates found out that sometimes the best gifts are found where they least expect them. What’s the best Christmas present you’ve ever received? I’m sure we could all answer that question in a lot of different ways, but I can almost guarantee that none of us would ever answer that question...

How to Make a Dying Man Smile

Emma Kline is one of our Passport Immersion participants. When she and her team were in Nicaragua, they came face to face with deep hopelessness. But we serve a God of hope, and Emma’s team brought that hope to the people of Nicaragua in a tangible way. This is their story: The small village of Bethel, Nicaragua has 136 families. In the last few years, more than 70 of the men in Bethel have chronic kidney failure – more than 30 men have already died from the disease, as well as a few women. 70 of 136 families have lost their fathers, brothers,...

Rebuilding Lives After Hurricane Sandy

Not long ago, Hurricane Sandy swept the East Coast. The storm killed over 100 people, destroyed whole communities, and left thousands of Americans homeless. Two months later, the Northeast is still working to restore mass transit and return cities to working order. Many people remain homeless, and many more are left with only remnants of what they once possessed. People like Monica and JD whose house was destroyed by the storm. Monica, a nurse, and JD, NYPD, along with their two children Charlotte and Caroline, 8, are living with relatives on Long Island....

Adventures Storytellers Contest – Vote Now!

December 13, 2012
Adventures
Mission Trip Stories

Stories are the threads that weave through our days. They connect seemingly random flashes of life. They’re the way we derive meaning from moments. They’re how we share our lives – our stories bumping and colliding with the stories of others. And when we share them, stories are the most powerful tool we have to create change. Stories are active, stirring something true inside all of us, allowing our hearts to be connected deeply to people we have never met. Stories pull at our hearts in ways nothing else can. Stories are the tools that change the...

God is Faithful – Just Like the Sunrise

Our Passport Uganda team flies back to the States today after four amazing months in Lira, Uganda. Team leader Glenn Pickens recalls about a promise made and fulfilled by God – at both the beginning and end of the trip, God would be faithful. This is Glenn's story. Do you ever just wish God would let you know it will all be okay in the end? Our whole team prayed for that during a rough patch at the beginning of our time in Uganda. As the team sought the Lord's will for our trip, I specifically asked the Lord where he would have me lead them. He showed me...

College Missions: A Day in the Life

Passport Immersion is a nine month mission trip for college-age participants (18-22 years old) to spend three months in three regions: three months in Central America, three months in Southeast Asia, three months in Africa. Our current Immersion squads have just made their first continent transition, and they’re loving life. Check out what a day in their lives looks like, via Andrea Grant and Elliot Huemann: 6:30 AM – Morning sunshine! It was pretty wonderful to sleep under a roof and on flat ground for a week. 7:00 AM – Eat breakfast and have...

No Shame November

December 5, 2012
Adventures
Guatemala

Hello all! Well, I guess I should start out by apologizing for taking a while to write again! This trip has definitely pushed and stretched me in ways I could have never imagined. This past month I decided to live a “No Shame November”. That is where you live a life holding nothing back and refusing to let anything stop you. I learned how much shame can hold you back if you let it. It can stunt the ways God is trying to grow you and blind you to His purpose. Here is a list of some of the areas where God has taught me to push away the shame: The Gospel: That should have...

The Mission Trip I Didn’t Want to Go On

Erin Hogan, a future World Racer on the January 2013 M Squad, just returned from an Adventures Disaster Relief trip to the areas in New York affected by Hurricane Sandy. Even though she didn’t want to go on this trip, she followed God’s call anyway and learned some big lessons from it. Erin shared her story with us on her blog and in an email, and we want to share it with you. I am leaving for the World Race in January. I have a passion for serving others, so this relief trip would seem like something I would be super excited for. But it wasn’t. I actually...

Author: Adventures