Adventures in Missions

Gratuitous Gratitude

November 11, 2010
Adventures
Mission Trip Stories

Five years ago, in Swaziland, our missionaries spent Thanksgiving day in ministry. Bethany and Keith, who is Canadian, taught some children at the carepoint in Mihlanga about Thanksgiving then asked the students what they were thankful for. Here are a couple responses from the students, first in this trip report (under the section by Katy Howry): One twelve year old boy answered, “I am thankful for my grandmother.” His grandmother is blind and bedridden, and he cares for her. She is his only living adult relative. He is thankful for her, [even though she]...

How to Prepare for Next Summer’s Mission Trip Now

November 4, 2010
Adventures
Short Term Missions

How to Prepare for Next Summer’s Mission Trip Five Steps for Getting Ready Now for Your Next Mission Trip We know that it’s only November, but there is a lot you can be doing to prepare for next summer’s mission trip now. To get the most out of the week or two that you’ll spend overseas (or overland) next year, here’s what you can be doing between now and then to get ready: 1. Pray. It may be a “given”, but it doesn’t hurt to remind you to be praying about every aspect of your next mission trip. Now is a great time to start praying...

Jesus, the Ultimate Short-Term Missionary

November 2, 2010
Adventures
Short Term Missions

A lot can happen in 24 hours. Each season of the TV show 24 traced one day in the life of Jack Bauer, a federal agent who fights off terrorism, played by Kiefer Sutherland. 24 hour-long episodes, each filled with action, suspense, plot-twists and tension, comprised each season. While that show might have been just slightly larger than life, the reality is that one day can make quite a difference. Jesus began his ministry when he was thirty years old. He spent three years displaying the Father’s love and power through his teaching, healing and deliverance. ...

AIM Newsletter | Restoring Sight and Representing Christ

October 28, 2010
Adventures
Missions Newsletters

In this month’s newsletter: Thoughts from Our Director Feature Story Upcoming Trips Field Stories Thoughts from Our Director Parents, Send Your Kids on a Mission Trip | Seth Barnes In this video, Seth encourages parents to send their children on missions; he shares from his personal experience of taking his four of his five kids to Peru for a month. Seth Barnes: Short Term Missions Story from Adventures In Missions on Vimeo. Featured Story Sight to the Blind | Nick Hindes Nick Hindes is leading a Real Life team in Kenya. Earlier this month, he and his...

Back from the Mission Field: Reverse Culture Shock

October 25, 2010
Adventures
Missions (General)

When I joined a study abroad program in college, I left America and never looked back. I donned the Spanish name “Pepe”, and stayed out at flamenco bars until sunrise. I ate every type of chorizo I could find. I went on weekend trips to Lisbon, Madrid, Barcelona, and Rome. I started drinking coffee. I was a Spaniard through and through. I never struggled with culture shock. I acclimated immediately. What I never expected, however, was the jolting experience I would have when returning to my own native culture. In the book Culture Shock! (recommended reading for all...

Heartbreak in Mexico

October 14, 2010
Adventures
Mission Trip Stories

Here’s a story of heartbreak by Naomi Skeltis from a mission trip to Mexico this summer: I hadn’t seen her in two years. The last few months she had been popping in my head so I really wanted to visit her. My team and I showed up at her door. I yelled and she came out. The look on her face told me something was wrong. I went up to her and she fell into my arms crying. She started weeping, so I asked her what was wrong. She said her husband was gone. In my mind, I thought she meant he had left her for another woman or something. Then she continued on...

New Resource for Youth Workers

October 11, 2010
Adventures
Youth Missions

“Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20, The Message) Missions and discipleship go hand in hand, like peanut butter and jelly. What is it about spending a week in the mountains of southern Mexico, sleeping on a dirt floor of a church, singing and listening in a third...

Sight to the Blind: a Real Life Story

Below is an excerpt of Nick Hindes’s account of the Real Life: Kenya team’s encounter with a Maasai man named Mussa: Two weeks have passed since our initial emigration to a country that we previously knew so little about. Eleven days have been spent visiting two very distinct and different tribes: the Maasai and the Turkana. Both live off the beaten track of “normal” civilization, and forgo many modern conveniences in order to preserve culture, heritage, and history. Much of the time has been spent visiting homes and “evangelizing” to those who...

Real Men Go to Matamoros for Missions

September 30, 2010
Adventures
Mission Field Reports

Thirty men – ten young men and twenty not-quite-as-young-anymore men – from Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, Georgia went to Matamoros, Mexico with AIM last week. This brotherhood spent five days in Mexico and didn’t waste a minute. They hit the ground running soon after they arrived; their first day, half the group painted while the other half assessed the site where they would build two houses in the squatter community. Early on during the trip, it had been raining but praise God for answering prayers for sunny weather! The men...

AIM Newsletter | Surfing, Perseverance and Wyclef

September 28, 2010
Adventures
Missions Newsletters

In this month’s newsletter: • Thoughts from Our Director • Feature Story • Upcoming Trips • Field Stories :: Surfing the Tension Between Rest & Ministry | Seth Barnes People talk about finding balance in life. I’m not sure what that looks like. It conjures up an image of a tightrope walker carefully moving across a wire. My life doesn’t feel like that. My life feels more like a wave that I’m surfing that curls behind me. I can’t see it, but it’s carrying me...

An Interview: AIM and the NFL Team Up for Swaziland

September 9, 2010
Adventures
Mission Trip Stories

NFL Agent Phil Williams took several NFL players, including Anthony Hargrove (New Orleans Saints), Cornell Green (Buffalo Bills) and George Foster (Cleveland Browns), to Swaziland with AIM. Phil answers some of our questions about the vision trip they took. How did the group come together? Whose idea was it to go Swaziland? Why did you go? It was my idea [to go to Swaziland] but I also knew NFL players, some of African descent, who were interested in going to Africa. I looked at places that would make the most sense; I waited until my wife went there and she said...

Human Trafficking | Three-Year-Old Turned Sex Slave

Written by Marisa Banas (Rodriguez) in 2008, “Three-year-old Turned Sex Slave” is a glimpse at the horrifying nature of human trafficking. Mothers, fathers, and children all across the world are mislead, misguided, and deceived into believing lies straight from strangers. There is a huge importance to educating people on the dangers of human traffickers. What do you see when you look at this picture? Obviously there are four feet, two from an adult and two precious little ones from a toddler. I bet that you would never see or assume the truth behind...

Author: Adventures