Two area women enter World Race

Event is 11-month mission to help people around the globe.

 

Andrea White of Columbia City was browsing a friend’s blog when she came across a link for the World Race and curiosity set in.

After a thorough read-through, a sense of adventure replaced her curiosity.

 

Now
White is locked into the 11-month mission trip, along with Fort Wayne
native Angie Hoeppner. The trip will take them to 11 locations around
the globe, during which they will work with orphans, patients and other
people in need, learning about foreign cultures while lending a hand at
the same time.

The collection of missionaries will be broken into groups, and each group will travel country to country serving.

White,
an Anderson University alum, has not been on a multicultural mission
trip, and with the exception of an overseas trip when she was 13 and a
stint as a college student teaching in Australia, this, quite
literally, is foreign territory for her.

“It is exciting to
think about the things we (will) see, the opportunities we’ll have and
the things we’ll do, but it’s also a little anxious thinking that we’ll
leave everything I know and everyone I know for a year,” White said.

 

Hoeppner’s
mission experience is a bit more extensive; she’s been on seven or
eight trips, including one to the Dominican Republic. The 11-month
marathon that is the World Race, however, will be substantially longer
than the two-week trips she has previously gone on.

“I’ve been
on a lot of mission trips, but I expect my eyes to be opened to new
things that I’ve never seen – that reality of life that I’ve never
experienced before,” said Hoeppner, a Taylor University Fort Wayne
graduate.

The race aspect of the World Race is the time it takes
each group to travel from one country to the next. Groups can travel
any way they choose, and the overall times are calculated. Think TV’s
“Amazing Race,” minus the elimination for crossing in last place.

There
are no losers in the World Race, as both the racers and the people they
come into contact with along their journey benefit not just personally,
but spiritually through their service.

White, Hoeppner and each
of the other participants must raise about $13,800, which will cover
all expenses for the trip, besides the airfare to the World Race
training session in October in Atlanta. They’re fundraising through
friends and family, churches, food sales and other efforts.

Money
aside, the big concern for White and Hoeppner is trying to pack 11
months of life into a hiking pack and a carry-on. The World Race
provides a tutorial and a check-list on what to take, but as White
says, “I’m not sure how all of it will fit into a bag.”