Adventures In Missions 'World Race' for January 2011
by Staff
October 4, 2010
GAINESVILLE, Ga., (christiansunite.com) -- Over 100 twenty-something year old young adults are going to 11 countries in 11 months in January and they're meeting each other for the first time this October.The World Race is a ministry of Adventures in Missions (AIM), a Georgia-based interdenominational organization. According to Seth Barnes, executive director of AIM, the program is an "initiation process" that takes participants on an "epic pilgrimage."
They will be split among two routes which are subject to change. One route will take over 90 participants to India, Nepal, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, South Africa, Mozambique, Swaziland, Romania, Ukraine and Ireland. The other will traverse Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.
The ministry will be as varied as the locales. Participants will engage in everything from digging latrines to preaching on Sundays to waiting tables to playing with orphans. They will serve in whatever capacity best supports the local churches and missionaries they partner with each month.
Barnes writes, "they minister to the poorest of the poor, befriending those who have no friends and in the midst of the sorrow and pain, experiencing God in a new way without the trappings of success."
Participants will be split into smaller teams and live together -- sleeping in tents or staying at hostels -- on a limited budget. Among those currently committed to going, two hail from outside of North America.
Reasons for going on the World Race vary. Natalie Dache, of Fairfax, Va., recounts on her blog, "I had been following the World Race probably since [2006]. I was fascinated, and couldn't wait till I turned 21 ... and would be allowed to apply. Missions was something that was often on my heart, and I frequently entertained the thought of being a missionary."
For others, like Steve Chun of Virginia Beach, Va., the trip was initially a way to see the world. He writes, "I was actually thinking about just couch surfing and WWOOF'ing [World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms] around the world for a year, but then I heard about this."
Jeff Wickham of Bellbrook, Oh., had decided to pause from his studies at Ohio State University but didn't know what to do instead. "I wanted the power to impact people's lives. I wanted the freedom to work in exciting situations," he writes.
Tipped off by family friends about Adventures in Missions, he went to the website. "I browsed through the many opportunities ... but the World Race really caught my attention," he recalls.
"Excited, I searched the site, looking for a 'catch.' The more I researched, the more blogs I read and videos I watched, the more excited I grew," he writes. "I can't describe the feelings of relief, excitement, and awe I felt when I received the call informing me of my acceptance."
Wickham has yet to meet Chun and Dache and the other participants; he will next month in Georgia for training camp. One can only imagine what they'll all feel when they actually leave the country.
For more information on the World Race visit www.theworldrace.org.
World Race participants and staff are available for interviews and speaking engagements upon request.
Adventures In Missions (AIM) is an interdenominational missions organization that focuses on discipleship. They emphasize prayer and relationships in their work amongst the poor. Since being established in 1989, AIM has taken over 80,000 people into the mission field, some for as short as a week and others for as long as a year or longer. Through 14 bases around the world, AIM has year-round ministry to places where "the least of these" are found. AIM believes that by giving people the opportunity to hold orphans, bring hope to the hopeless, and pray for the sick, lives are transformed.
