Yep, we do that…

I’ve spent sometime trying to articulate the past six months of my life, this kingdom calling that pulls each one of us 150 plus crazies into the small confines of Gainesville, GA.  What is it that we do, that pulls and tugs at our hearts so violently sometimes. My beautiful friend and coworker, a passionate woman of God, Kacie Lynn captures so beautifully why we do what we do…

I remember in my interview for the World Race being asked what I hoped to experience on my trip. It was maybe the only question I really knew the answer to during that whole interview:

I wanted to know what about my Christianity was really just American, and what about my Christianity was Christ. 

(Christmas in India looks like this) 
Ongole, India

Photo Credit: Brianna Danese
 

 



That there are governments that oppress their people into poverty so extreme that epidemics like AIDs run rampant without even available education of basic safety and sanitation, leaving entire nations orphaned and alone –

 



That there is genocide, forced prostitution, abuse, hunger, and slavery prominently plaguing most of the world –

 



And that those things actually can be remedied, the world can change, Slavery can end, and oppression canbe overrun.

Ongole, India

Photo Credit: Brianna Danese

Almost every person I interview answers the question, “what do you hope to experience on the Race?” with an answer almost identical to my words two years ago.

 



There is a global shift going on. God is initiating it and He is using us, and we acknowledge that it means that maybe our lives are shaping up to look differently than what may have been expected of us, but we want to share this thing with you.

 



We wont just tell you that there are 27 million people enslaved in the world today.

 



We will tell you about Quy and his mother, who are forced to sell useless goods to tourists late into the night every night in Ho Chi Minh City – and we’ll tell you what it looked like when we paid for them to spend an evening with us, instead, eating dinner and dancing and laughing.

We will tell you about Vivian, the woman infected systematically with HIV and left to suffer during the Rwandan genocide – and we’ll tell you what her eyes looked like when she embraced the forgiveness that released her from her anger and threw her head back in victorious laughter – a victim-turned-conqueror.

We will tell you about the Father’s healing hands on His children, working miraculously.

 



We will tell you about chains of bondage broken through the arms of a World Racer wrapped tightly around an orphan who has never known unconditional love –

And how the cycle of forced prostitution ended for a fourth grader in the Philippines because a World Racer started a conversation with her and told her, if she wanted to, she could change her life.




And then we’ll invite you to be part of it. You can go, you can send, or you can do both.

 


Pray for us. Go with us. Support us. Each role (those who pray, those who pay, those who go) is required, each role is equally important, each role is purposed by God, and none of this happens if each role isn’t filled.

 



We need each part of the body – and as we continue to work together; we know it will continue, by the grace of God, to change the world.
 

“And it shall come to pass afterward


That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;


Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,


Your old men shall dream dreams,


Your young men shall see visions.

And also on My menservants and on My maidservants


I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth…

And it shall come to pass


That whoever calls on the name of the Lord


Shall be saved.

For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance,


As the Lord has said,


Among the remnant whom the Lord calls.”

Joel 2:28-30, 32.  
 

Thank you Kacie for your words, for your heart, and how you've so clearly captured what each one of us at Adventures attempts so many times to express exactly why we do what we do.