I can honestly say that this entire launch process has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, and we haven’t even left the country yet! There has been so much that has already happened that has rocked my world. Let me start off in the beginning.
I booked two flights to get me to launch. One from Grand Rapids to Chicago, and the other from Chicago to Atlanta. The flight from Grand Rapids to Chicago was spent reminiscing the memories I had made over the course of my life time that had gotten me to here. I began asking myself superficial questions such as “Am I ready for this?” and “This doesn’t really feel real yet. When am I going to realize that I am leaving the country for a year?” The second flight, however, served as a minor breakthrough.
I took my seat in the second to last row of the plane. Fortunately for me, I booked a window seat because I love watching the takeoff and landing. I sat there for a few minutes as I wondered who would I be sitting next to in this two-seater side of the plane. Before I even looked up, I heard a ruckus coming from the cabin storage area above me. I looked over and saw a guy with a beard, a turban, and darker skin. I immediately thought, “Great, I am sitting next to a terrorist.” If any of you were in my position you probably would have thought the same thing! We began talking, and I immediately realized that this guy wasn’t at all what I had previously thought. His name was Avnit from India (that’s literally how he introduced himself), and he in fact was a wealthy business man from northern India that had immigrated legally because of his vast knowledge in mechanics and engineering. His intellect was apparent even after 30 seconds of talking; he went into his knowledge on stocks and bonds and he lost me, a business management major, within the first minute. He turned out to be an incredible man, and proved to me that not all men that board airplanes that wear turbans, sport a thick beard, and possess a middle-eastern accent are terrorists.
My interractions with my teammates at launch has also been an incredible blessing. I continue to be blown away by my teammates Cody and Jacob and the knowledge they possess. Having the ability to connect with these God-fearing men reassured me that my team is going to be a very strong team that focuses on biblical truth as our foundation for our missions work. To them, humanitarianism is important, but not as important as being foundationalized in Christ and his Word. I couldn’t ask for much more than that.
FIRST STOP: PANAMA
Tomorrow afternoon, we leave at 5pm from Atlanta to Panama City, Panama. Our flight will arive around 9pm local time, and from there we will make our way to a nearby hostel for the night. Our first three days we will continue to stay in that hostel, determining what to do for the rest of the month because our team has been selected to be Unsung Heroes for the first month!
The Unsung Heroes program is a program where racers roam the selected country for the entire month finding missionaries, local people, and Christian organizations that need help in the near future. My team and I are those racers that will be attempting to find these people. These people we are attempting to find are people that yearn to bring people to Christ and potentially need help in doing so. We call these people “potential contacts” or “potential hosts”. We will analyze their ministry and determine whether or not Adventures in Missions will pair with them and help them out by sending future World Racers to their location. Our goal is to find as many potential contacts as possible. This also means that we do not have a specific location that we will be staying in. It will be up to us to find where to stay, where to eat, and how we will get to the location that the potential contact is in.
How will we find potential contacts? There are many ways we can do this. We will first pick a geographical area where we want to travel to. This has yet to be determined but my team will sit down once we get to Panama and determine where we should search by the end of this week. We then will go to local churches and ask if they know of anybody in the area that could use our help. We will then use that network to find potential contacts, and then analyze whether or not they and their ministry would be suitable for future racers.
We will also be responsible for adding important information to the World Race Log. The World Race Log is a document which spells out everything we know about the given country for any racer to use. This includes safe places to stay for the night, good restaurants, cost effective transportation, nearest medical facilities, and more. Because there haven’t been many teams in the World Race program that have been sent to Panama, we will help pioneer the efforts of adding more and more to the Log so that other racers who come to Panama will have a better idea of what to do and what not to do. We will scout out hostels, restaurants, and other necessities around the region and writing reviews on all of the places we vist.
We will be on the move the entire month while we are in Panama, only visiting a potential contact’s site for one or two days. This is to maximize the number of contacts we can get for AIM over the course of the month we are there. My team and I are loving the opportunity we have to serve not only others, but AIM and future racers this month. Although our mission may be a-typical to what most World Race months look like, it will help blaze a path and build a network for future missionaries to use while in Panama. We couldn’t be more excited about our first mission!
I do ask for much prayer, however. We will be on the move for the entire month, and not knowing anything about the places we are going means that there are unseen dangers that can arise. We ask that you pray for our safety, discernment, and wisdom as we go from place to place. We also ask that you pray that we find those unsung heroes in those Panama communities that need help the most. This month will be very challenging in many ways, but I have faith that at the end of it, we will have opened many doors for others to continue to advance God’s kingdom in the coming months. I will have WiFi for many of the days we are there, because we are attempting to stay in hostels with WiFi so that we can communicate with AIM and our squad leaders in case of an emergency. If you want to communicate with me to inquire about what is going on, I will more than likely be able to. Love you, guys!
– N.J. Shear
