Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

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If you apply for the July 2011 World Race, you could spend your next Christmas in a foreign country… like Kenya!
 
Can you imagine… Christmas in Kenya?
 
 
We’ve had many Racers serve and minister in Kenya.  This month, several Real Life participants returned to Kenya to establish the World Race Kenya Initiative.  The team recently was able to provide tarps for six families living in an IDP (internally displaced persons) camp.

Two years ago, the October 2008 World Race squad was in Kenya, where they preached, evangelized (going house-to-house and during open-air crusades), prayed, and discipled – in the slums, in the desert – simply ministering as Jesus had instructed his followers.  This is where Marisa rescued Allan from the streets and found him a home. 

Each of the teams did their best to carry on some Christmas traditions.  The two teams that were in Lodwar, Kenya had a Secret Santa gift exchange.  By the grace of God, the chocolate – mini Toblerone! – that I had purchased for my team a month earlier in Hong Kong survived the desert heat and it was a treat we were able to enjoy Christmas morning. Ben Eppinger summarized our teams’ time in Lodwar, concluding with our Kenyan Christmas:

 
The month ended with an African Christmas. We went to church at 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve, and while most Kenyans stay up all night, we all went to bed by 1 a.m.

At 6 a.m. we were up again to watch river baptisms.  One of the youth that I met at an outreach got baptized and asked me to be his “spiritual parent”.  I met him when he came out of the water and prayed over him afterwards.

Four teams were based in Eldoret, Kenya, where they spent much of their time ministering to the street kids.  On Christmas Eve, these Racers had their own candlelight service and Christmas morning spent some quality time among their respective teams.  Laura Meyers shares what happened the rest of Christmas day:
 
Then we headed off to church.  There were still tons of street children, all high on glue.  There was still loud music that we danced our hearts out to.  

But there was something different, sweeter about this day-it was Christmas day.  What better way to celebrate the birth of the Messiah than to have worship service?  During the service I had the opportunity to hold this little boy, maybe three years old, but small enough to be about a year old.

Glazed over from glue.  Stomach bloated from lack of food.  But he was precious.  In that moment of holding Isaac, I realized how blessed I was.

We are only here for a few short weeks but the seeds are being planted, sown, and watered.  At that same Christmas service there were at least five people that were there because they have gotten saved during our time in Kenya.  I realized again how precious and beautiful it is to be able to share the greatest gift of all.

We as a squad were able to celebrate Christmas belatedly thanks to the generosity of some of our parents.  One of the many fun-filled, memory-generating activities we enjoyed were remixing a few Christmas songs; here’s a video that Abby Barnett, who’s currently leading one of the October 2010 squads, made of the festivities.
Are you willing to give up one Christmas with your family & friends so you can find more of God’s family and friends in a place like Kenya?  Consider applying.