Dear friends and family,
I believe God has a pretty great sense of humor. We make big plans and pretend we know what life has in store for us next, and then God laughs and nudges us in a completely different direction. For me, this means instead of going out of state for nine months to college, I will be going out of COUNTRY for nine months to follow the Great Commission! Over the last two years, I have had the incredible opportunity to serve on three mission trips with my youth group. Through these experiences in Nicaragua, Mexico, and Missouri, God has shown me where my heart truly lies and how I should begin my adult life, following in Jesus’ footsteps in service and sharing the gospel. I will be realizing this calling along-side more than forty other inspired young men and women on the World Race Gap Year Mission Trip!
This coming September, I leave for the first of four countries our group will be visiting over the nine month period and will return home in June of the following year. We will be serving in Costa Rica, South Africa, Thailand, and Myanmar, partnering with local ministries and churches to spread the good news and help out in any way we are called. This might mean ministering to people trapped in human trafficking and slavery, digging wells for fresh water, or simply playing with children at an orphanage. Our mission is to spread the love of God to the corners of the Earth, in whatever form that may take. Along the way, my team members and I will grow in our faiths, learn more about our world and God’s presence therein, and experience what it truly means to be a part of a community of believers working for God’s good; a church! As you can probably imagine, this scale of mission takes more than just a handful of passionate teenagers to make happen. This is where YOU come in!
Adventures in Missions, the organization facilitating the trip, has planned out and organized all the logistics behind this wonderful ministry. They have laid out a financing plan for all of us who have signed up, accounting for our travel, lodging (when we’re not sleeping in tents and hammocks out in the wild!), food, insurance, and everything else one might need for a trip of this size. For all of this, I must raise a total of $15,800 in funds. This, as you have probably guessed by now, is a large part of why I am writing you. I want to offer you the opportunity to help support me in this great adventure! And you wouldn’t just be helping me; you will have an active role in helping all those that we will be ministering to and serving around the world! My team and I are the hands and feet and you get to be muscles that move us!
Any donation, whether one time, monthly, big, or small is greatly appreciated and moves me one step closer to making this awesome opportunity a reality! You can do this easily by going to my World Race blog at andrewserumgard.theworldrace.org and making an online donation. Here you can also see my progress, more info on the trip, and any blog posts I make leading up to or during the trip. If you prefer, you can send a check payable to Adventures In Missions, P.O. Box 742570 Atlanta, GA 30374-2570. Any contribution you make is greatly appreciated, and even more important than money is your continued prayer for me, my team, and the people we will be serving! I can’t wait to see how God is going to move through us in the lives of those we serve! If you’d like to contact me to learn more or just to talk, my phone number is 763-280-2519 and my email is [email protected].
Thank you for your continued prayers and support, and may God bless you in all your ways! In Christ,
Andrew
