Dear friends and family,
I am so excited to be writing you
this letter. My life is changing in some
big ways this year! Life is short, LIVE
hard is my new motto for this next year.
I have been struggling the last few years with living life to the fullest,
the promise Jesus gave in John 10:10. I have felt my God gently molding and pushing
me towards this next adventure in my journey with Him. Jesus has called us all to come follow Him. I love how in Matt 4:19 Jesus tells Peter and Andrew to “Come, Follow me,” and their
obedience changed the world forever! I
am now answering that special call He has given me!
Since my first adventure in the
spring of 1998 doing a week long mission trip to Mexico, I have felt a special tug
to foreign missions. As the years have
gone by and I have grown and changed, that tug is still stronger than
ever. So in February of 2007, I decided
to look into some different opportunities to follow this call. Only one captured my heart, “The World
Race.” So after over a full year of
prayer, I am officially leaving the comfortable world which I love so much. In October I will be headed out on an 11
month journey with a group of brothers and sisters with the purpose to follow
Jesus wherever He leads us and to be His body (Romans 12:4-8) by feeding the poorest of the poor, working with
orphans and the sick, and share the Good News! The trip is being set up through Adventures In
Missions based in Gainesville,
GA and they have bases and church
contacts all over the world. The work we
will be doing is not finalized yet, but we will be spending 1 month in each
country working with local churches, orphanages, hospitals, and disaster relief
centers.
I have been so loved and blessed by
my family, friends, and Church that I do not consider my faith to be my
own. My community has a role in all my
decisions and has a part in any good thing God does through me. I consider you a part of my community, and as
a part of my community, I need your prayers!
Pray for my teammates and I as we travel. Please pray for our safety, our ministry, and
our ability to live together in unity and love.
I also have to raise $13,800 for this trip for travel, food, and lodging. I am simply asking you to pray about giving
financially. You can give one-time gifts
or monthly pledges. If 50 people commit
to giving $25 each month of my trip, I would reach my goal.
If you feel the Lord is telling you
to contribute to His work through me,
I have enclosed a response card and pre-addressed envelope,
which invites you to share in this ministry. Please make checks payable to Adventures In Missions. You may write
“appealed by” and my name in the memo section of the check if you wish. All
donations should be mailed to Adventures in Missions, P.O. Box 534470, Atlanta,
GA 30353-4470. Including the enclosed card will provide AIM
with all necessary information. Adventures in Missions is registered with the
Internal Revenue Service as a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization. Donors will
receive receipts for their gifts with the understanding that the disbursement
of those gifts lies completely at the discretion of Adventures in Missions and
that the gifts are non-refundable and non-transferable, per IRS
regulations. Gifts may be tax
deductible; please consult your tax advisor.
Please pray for me and the work
that will be done among my team. I am
very excited and I will be keeping you in the loop, through my blog which can
be found at jeffmitchell.theworldrace.org. You
can leave comments, donate money, and read about what God is doing through our
ministry. Also, I will have an email
list which will automatically send you my blog updates each time I write. Let me know if you want to be a part of that
list, or go to my blog site and you can sign up for it. Thank you for joining me in my ministry and
supporting me as I go to serve the Lord.
Sincerely,
Jeff Mitchell
