compelled by issues of social justice and simple living, are leaving
the comfort of their homes and possessions in January of 2010 to travel
11 to countries in 11 months, sharing the hope of Jesus Christ as they
go.
The group is called the World Race and was first conceived by Seth
Barnes, founder and executive director of Adventures In Missions, in
2006. He designed a trip that would remove young people from their
comfortable lifestyles for a year–to see the developing world and be
transformed by what they saw. The first team consisted of 14 people.
Since then, AIM has sent 92 teams consisting of over 630 men and women
on 12 different trips around the world and visiting over 64 countries.
“While I am excited to observe a medley of people this next year
throughout the world, I am more excited to love, serve, and care for
the people that God will place in my life,” says Hannah Vitkus of
Nashville, Tennessee, who is looking forward to leaving in January. “Be
it an orphan, a prostitute, the homeless, a college student or an older
family–with your help, I am able to do this–to be the hands and feet,
to go, to love, to serve.”
“I expect to be ripped from my comfort zone on this trip. I expect to
see Christ move in unimaginable ways. I expect to have the experience
of a lifetime. I expect to never be the same,” says Jesse Walsh of
Birmingham, Alabama who is also leaving in January. “But most of all, I
expect to not have my expectations met and in turn, be given something
I could have never even known to expect.”
Each World Race team relies on the hospitality and generosity of
strangers–whether this means living in a tent in a farmer’s field,
staying in an urban shanty or enjoying the rare comfort of a warm bed.
Through their experiences, World Racers learn to depend on each other.
They also learn to care more and live with less. It’s a journey of
self-discovery and worldview–a chance to explore life in a whole new
way.
“I’m leaving behind the woman I thought I have always wanted to be, to
become the woman God intended me to be… which is someone I never had
the guts to be, ” shares Michelle Euperio from Mesquite, Texas, who is
also a part of the World Race in January 2010.
“Many people look at the World Race and get the wrong idea,” says
Barnes. “They think it’s about young people seeing the world. The
reality is that, while young people often sign up because of the
adventures they know they’ll have and the worldview that a year of
global travel will give them, it’s really an initiation experience. On
the World Race you learn about what God is doing on the earth and how
to join Him in it.”
For more information on the World Race visit www.theworldrace.org.
World Race participants and staff are available for interviews and speaking engagements upon request.
Adventures In Missions (AIM) is an interdenominational missions
organization that focuses on discipleship. They emphasize prayer and
relationships in their work amongst the poor. Since being established
in 1989, AIM has taken over 80,000 people into the mission field, some
for as short as a week and others for as long as a year or longer.
Through 14 bases around the world, AIM has year-round ministry to
places where “the least of these” are found. AIM believes that by
giving people the opportunity to hold orphans, bring hope to the
hopeless, and pray for the sick, lives are transformed.
