Dear beloved family and friends, brothers and sisters in Christ,
I hope everything is going well with you, your family, your jobs, your health, your ministries, and all that God is doing in your life. I encourage you to continue to conform into his likeness daily as he takes you through sufferings and joy.
As for me, I just graduated this past December with my M.S in Sports Pedagogy and Leadership. That was definitely a blessing from God to take a young man like me who isn’t the smartest in school; nevertheless he gave me the strength and understanding to make it through. The completion of my degree also brought an end to my job being that they paid for my tuition and schooling. After graduation I had an extremely hard time trying to figure out what my next step would be, but thankfully my supervisor extended my position for the remainder of the semester, so luckily I’ve had more time to figure out what’s next.
As for what is next, I have decided to embark on a challenging, self-sacrificing, yet fulfilling journey. This journey is a door that God has opened and given me a strong desire to walk in. I am in such a fortunate situation being that I have no debt, nor do I have any minor or major obligations holding me back from taking this next step. As a young man who deeply desires to give myself away for the sake of Christ, I have committed to going on an extensive mission trip to build the Kingdom of God and touch the lives of others. This trip will consist of traveling to 11 countries in 11 months with World Race Adventures in Missions (AIM). This will surely be the most difficult challenge I have ever faced as I will be leaving my comfort zone of the American life style and instead live in raw communities, embrace unique lifestyles, build communities, spread the gospel, save and raise money to sustain me, and use all that I have within me to help those in need.
What led me to this point? In 2008 my first mission experience began by traveling to East Asia. This trip was such an eye opening experience and it taught me about myself and the importance of spreading the Love of Christ. Because of the first experience I decided to go back in 2010 which was a different experience but very rewarding. Both experiences helped me draw closer to God and it also taught me valuable lessons on how fortunate we are in America and how fortunate I am. Although I had my ups and downs with these experiences, there has always been a deep urge to go again without looking back. Although I often questioned myself about whether I should go or not, it wasn’t until a weird yet interesting coincidence happened that made me say YES.
As crazy as this may sound, it is true and I have no reason to lie. For some odd reason I began to see 11:11 all the time. This has happened over the course of 6 years, but I began to see it more frequently than ever in 2011. I’d see it on correctly and incorrectly set clocks, posters, TV, phone calls, signs, books, doors, license plates, etc. I had no clue what this meant and to be honest I still do not know. So what’s so important about 11:11? Well as stated earlier my heart has grown so much to do missions. I can remember the time I said “I’d never go overseas”, it’s funny how things change. Anyway, as I began to do research on different organizations to go through, I eventually stumbled across World Race Adventures in Missions. There wasn’t anything extra ordinary about their site, nor did they have anything on their site that caught my immediate attention. However, for some reason I thoroughly searched every part of their site and the more I searched the more attached i became. A few days later, it finally dawned on me that underneath World Race was the number 11n11. This blew my mind and at that point I thought to myself “what are the odds of seeing 11n11 on a mission organization website.” After reviewing the information posted on their site, I found out that the 11n11 means 11 countries in 11 months. WOW! I prayed “God if this is your will grant me acceptance into this program”.
The door has been opened and I have been accepted but there is even a bigger challenge. The trip is $15,500 to sustain me for the full 11 months by providing food, lodging, air/land/sea travel to each country, and my training session. I sent this letter to you to ask for your support in helping me raise this money. I myself will be saving as much as I can, selling valuable items, doing fund raisers and all that I know how to do to raise this money. If you are willing and able please support. If you can’t or choose not to I ask that you please pray for me. This process is burdensome at times but it is also another opportunity to see God show himself strong. If you give please give with a cheerful heart and a pure motive and out of abundance of the heart. I will be thankful for anything.
Most humbly,
Richard Bowman
