For many participants, the World Race is a once in a lifetime experience; it’s our hope that it serves as a diving board for them to plunge into greater depths. But some become “repeat offenders.” We have alumni return to the field as squad leaders; two have even served twice as alumni squad leaders.
Some return to a country to continue partnering with a ministry they worked with while on the Race. Some even help spearhead new ministry on behalf of Adventures in Missions/the World Race. Like Steph Tyrna, for example; she, along with at least three others, has been in Cambodia since October.
These ladies are establishing a ministry reaching out to women forced into prostitution. They’re partnering with a preexisting organization to end human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation.
Cambodia was one of the places Steph served during her World Race. She not only gets to revisit the country, but she had the opportunity to go to the very slum area, “Rubbish Mountain”, she ministered.
Her hope was to find two boys she had met a year and a half ago.
She brought her teammates and another World Race alumna, Steph Davis, with her. She reconnected with Don, who not only volunteered to drive them but also agreed to be their interpreter.
She brought her teammates and another World Race alumna, Steph Davis, with her. She reconnected with Don, who not only volunteered to drive them but also agreed to be their interpreter.
As we all crammed into Don’s tuk-tuk and took the same route that we took every day last year, my heart was racing. I could barely contain the excitement and anticipation I was holding inside. I prayed that the boys would be around for me to hang out with them, but I also prayed that even if I wasn’t able to see them today that it would all still be worth it.[A little sidenote: Rubbish Mountain is no longer technically Rubbish Mountain. They have moved the mountain of trash to a different part of the city, so half of the village people in the slum were moved. However, I was pretty sure that my two boys and their families were still living at Rubbish Mountain].As we rounded the corner and headed into the small muddy alleys of the slums, I looked at each of the little kids running around playing trying to identify my two little boys. (It was really weird to not see a huge mountain of trash, it no longer existed).
We came to a stop in the middle of the slums where we did the medical clinic last year.There were two boys that were standing on the side of the road where we stopped. One of them was none other than MOKE, one of the two boys I fell in love with!! He immediately recognized me and ran up to the side of the tuk-tuk, gave me a hug, grabbed my hand and led me to the clinic.
I couldn’t believe how this was all really happening before my eyes!We all went into the clinic in which I met more of the kids I saw last year and a lot of the same adults. They all remembered me, opened me with loving arms, provided numerous hugs and SO much love! It was simply amazing.
There really are no words. . .
You can read about the rest of her reunion on her blog.
There are other alumni – like Laura Meyers and Matt Ruple – who help continue extending the Kingdom in places where they’ve been on their initial World Race. Perhaps you’ll end up a pioneer, too – start here.
