A New Adventure

I have been thinking about adventures lately. A friend told me about a conversation he heard between two kids taking a walk: one complained that he didn't just want to walk; he wanted an adventure. Instead of just going on a walk, this kid wanted to climb a mountain.

It is time for a grand adventure!

Next week I set off on what will be my longest overseas trip to date. The plan is to spend the school year in Southeast Asia with three other adventurers from my church. That's about as detailed as our plan gets.

What will we be doing in Southeast Asia, you may ask? Like I said: we have not set many details yet. We are going to Asia in response to a request from a pastor over there—we will call him Roger. Roger leads a church, helps run a Bible college, and started an orphanage. He asked our pastor to send some folks to help at the orphanage or teach English. In January, several others from my church and I traveled to the city where we will be staying to check things out and decide if there was a need we could fill during a longer trip. We were able to meet with Roger, visit his church, orphanage, and Bible school, as well as work out other details for an extended stay in the area. We visited local English schools, met someone who was willing to get us business visas, found an apartment to rent, visited the local university, and toured parts of downtown. This short (about three days in-country) trip inspired us to commit to our eight month expedition to explore and serve.

Instead of narrowing our focus, this brief trip opened up many options of what we can do while in Asia. We hope to teach English, but do not know if we will do this in schools, at the orphanage, through private tutoring, or all three. Since our apartment is only about a mile from a local university, we plan to network with folks there as well. Roger's orphanage is near enough to spend time helping with the kids or giving lessons to them. One of my team members knows a lady who is part of an organization fighting human trafficking, so there might be an opportunity to help there also.

As a team, we have many ideas of what this trip might look like. I know that at many times it may not seem grand or very adventurous. Like the kid my friend overheard bemoaning the boring nature of walking, there will be days of mundane work and frustrating problems. There will be many days that are not super exciting. But God is sending us to this country for a reason. We are going not merely to sight-see and travel, and not even to just teach or help at an orphanage. We are going with the hope that we can show others God's love in a tangible way. And what adventure could be grander than that?