Bethany Hamilton has served with us the last two summers as a summer staff member. She recently had the opportunity to travel to Israel with the purpose to dive deeper into understanding the Bible and the context of Christian faith. Bethany explained that this experience stirred her desire to serve others and study the Bible even more and make these her top priorities. “Mission trips are a special way to focus on the Kingdom. Being a vocational missionary isn’t better than simply living the missional lifestyle, but it is unique. It is important to impact those experiencing poverty, unreached people groups, and the 10:40 window-mission trips provide a great way to do that. Mission trips are an important aspect of being a Christ-follower.”
When asked about ASM’s programs, Bethany said, “AdventureServe helps kid’s push their comfort zone, serve, and engage with other people. That’s what you experience as a Christian, that’s what faith is.” God asks us to do things that stretch our comfort zones. We must be prepared to serve, sacrifice, and build relationships with others just as Jesus did. Bethany explained that in this way, AdventureServe is impacting the Kingdom of God. “Experiences with ASM are eye-opening, leading you to serve ‘the least of these,’ and gain a new perspective.”
Bethany described some of the most personally impactful aspects of working with AdventureServe, “Being a part of ASM is authentic and life-changing. I made life-long friends and experienced an awesome community. It was also challenging to form relationships with groups and get really close to them throughout the week, but then have to let them go and say goodbye at the end, but this forced me to depend on God. It was emotionally tiring to say goodbye to groups I’d connected with and do it over and over again with each group, but I had to trust that God had them in His care and let them go. I’ve grown to trust God more and have confidence in leadership. I’ve also grown in areas of confrontation and communication through challenges experienced in leading groups. These situations helped me exercise problem-solving and being flexible with change. I had to become more comfortable with ‘going with the flow!’ I grew so much spiritually through my summers with AdventureServe!”
If you know someone like Bethany interested in a summer position or YOU are someone interested in a summer position full of adventure, service, building relationships, and growing in faith, click this link: https://www.adventureserve.org/staff-member-application/
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