ABROAD
Welcome to the Adventure!
Our goal is to see the Kingdom of God announced and displayed in all the nations of the earth. How can that happen? Well, we believe Jesus’ example should be ours as well, and so our focus is to equip and mobilize incarnational disciple-makers. Specifically, we feel God has called us to invest our time building Gospel relationships of peace with the Muslim community.
2019 Trips List
India :: March 15-24, 2019
Kosovo Student :: Suhareka / June 15 – July 5, 2019
Kosovo :: Medical Trip / May 31 – June 8, 2019
EPIC :: Encountering People In Context (Israel/Palestine) / March 27 – April 6, 2019
EPIC SUMMER :: 8-week program / May 26 – July 8, 2019
Africa :: Benin / May 30 – June 7, 2019
Cambodia :: June 7 – June 19, 2019
A LITTLE BACKGROUND
Here at Grace, we haven’t always been so keenly focused on the nations. For years, we simply cut our support checks to families overseas and felt we’d satisfied our responsibility as a local church. But then, through the humble and shrewd influence of some key leaders at Grace, Buddy Hoffman, our Lead Pastor, went to Jamaica with a team to serve. There, he learned first-hand the power of short-term trips both for the people we were reaching and ourselves.
This, of course, was also Jesus’ model–he frequently traveled cross-culturally with his disciples (John. 4, for example) and even sent them out to do the work of the Kingdom for a short period of time (Mt. 10). As a church, we began taking more and more of our congregation overseas to engage with the nations, and the results were truly transformational. Making disciples, we discovered, was not simply a local task; it was a global responsibility.
Through the late 1990s, we spent much of our effort in the Andes Mountains of South America, where today a thriving community of believers has grown up among the indigenous people.
In 2003, just after the World Trade Center collapsed, we sent one of our teams to New York, where God clearly called Buddy to add a focus on the Muslim world to our strategy as well. For the better part of the last decade, we have been prayerfully and intentionally trying to learn the best ways to build relationships and share our faith with the Muslim communities around us.
To learn more about our journey, please feel free to view this talk from Buddy at our Grace360 conference a few years ago.
2019 Trip Descriptions
As you review the opportunities listed here for learning and for going, please prayerfully consider how you might join with us in bringing the life-giving message of Christ to people loved by God and created in His image.
India
March 15 – 24, 2019
Cost: $2400
This week long survey trip, led by Kyle Ramsey & Ashley Miller, will explore the heart of West India. Participants will experience a cultural center and its peoples, engage in strategic touring and training that will equip them to understand living in the region.
Kosovo Student Trip :: Suhareka
June 15 – July 5, 2019
Serve alongside a Kosovar non-profit organization, Kosovo Hope, and you’ll have the opportunity to:
- Be a camp counselor at a camp for Kosovar high school students.
- Serve families in poverty that live in villages surrounding the city.
- Be a part of the “LUG Kosovo” group.
- Build friendships that will last a lifetime!
Kosovo :: Medical Trip
May 31 – June 8, 2019
Cost: $2100
Registration coming soon – email with questions. There is an information meeting on January 20, 2019, 1pm at the D-House (across Dogwood Road from the Grace Snellville main building).
2019 will mark the fourth year the medical team has traveled to Kosovo to hold medical clinics in villages in proximity to Surhareke, Kosovo. A Project Briefing Guide provides information regarding trip dates, trip costs, meeting schedules, clinic schedules, and other important trip information. The medical team encompasses roles for providers (MD’s, DO’s. PA’s. NP’s), other health care professionals, registered nurses/licensed practical nurses, pharmacists/pharmacy technicians, physical therapists, and “helpers” (i.e.,non-medical team members who assist in patient movement and other support roles).
EPIC :: Encountering People In Context (Israel/Palestine)
March 27 – April 6, 2019
Cost: approximately $2250 (does not include airfare)
During EPIC, we aim not only to learn about the Holy Land’s history but how we could impact its present and future. Our group, led by the Jesus and the Qur’an teaching team, will tour, train, and – most importantly – talk with Christians, Jews, and Muslims in their own context about Jesus, His Kingdom, and lasting peace. Already we have seen this trip radically transform lives (including our own), and we expectantly invite you to join us. Price includes airfare, insurance, and in-country expenses. Does not include personal spending expenses. Single supplement for individual wishing to room alone is $550 and subject to availability.
EPIC Summer
May 26 – July 8, 2019
Cost: $6000
EPIC Summer is an 8-week program designed for emerging leaders who envision a life of ministry either state-side or internationally. Be challenged and grow in your faith, ministry, and cross-cultural skills in the unparalleled context of the Holy Land, all while being mentored and discipled by veteran Grace Global workers. Airfare is not included, but travel insurance and other in-country expenses are included
Africa :: Benin
May 30 – June 7, 2019
Cost: $2900
Join us in the summer of 2019 as we prayerfully and humbly engage unreached people groups in the birthplace of voodoo. There are nearly 2 million unreached Muslims who live among 14 unique people groups in Benin. On this 10-day trip, you will work with organizations and churches who have dedicated their lives to seeing the holistic kingdom of God come to Northern Benin. You will also get the chance to meet and talk to a Muslim Background Believer that is seeing whole villages come to faith in Christ. During our time in Benin, we will meet locals, volunteer with medical clinics alongside local doctors, train and encourage local workers, and lastly see and interact with a sub-Saharan city.
Cambodia
June 7 – June 19, 2019
During this two week trip, we will be meeting with and encouraging believers, ministering to widows, attending a class at the school of discipleship, hosting VBS at a primary school, and visiting orphanages.