The following is a blog written by Liz Bacon, a current Squad Leader on the World Race Expedition Route that launched in January. This story comes from her time on the field as a World Racer in October 2017. You can follow her journey at elizabethbacon.theworldrace.org For more information about Beauty for Ashes visit adventures.org/beautyforashes   The Lord sent me on a divine scavenger hunt, and I adore the treasure I found— a barista with tattoos and fortitude. Fortitude (n): strength of mind that enables a person to encounter danger or bear pain or adversity with courage. My...

This post was written by World Racer, Paige Lindner.  As humans each of us keeps packing things into the soul and never take time to unpack them. If we don’t process, grieve, and heal successfully then more sin will come in the future and embed itself in the walls of our hearts. The Lord calls us to tangibly choose Him amidst the process of healing. It is not the Lord snapping His fingers and saying “you’re made better, child”- it’s a daily process to be changed into a better version of yourself in order to not revert back to the same things we once ran...

Chelsea Ray from the April Expedition route of the World Race shares her story of the lies she has believed about being not enough.  I’m not enough. There, I said it, the words that hide inside so many of my thoughts and actions. So much of my time is spent sitting and trying to think of ways that I can be better, more acceptable, more enough. Of course I don’t think those words exactly. Deceit would never be that forthcoming. Instead I am reminded of all my many shortcomings, moments I have fallen and failed, and the people who have told me by the way they’ve...

  Before I surrendered to Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior, my life was consumed by depression, thoughts of suicide, and an addiction to cutting. One night I cried out to Him for salvation, and His perfect love washed over me in a torrential downpour of grace, and He set me free. A year and a half after Jesus delivered me from my darkness and destruction and gave me eternal life, I fell into gross sin. I believed that I was completely worthless and beyond redemption. I believed that I had also broken God’s love for me as I held the shattered remnants of my relationships and identity...

Christina (Dombrowsky) Barnes Before I moved up to Georgia to work for Adventures, I was applying for a Rotary Fellowship to go pursue my 2nd Master’s degree in Australia. I had it all planned out: I was going to go study Community Development in Queensland, complete my field work on the Thai/Burma border, make a little spot for myself on the Gold Coast, and get to it. I was ready to just up and move across the globe. For a 2 year commitment. That might sound pretty scary to some of you — a little outlandish and extreme. But I was comfortable with that. I know how to do that. I...

In the Spring of 2011, I sat alone in my apartment binging on Netflix shows for weeks. I barely got out of bed. I only left when I had work or class and I hardly ever put any effort into maintaining my friendships. I slept most hours of the day and went through more rolls of toilet paper to wipe my tears than I can remember.When I was out in public, I did my best to put on my pretty smile and happy attitude so that nobody would know that I actually was far from okay.After all, I had always been the happy, out going, active type of girl so no one would ever assume that i was struggling. But...