These are a few essential items junior Olivia Stevens and senior Kelly Freiburger will rely on this year. Beginning in June, the women will visit 11 countries in 11 months, bringing with them only what can be carried on their backs.
“We’ll be working with people in really dire situations,” Stevens said. “They’re hungry. They don’t have homes. It’s really just like the stuff you see in movies, except it will be like the real thing.”
The pair will travel with Adventure in Mission’s World Race missionary outreach program. The program welcomes 21- to 35-year-olds from across the world to apply to one of more than 15 trip routes.
Stevens’ and Freiburger’s trip will take them to South Africa, Swaziland, Mozambique, India, Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
Spending a month in each country, Stevens’ and Freiburger’s squad of 54 other racers will assist in different service-based activities depending on what is ?needed in each region.
“The ministry looks different every month or even every week, so it’s no expectations,” Freiburger said.
Past groups have taught English in schools, worked within orphanages, done construction work and reached out to sex trafficking victims, all with a goal of sharing their faith.
Both Stevens and Freiburger learned about the program through friends who had taken shorter Adventures in Mission trips in the past. After completing an online application, essays and extensive phone interviews, the women said they were surprised to learn that another IU student would be in the same squad.
“It’s really rare,” Stevens said. “Originally, I didn’t know anyone going into this. I was going into it all alone.”
Both women were drawn to the trip during transitional periods. Stevens had recently changed her major from sports marketing to nonprofit management and had come to the realization her life plan was not set in stone.
“I was kind of at a loss,” Stevens said. “We go to school because that’s what we’re told to do ... education’s important. It’s necessary, but in my mind, there’s so many more things, and my faith is one of those.”
Freiburger, a neuroscience major, was also unsure of her future with graduation quickly approaching.
“I feel like I need a break and a new experience, as cheesy as it sounds, to go and find myself somewhere that’s not here,” Freiburger said.
The racers will attend a week-long training camp near Atlanta in May to prepare for the trip.
“My biggest goal is just to try to adapt to whatever is put in front of me and just try to have a good attitude and not keep too many expectations in my mind,” Freiburger said.
After World Race, Freiburger is considering attending an accelerated nursing program. Stevens plans to return to IU in Fall 2016 for her senior year.
“I think in America ... we don’t have a lot of true needs, and so we don’t understand what it is to be in that situation,” Stevens said. “I hope that coming back ... I can have a true appreciation for what I do have.”
Stevens and Freiburger are collecting donations and will document their trip through blogs at oliviastevens.theworldrace.org and kellyfreiburger.theworldrace.org.
