Alumnus Participates in World Race, Visiting 8 Countries for Mission Work

: By Keely Mills Jacob Chesser ‘19 has long felt the call on his heart to foreign missions and was able to go on many trips while he was a student at UMHB. But it was during Missions Emphasis Week he heard about the World Race, an opportunity that changed his life. World Race is an 11-month missions program where one travels to a new country each month. “In each country, you partner with local pastors and missionaries and come alongside the work that they are doing. It is meant to be a journey similar to that which the Disciples went on when Jesus sent them out in Matthew Chapter 10,” Jacob said. He describes the whole trip as a means to get out of one’s comfort zone and wholly let the Lord provide. The participating missionaries live out of a backpack for these 11 months. “Some months are called ‘Ask The Lord’ months, where we were dropped off in the country with no lodging or host set up for you ahead of time,” Jacob said. “That way, you can trust totally in the Lord to guide your steps to the right people and places.” When the opportunity arose to go on World Race, Jacob said he was very prayerful about it and felt a call from the Lord to participate. “It seemed like a great way to experience many different cultures and see how to do ministry in a variety of contexts and formats,” he said, “I hoped and prayed that the Lord might show me if one of these countries was where he wanted me to go back and be a missionary full-time.” Through this, God was preparing him to be a missionary and using it to fulfill his call to begin his story with overseas mission work. Due to pandemic restrictions in various parts of the world, Jacob’s team only traveled to eight countries instead of the planned 11, including Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Albania, Romania, Lesotho and Eswatini.

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