Global travelers aim to do some good

Eleven different countries in 11 months, immersed in exotic locations with strange cultures and high adventure. That and the opportunity to help children orphaned by AIDS, women and children trapped by human trafficking, and villages experiencing starvation and malnutrition.

For three local women, Adventures In Missions’ The World Race provides an opportunity to see the world and do some good at the same time.

“I’ve had the heart for travel,” said Krystle Garwood, a 2007 Columbia Falls graduate who attends Fresh Life Church. “I wanted to travel and do something good. I was praying to find something.”

Eleina Camarillo, a 2011 grad, said she was looking for a mission trip online and came across some blogs about The World Race.

“At first the duration and the price was daunting,” she said. “I was attracted to the idea. It’s a get-away experience.”

Sareece Heitman, a 2012 grad, learned about The World Race from Camarillo, who attends the Hungry Horse Chapel with her.

“At first I said no,” she said. “But God told me I need to do it, to live out of my comfort zone.”

Living out of their backpacks in tents on a 1,000-calorie a day diet, the three women will surely be tested. The international line-up also seems daunting — densely populated India, high altitude Nepal, the safari lands of South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique, the former Soviet countries of Latvia and Estonia, and the jungles of Thailand, Burma, Cambodia and Vietnam.

The three women got a little taste of what to expect during an intense one-week training camp at Adventures In Missions’ headquarters in Gainesville, Ga. on Oct. 10-18.

“They really tested us,” Garwood said. “Simulated airport crowds, cold bucket showers, lost backpacks.”

Garwood, who traveled to England three times to attend Calvary Chapel Bible College in York, said she learned during the Georgia camp to carry her backpack in front of her in crowds to protect herself from thieves. But when her backpack went missing, she was forced to share a tent and sleeping bag with another woman for the night.

The three women picked a great time to be in Georgia, which was beset with monsoon rains and tornado watches.

“Training camp really opened up my eyes to what’s happening in other countries,” Camarillo said. “It was hard to return home — the big food servings were too much. It felt like we had spent a month there.”

Seth Barnes started Adventures in Missions out of his garage in 1989, leading nearly 1,000 youths on field trips over the next three years. The first World Race team of 25 youths set out in 2006. To date, more than 100,000 people have participated.

Garwood, Camarillo and Heitman are members of the third generation Q Squad — 55 youths who will be divided into seven groups on seven different itineraries.

They each need to raise $16,243 for the trip, not including the cost of flights to Georgia, vaccinations and equipment. They’ve raised $3,500 each but need to have $7,500 by January, when they depart on their global mission.

The three are selling raffle tickets for a Remington 30.06 with a 3-by-9 scope and a Ruger 10/22 rifle. Tickets are $10 each or three for $25. They’re also holding a fundraiser at the Whitefish Assembly of God on Saturday, Dec. 6, with plans for silent and live auctions, a spaghetti feed and live music. Garwood can be contacted at krystlegarwood@gmail.com. She also has photos for sale hanging in the Montana Coffee Traders in Columbia Falls.