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Visiting 11 countries over the next year may sound like a trip of a lifetime to many and for Chuck Morris it definitely is, but not for the reason you may think. He is not going overseas for a vacation, but instead is leaving in July for a yearlong mission trip to spread the Gospel to those in some of the world’s most dangerous areas with an organization called The World Race.

Morris graduated from Upson-Lee High School in 2003 and currently lives in Meansville. He also worked at The Thomaston Times while in high school, and later while in college.

It was after being invited by a friend in school to join her Bible study group that he heard about the organization and felt led to sign up to be a part of it himself.

“I have always felt called to do missions,” said Morris, “but I kept putting it off because I thought I couldn’t raise enough money or take time off work. But something told me this was the time to do it, so here I am.”

Morris and the rest of the World Race group will be going to Russia, the UK, Nepal, India, Kenya, Ireland, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malaysia, Cambodia and Thailand, which needless to say could be cause for some worry, but he has faith that the Lord will take care of him and his group in any situation that may come up. They will also only be going in to the areas where there is a ministry already set up.

“This is so the people in the countries we are visiting don’t feel that we are just some drive by night thing,” said Morris. “We want to partner with those who are already there and help in any way that we can. We will be in each country for a month.”

During their time in each country, the groups will be working to help build churches, fight human trafficking, teaching English in schools, caring for the homeless, evangelizing door to door, ministering through prayer, preaching in the streets and feeding the hungry to name a few.

This will be the first time that Morris has ever left the United States, but he feels he is ready to experience life outside of comfort and complacency. However he knows it will be hard being away from his family for that long. Of course there are always phone calls and Skype to keep in touch, but he also feels that he will be embarking on this journey with a new family. He first met the group he will be serving with over the next year at the end of May during training camp and admittedly he was a little uncomfortable at first dealing with all the different denominations of the people participating. However, once they started the praise and worship portion of the first day, he immediately felt at peace and he knows that is only because of God helping him through it.

“I am a firm believer in the scripture Philippians 4:6 that says, ‘do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God.’ And that has stuck with me since I decided to go on this trip. I even have a sign that it is on that used to be in my Mawmaw’s bathroom ; it has definitely been one of those things that has God has used to show me not to worry about things with this mission trip.”

Part of the process for going on this mission trip is raising the money to fund the trip itself and supplies needed for the ministry and Morris has to raise $15,500 by the end of December. Through an outpouring of love from from family, friends, church members and the community, he has been able to raise a significant portion of the money. However, he is not quite to his goal and is asking for help from each of you. The mission team can use donations of supplies, such as first aid kits or monetary donations. However, if Morris raises his portion of the money before the deadline, he wants to continue with fundraising in order to help some of his teammates.

“I want to be able to pay it forward for someone else, because everyone has been so generous for me already,” said Morris. “I want to be able to provide for so many people, but if someone is unable to donate in a monetary sense, I and the rest of my teammates can definitely use prayer for this mission trip.”

All donations are tax deductible and checks can be made out to Adventures in Mission with morrischuck in the memo and mailed to Morris’s house at 612 Vickery Road, Meansville, Georgia 30256. Donations can also be made on through his blog online at chuckmorris.theworldrace.org.