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| St. Maria Goretti Parish member Gina Neuville, pictured here on a mission trip in South Dakota this past summer, will be going on an 11-month, 11-country mission trip called the World Race. She leaves for the trip in early January of next year. (Contributed photo) |
MADISON — For the first 11 months of 2014, Gina Neuville is going on a mission trip with a schedule resembling the closing credits to Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?
She’ll go to Zambia, Malawi, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, China, Nepal, Cambodia, Mongolia, Thailand, and Vietnam “in no particular order,” she said.
Her trip to 11 countries in 11 months is part of the World Race, which has the purpose, according to its website, “to serve ‘the least of these’ while amongst real and raw community.”
Neuville will be taking part in ministry which could include working in orphanages, teaching English to children, constructing churches and schools, and other mission work, but the reality is “we won’t know what we’re going to be doing until we get to that country,” she said.
For almost a year, she’s leaving behind her family, friends, job as a chemist, and the young adult community at St. Maria Goretti Parish in Madison for an uncertain journey with her faith in God supporting her along the way.
Path to the ‘race’
Neuville chose the World Race mission trip after growing in her faith in the past several years and developing an increasing interest in mission work.
“In the last three years, my faith has extremely grown with the passing of both my parents,” said Neuville. “It really allowed me to put my full trust in Him. As difficult as it was, I just needed to let Him carry me through whatever I do.”
In the summers of 2012 and 2013, Neuville volunteered as a chaperone on mission trips to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota with almost three dozen teens from St. Maria Goretti’s High School Youth Ministry program.
The teens and chaperones took part in several construction projects for the people on the reservation, as well as cultural activities.
“That’s where I discovered God’s unconditional love for me and gave me this [idea of] ‘there’s something more that I am called to do’ and ‘is what I’m doing now really what God wants me to do?'”
She then began looking into long-term mission trips.
“I came across the World Race and it was something I felt called to,” she said. “I felt this is the right time; this is what God called me to do.”
The next 11 months
Neuville departs for the mission trip on January 6. The first stop will be in Zambia.
A total of 45 young adults, ages 21 to 35, will make up the group for the trip. Those 45 people are divided up into about seven teams. The missionaries on the trip will come from a variety of denominations.
“We have ministry connections that are already established in the counties so we’ll have a place to stay,” Neuville said. “Some countries we will be doing community outreach and finding our own contacts for ourselves. Those months will be 100 percent depending on God — who He puts in contact with us. We’ll be going around the cities searching for contacts or just searching for ministry.”
“They’ll alert us and brief us on when we can go out,” she added when asked about security concerns. “We always have to travel in at least pairs of two. In some countries we won’t be able to go out of our host site after dark, so they’ll brief us on what the safety issues are prior to going to the country, or right when we get to the country. The organization looks into our safety as a top priority, so I’m not concerned with it.”
She is already looking ahead to the challenges of living out of a backpack for 11 months.
“Just whittling down what you need for a year, your necessities, into one bag that I have to carry on my back, including sleeping bag, tent, sleeping pad, my shelter. It really puts into perspective what we actually need to live and survive on,” said Neuville.
Staying connected
Earlier this year, Neuville started a blog. Everyone participating on the trip is provided with the opportunity to have a blog during the course of the year.
“We’ll be blogging a couple of times a week, or once a week up until we get launched and then, depending on the internet, it may be two or three times a week, maybe it’s only once a week, maybe it’ll only be once a month because we only have internet access once in that month,” she said.
Her blog contains postings she’s written about her thoughts on the upcoming trip and what led her to the decision to spend almost a year of her life helping people around the world.
It also has information on how to support her on the trip. Being 100 percent volunteer, Neuville needs to find her own funding, but she’s also asking for another kind of support.
“There’s people who come up to me and they want to support me and that’s great, that’s why it’s there, that’s why it’s OK to financially support me, but I need the spiritual support the most. It’s what’s guiding me and the financial support will come.”
Part of her trip is being paid for with money from her parents’ estate, which Neuville says is a tribute to them.
While looking ahead to her journey in 2014, she’s leaving all the uncertainties in God’s hands.
“I don’t know what’s going to come after . . . It can lead me to anywhere. I have no expectations of what to expect on the trip, in each country, in each person I meet, nor when I come back. I may go back to my job in chemistry or I may not. I have no idea, but that’s what makes it exciting,” Neuville said.
“Just the unknown and uncertainty of what we’re going to be doing, and just allowing God to provide that comfort in whatever we’re going to be doing. He’s going to be providing our shelter, our food, and trusting Him that we’ll have everything taken care of once we get to that country.”
To follow Neuville’s trip throughout the year and learn more about her journey, visit her blog site at GinaNeuville.TheWorldRace.org