DENTON—Alecia Dockery from First Baptist Church in Denton is living out of a backpack and sharing God’s love in 11 nations over 11 months.
Dockery, who left Texas in September, has spent her first month in the Philippines. While there, she has worked with a ministry that feeds impoverished children, played basketball against college-aged women with the emphasis being on sharing the gospel with them, and helped the family of a boy with a cleft palate receive surgery to repair that so that he can better eat and be nourished.
Other nations where she will work include India, Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia, Romania, Ukraine, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, as well as another Asian country.
She and her team of six will spend a month in each place as they serve with the World Race organization. While she was not sure before she left exactly what she would be doing in each place, typical ministries include leading Vacation Bible Schools, running sports camps and working in AIDS clinics.
“We just have to be really versatile and willing to do whatever we’re asked,” said Dockery, 26, who noted that goes against her nature. “This is probably the first time in my life that I don’t have plans.”
But God has been adjusting her plans to his for several years now, Dockery said.
The second-year schoolteacher said she was looking for a summer mission trip when an Internet search took her to the World Race website. Once there, she said she spent hours reading testimonies of Christians who had served.
When she sensed God calling her to missions service, it meant leaving her long-awaited “dream job” as a sixth-grade writing teacher.
“Six weeks in, I loved my school, loved my administration, loved my kids, but I knew this wasn’t it. It was like God was saying, ‘I brought you here to see this wasn’t it,’” she said.
But once she settled that the World Race was God’s calling for her, she said the decision was easy.
“I’ve been trying to move into the direction of following God’s will for my life. It’s been a very peaceful ride, not a crazy one,” Dockery said.
While on the 11-month mission trip, she was allowed to take clothes for 10 days and a tent, sleeping bag and mattress pad. Participants are expected to make $12 a day cover all their expenses other than air flights.
“I think the thing I’m looking forward to the most is being immersed in all the different cultures and still seeing the transcendence of God,” she said.
Writing on the blog she has kept since starting the race last month, Dockery said: “I hope I never see God as manageable again. I hope I never tell him what’s best for me again. I hope he continues to be a mystery continuously unfolding his faithfulness to me—continuously revealing more of myself to me and challenging me with new growth.”
To follow more of her journey, go to aleciadockery.theworldrace.org.