Rivers of the World started in 1995 with the idea of traveling up remote river basins and helping the people living along those rivers basins. From the first trip up the Sankaru River into the heart of a war in the Congo, a handful of courageous volunteers traveled with ROW because they believed in ROW’s mission to serve people in the remote and forgotten parts of the world. From this maiden voyage, everyone returned committed to the mission of reaching these remote people and eager to find out where else ROW could serve.
Since the days of the first trip into the Congo, ROW has grown to reach more countries and people across the globe, as well as increasing the number of volunteers that travel with ROW. Each year ROW sends almost 600 individuals abroad to assist with ongoing projects. Volunteers have included people of all ages and walks of life: middle and high school groups, youth groups, college groups, Rotary Clubs, families, and church groups.
When taking volunteers with us, ROW still holds true to our original mission, “to serve in an atmosphere of mutual concern and respect; realizing that it is their country, their people, their village, but our problem.†We pride ourselves on being, “Effective, Efficient, and Evangelical†in how we serve around the world, and it is this simple idea that we try to impress upon our volunteers when ever they are traveling abroad with ROW,
If this is your first time learning about trips with ROW, then I hope you can find something within this website that touches your heart and inspires you to take that first step in getting out on the mission fields with us. ROW offers amazing opportunities for individuals and groups to make a difference during our time on earth, and I am eager to help you find out where you fit in. For those of you that have gone with ROW before and are eager to go again, here is your road map for how to get back out there with us. I’ll see you out there!
Serving the Lord with Courageous Faith,
Nick Beazley
Senior Field Director,
Rivers of the World
Nice post!
Nick,
It reminds me of a time several years ago in Belize. Perhaps the story of fever, chills, aches, pains, strange noises, and a confrontation over who broke the truck is best told some other time. But out of that trip virtually every volunteer has come back on another trip or continues to support ROW stateside.
It is a true testament to the people ROW serves and the people who make up ROW.
I couldn’t say it better myself. It was that first trip we went on with ROW that changed the way I looked at the world, and it was then that I realized we could make a real difference.
We have come a long way from going on that initial trip, and the more volunteers I meet the more apparent it becomes that our experience is not unique among volunteers.
The volunteers make the difference with the work ROW does.
Thanks for the comment and for staying so involved in ROW’s work!
I have always heard about Rivers of the World, on my local Christian radio station and today I was checking out your website. While i was looking at some of the pictures, I remembered something while i was in Guatemala. (I was on a study abroad trip, with NCSU) We were walking through this area where in 2005 Hurricane Stand went through and had created a huge disaster, destroying everything in its path. There were two rivers that had come down the mountain and with that came a landslide, a lot of people died that night, because they were barried to death, there was no warning except for the few people that heard it come and tried to warn their neighbors. For most of the people it was too late. This was this past summer (2007) that i had visited this spot and two years later you could still see the devastation that it caused.
However as my group was going through this area on a tour, we walked past a home, where the Senora wanted to tell us something. She spoke in her native Mayan language, (which was then translated into Spanish, then English). She wanted to thank us (because we were Americans) for building her house, they had just finished it a few weeks earlier. None of us that were there at that moment had helped out with the building of her house, but she wanted to tell us thank you. Habitat for Humanity had built the house for her, but she was so greatfull that us (Americans) would help her out with giving her a place to live after the hurricane had wiped out everything she had. The impact of what she said and what i saw on me was incredible.
I don’t know exactly why I’m writing this to you, but if i can help encourage anyone to go on a missions trip to help other people than this is what this was wrote for.