Update Blogs are going to help build an international ministry called Journey Corps which was launched to participate in the missional movement among young people from all over the world.

The Idea started circulating in the summer of 2008, when Don Thornton, the Senior VP of Finance, wrote a concept for a new ministry called VentureCorps. The idea was a ministry for Christian young adults to serve around the world. This idea percolated for months with little momentum.
Personally, I thought the idea had merit and I found the perfect location in West Africa at our former International Christian Academy (ICA) campus. For 40 years the facility was a boarding school for missionary kids. This multi-million dollar, 32 acre campus was in great shape and perfect for what we wanted to accomplish; so I pushed to launch a pilot. I was also able to share the idea to the National Church in Cote d’Ivoire and they officially invited us to partner with them.
In June of 2009 the WorldVenture Board of Directors encouraged the launching of Journey Corps. On September 9th, 2009 I was officially announced as the new International Director of Journey Corps, head up to launch the Journey Corps Pilot in September 2010.
My first four objectives were to build a team, recruit 50 journeyers, create a program, and raise enough money to launch the pilot. The US team came together within a few months and our attention turned to finding a West African Director. After a short search and meeting with Rod Ragsdale, who had been overseeing the ICA facility along with teaching at the Bible College, it became evident that Rod’s passion for Journey Corps was growing. Rod officially accepted the offer to become the first West African Journey Corps Director on January 4th, 2010.
To bring you up to speed with the latest accomplishments, here is where we are today:

• We recruited and endorsed of first MT-missionary for Leadership: Daniel Graybeal, October 2009.
• We launched the website www.myjourneycorps.com in December 2009.
• Introduced Journey Corps in December at URBANA 09.
• We recruited and cleared our first Journeyer’s in January 2010.
• Rod accepted the Directorship of Journey Corps West Africa.
• More than a dozen Journeyers and MT-missionaries are being coached and/or in the Application Process.
• Rod is busy recruiting four National Leaders to ensure National involvement from the start.
• Rod is also recruiting four national young people to live and share their live with the journeyers.
• Early February we secured our first Track Advisor, George Damoff, PhD. He will assist the leaders in the Agricultural Track.