Internships, job hunting and graduate school — the real world. That is what is on the minds of the Class of 2014 as they leave the comforts of Elon University and take on responsibilities of the world at large.

But for graduating seniors Katy Steele and Alice Sudlow, their post-graduation paths are slightly different. Steele and Sudlow will not be entering into a “real world”of big cities, bosses and responsibilities but will instead experience the world in action through an 11-month journey called the World Race.

Beginning in September, Steele and Sudlow will travel to 11 developing countries around the world in 11 months, spending one month in each country. 

The World Race 

Three times a year (January, July and September) non-denominational Christian organization Adventures in Missions sponsors the World Race. It takes approximately 50 adults ages 21-35 and sends them throughout the world with the purpose of spreading biblical teachings. The 50 adults are divided into smaller communities of seven people with whom they will work, pray and travel around the world with. 

The smaller communities each follow a unique route for their 11-month journey. Steele will embark on Route 5, which starts in Southeast Asia. For three months Steele will travel through Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before travelling to Africa and Eastern Europe for three and two months, respectively. There, she will do missionary work in Botswana, Swaziland, South Africa, Turkey and Albania. Steele will finish her remaining three months of missionary work in Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. 

Sudlow will be taking Route 3, which begins in Haiti and takes her across South America to Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. Sudlow will continue her journey for three months in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe and finish her four remaining months by continuing her missionary work in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia. 

Finding the World Race

Sudlow and Steele were inspired to participate in the World Race from 2012 Elon graduate Mary Safrit, who participated in the journey after she graduated. 

Steele was friends with Safrit while Safrit was still a student, but it was through an Eric Townsend email that Sudlow was inspired by Safrit’s work with the World Race.

“Back in 2012 I discovered Safrit’s blog through an Eric Townsend email,” Sudlow said. “I read her entire blog in a night.”

The World Race blogs changed Sudlow’s life. After reading Safrit’s blog, Sudlow read all blogs by World Racers.

“I was reading these stories of amazing personal transformation,” Sudlow said. “[They] shifted how I understood Christianity and how I understood myself.”

Becoming a World Racer is such a large undertaking that neither Sudlow nor Steele said yes to the challenge overnight. It was after contemplation that Sudlow and Steele decided to apply for the World Race.

Their application opened in October 2013, 11 months before their September 2014 journey was scheduled to begin. 

The World Race application process helps applicants decide if they truly want to commit instead of choosing specific people and turning others away.

“It was a year of praying of, ‘Is this where God would want me to go after college?’,” Sudlow said. “Right after a year I firmly decided and applied. I wanted to be involved in a God who looked like the one I was reading about on the World Race blogs.”

The cost of change

Participating in the World Race comes at a price, though. Each racer is expected to raise $16,000 to cover the expenses of the 11-month journey. Sudlow and Steele have been working since the beginning of the semester to spread the word about their faith and mission. They have done everything from sharing their stories at churches to sending out support letters to everyone who has been a part of their lives.

Steele has become entrepreneurial and had a yard sale where she raised more than $2,000. While volunteering in the Dominican Republic in January Steele encountered another opportunity to raise money for her journey with a local jewelry organization.

“This woman sat down next to me at lunch one day, and she told me about this ministry her daughter runs in Haiti that employs local people to make jewelry,” Steele said. “They have a program for missionaries to fundraise.”

Steele partnered with Haiti’s Jewels. Half of the money made through Haiti’s Jewels went back to the company while the other half went to Steele’s fundraising. Through the interaction she was able to raise about $2,000 by selling the jewelry to mostly Elon students. 

Through T-shirt company Fund the Nations, an organization that designs T-shirts for free to help missionaries fundraise, Sudlow designed meaningful T-shirts to help fund her journey. Sudlow designed the T-shirt with a line from band Hillsong United’s song “Oceans.” The lyrics on the shirt, “Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders”, have meaning to Sudlow.

“That song was really important to me when I was deciding whether to go on the World Race,” Sudlow said.

Growing stronger in faith 

Sudlow and Steele came to Elon driven and energetic yet unsure about their faith and purpose. 

“When I came into college I would’ve said, ‘Yeah, I’m a Christian,’ but that part of my life was on the edge of everything. It was an extra, like a cherry on top,” Steele said. “It didn’t mean much to me. The decisions I made were my decisions, and I lived for myself.”

That all changed in November of Steele’s freshman year when she got involved in College Life, an on-campus Christian fellowship. 

“God changed from being on the outside of my life to the center,” Steele continued. “All of a sudden I wasn’t living for myself anymore, I was living for something greater, I was living for Jesus.”

The flip side

Many people have argued that missionary trips do more harm than good. They argue that well-meaning people will drop in for a short period of time and then leave forever. But the World Race works with missionaries who are permanently settled in the community. 

Once World Racers touch down in each country, they’ll be connected to local missionaries that live in that country.

“It’s not just parachuting in, doing something good for a couple of weeks and then leaving,” Steele said. “We’re partnering with people who invest their lives in these communities and doing work there and serving people there. It takes on a longterm vision.”

Life after the World Race

It isn’t uncommon for Steele and Sudlow to get questions about what will happen after the race is over.

Steele and Sudlow have maintained strong faith that their journey and God’s guidance will help them after their race. 

“So much of what this journey is going to look like is having a deeper understanding of where God is calling us in our lives beyond the World Race,” Steele said. 

Sudlow said she is living in the moment instead of having anxiety about the future.

“Right now God hasn’t called me to worry about what is to come after. I know he has called me to the race,” Sudlow said. “If I worry about what will happen when I come back I will be missing out on what He’s doing right now.”

Right now Steele has aspirations of doing market and public relations for nonprofits and NGOs. 

“The chance to see all of these communities on the ground will give me a really good perspective,” Steele said. 

As they will be living with just one backpack and the recommended total of three shirts for 11 months, Steele and Sudlow are preparing for an experience different from any corporate job or graduate school.  

“I’m really looking forward to the ways the next year is going to change every single thing I have ever thought about the world,” Steele said.

To follow Katy and Alice’s blogs before and during their mission or to contribute to their journey, go to katysteele.theworldrace.org and alicesudlow.theworldrace.org.