Mission for love

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Fishers native will go on an 11 month mission trip to help 11 nations

By Anna Skinner

Come September, Alexa Kapsalis will go on the journey of a lifetime.

The Fishers High School and Ball State University graduate will be participating in the World Race mission trip, which will take her to 11 different countries during the span of 11 months.

“I’ve always just really felt called to missions,” Kapsalis said. “I didn’t know what it looked like futuristically, but I did know it was a part of my future.”

Kapsalis heard about the World Race her junior year of college and took a year to pray about it. She applied, got accepted and decided to graduate from Ball State a semester early to begin raising money for her trip to take place this September.

Kapsalis will spend one month in each Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. She and her team will stay at churches or nonprofits while they assist the people that live there.

Kapsalis is departing with 50 other people, but once they reach the country they split up into teams of seven.

Kapsalis and her team will be catering to whatever the people of the specific country need. She said that each month could be extremely different.

“I could be teaching English, working on a farm, working in orphanages or trying to help those affected by sex trafficking,” she said. “It just depends on the community that we are serving.”

Previous mission trips, one to Guatemala and one to New Jersey, have helped prepare her for the adventure she is about to embark on.

Kapsalis believed that her mission trip to Guatemala helped her understand that the universal language is love.

“I think traveling overseas to Guatemala definitely gave me a better perspective of just a bigger world. I think we often get caught up in this little bubble and going overseas showed me that love is the universal language,” Kapsalis said. “It doesn’t matter what language you speak or what age you are, everyone understands love.”

Kapsalis must be completely funded before she leaves, and currently she is at about 80 percent. Approximately $17,000 must be raised for her to go on the trip.

“I am so grateful for the support and encouragement I’ve received so far. It’s such an incredible thing to witness, the people who want to join me on this journey and give hope to the hopeless, it is such an incredible process to see people partner with me and I cannot thank those people enough,” Kapsalis said.

While she is on her trip, Kapsalis will be able to talk to her family around once a week. It all depends on where she stays and where she can get Wi-Fi.

However, despite the churches and nonprofits helping those on the World Race with a place to stay, Kapsalis said that sometimes the teams may need to sleep outside in the tent they are required to carry with them the entirety of the trip.

Despite the huge event looming in front of her, Kapsalis said that most of her fear is in saying the goodbyes to the people she meets in each country.

To donate to help aid Kapsalis on her trip or to follow her progress while she’s gone, visit her blog at alexakapsalis.theworldrace.org.

Meet Alexa Kapsalis

Age: 22

Favorite thing to do in free time: Eating food with friends, sharing good music with good company and family game nights

Family: Parents: Dan, 52 and Nancy, 49. Siblings: Andreas, 24, Katia, 18, Christian, 16, Miso, 13 and Taia, 11

Favorite food: Anything pizza related

Favorite movie: “The Sandlot”

Random fact: “I’m a really good left foot driver.”


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