Wonder Years

The In-Between (1999)

September 1, 2010

It was the year Shawn potty trained his son Hunter. By early 1999, Shawn was officially out of a job after ten years of pastoring. This catapulted him into what he called a “mid-life crisis twenty years ahead of time.” The organization was still not yet technically named Wonder Voyage Missions. Shawn had started a [...]

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The Birth of the Encounter Moment (2000)

September 1, 2010

Ask anyone even years after their Wonder Voyage trip what they recall about their journey and chances are their answer will be an encounter moment. If not the most endearing quality of Wonder Voyage, Encounter Moments are unquestionably the most memorable. Combining a variety of elements such as a unique location, storytelling or journaling, and [...]

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A Pilgrim’s Journey (2000)

September 1, 2010

2000 came to be the year that the word “pilgrimage” would define Wonder Voyage. The bulk of the year was filled with challenge after challenge and it could have easily been Wonder Voyage’s last. Although the voyages were successful for the churches, everyone on staff was emotionally and spiritually drained as they tried to create [...]

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Shaking Against the Altar (2001)

September 1, 2010

It was in 2001, the second year Wonder Voyage’s existence, when I found myself huddled and shaking against the cold stone altar on a hill in the south of Wales. My family and I were halfway through our second straight summer in Ireland, leading voyages for churches from the States. We had a two week [...]

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Expozed! (2001)

September 1, 2010

On a few weekends in the fall and spring you could venture into Flower Mound, a quiet suburb on the outskirts of Dallas, and see something strange. To get there, you would go past one of the nicest neighborhoods in Dallas, stately brick homes with multiple-car garages, big yards and rolling hills. You would drive [...]

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Moments in the Mud (2002)

September 1, 2010

In 2002, Wonder Voyage still seemed a bit shaky. After a summer of trips in 2001, Shawn was stopping shoplifters and cleaning up spills as a part-time mall security guard. It was a humiliating job, a startling contrast to the work he was doing just a few weeks before with Wonder Voyage. By 2002, Shawn [...]

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The Box (2002)

September 1, 2010

A steady rain was beginning to fall, but that is not the reason we pulled the car over onto the side of the road just outside of Austin that unusually warm October. Cheryl, who had been driving, was now staring into my eyes waiting for me to speak. I was shaking as I held the fine [...]

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