The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

Lyndsie Neie was pursuing a college degree in social work when she put it on hold for a year-long trip with the World Race mission group. The theme is “11 Countries, 11 Months.” 

Neie, 22, a 2006 graduate of Bridge City High School, would have been a senior this year at Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches, said her mother Dana Gill.

The World Race is sponsored by the Adventures in Mission organization, or AIM.

“She felt the Lord calling her, so she took some time off to go do this and when she comes back she’s going to finish,” Gill said “She wanted to do something that was going to make a difference, so she went online and started looking at things. She’s always wanted to go into the mission field.

Lyndsie, now in the Philippines, wrote to friends and family, and other churches seeking donations of about $14,000 to cover food, shelter and airfare. She started in January in New Zealand and Australia, moved on to Malaysia and Singapore and has stops planned in Africa, Cambodia and the Ukraine.

“They’re just going into these countries telling people that Jesus loves them,” Gill said. “In Thailand, they worked with prostitutes.

They brought them in, painted their nails, fixed their hair and gave them some computer classes. Many of the girls there, it’s so hard for them to get out of [illicit] trafficking, and they have to take care of their families or pay their way through college.”

Neie also attended a speech by top Philippine officials, including the president; and ministered to orphans. Groups are known by different team names, and Neie’s is Team Radiance.

In her March 27 blog entry, from the Cabanatuan area of the Philippines, Neie wrote, “We left Baguio City ... and said a silent goodbye to that brief home of ours and those friends that we made.

Team Radiance has been given the honor of staying in Cabanatuan (another part of the Philippines ) with our ministry contact, Marita, for the last week of our month here. I drove up to her house and saw a Home rather than just another place to stay. It has been so refreshing to be staying in a house, in a bed, in a HOME of a friend.

I feel at home waking up each morning to Marita, our new friend, and sleeping in till the sun wakes us. It reminds me of my home.

“We arrived the first day greeted by Dalfo, a small, frail man that speaks to us in Tagolog and doesn’t seem to recognize the fact that we speak English. We also arrived to Nairda hastily making us a feast calling us angels. She treated us like royalty. We were told to leave our plates on the table and asked what we wanted for breakfast. So much food. We woke up the next morning to a feast again as Nairda was running around smiling and laughing speaking Tagolog and English.

"We did a prayer walk last night and I am still learning how powerful and beneficial it is. We went on an outreach today and I got to play with an entire neighborhood of kids. We played red rover. It was awesome. I am loving tricycle transportation and also find it a fun game to see how many people they fit onto a 2-seater transporter.”

In Bridge City, Lyndsie was involved with the Second Baptist Church youth group, and in high school, Cardinals for Christ.

“She was always going to church camps and Christian concerts,” Gill said. “Lyndsie has always walked with the Lord. With all the drugs in this world and how bad it is, I cry all the time because I’m so blessed.”

Gill wanted readers to know donations can still be accepted.

Lyndsie needs some $3,000 in addition to the funds she already raised. Call Gill at 882-8873 to receive information on how to donate securely online. To follow Lyndsie’s travel progress, or view posted photographs, go to http://[email protected].

Her March 27 blog concludes with, “I’m watching Sarah, my teammate, talk to Dalfo. The two of them have conversations all the time but speaking in their own language. It usually starts off with Dalfo asking or making a statement in Tagolog and then Sarah responding in English with whatever she believes would go well with what he said. She is really trying to be sweet to him but it is definitely hilarious.”