12/7/2009
By GORDON D. FIEDLER JR. Salina Journal
This summer, Adrianna Alexis found herself in Africa.

The tall, blonde, blue-eyed 19-year-old Bethany College student from Colorado spent almost a month in the Republic of Ghana on behalf of Heaven Sent Ministries, where her shoes barely hit the ground before she was whisked to a rural school.

Her Ghanaian host told her he wanted her to speak to a class of schoolchildren -- for 30 to 45 minutes.

And what could I possibly say to them? Alexis wondered aloud.

"I want you to motivate them," he said.

And there it was, that life-defining moment that hit Alexis as hard as the sub-Saharan heat.

"That's the thing I wanted to do since I was 16," she said. "I found it. I found something people search their entire lives for and never find."

That journey of fulfillment started when she was a teenager growing up in Brighton, Colo., and attended a seminar conducted by Personal Success Institute.

"I heard about it from a girl I played club volleyball with," Alexis said. "It makes you look at how you do things in your own life, how you go about things."

Alexis left the weekend event sold on a career as a motivational speaker. Her enthusiasm was noticed by the seminar presenters, although she didn't know it at the time.

The years rolled by, and Alexis, who goes by Anna, enrolled at Bethany on a volleyball scholarship. She is working on a double major in psychology and theater with a concentration in communications and leadership.

As a college freshman, she attended an appearance by motivational speaker Bill Cordes.

"I walked up to him after and said I'm going to do what you do someday," she said.

Struck no doubt by her resolve, he invited her to be a counselor at Winners Camp, a leadership event for teens, families and teachers conducted in Hawaii.

Trouble was, only those who are two-year veterans of a Winners Camp are eligible to be counselors, but Cordes put in a good word and she was tapped for one of the coveted staff positions.

"I was 18 and flew to Hawaii not knowing anybody," she said.

Her experience was so positive she made plans to return the next year.

"I was raising money to go back the day I got home," she said.

But not long after she returned from Hawaii, she received a phone call from a representative of Personal Success Institute, which had kept Alexis on its radar.

"She wanted to know if I wanted to go to Africa and build a church," Alexis said.

The offer didn't have to sit on the table long. "Heck, yes, I'll go to Africa!" she told the caller.

"I try to do things bigger than I did last summer," Alexis said. "If you're not changing, you're not growing. I needed something to do that next summer to fulfill that goal."

A mission trip to Africa certainly qualified.

Problems loomed. The first: the cost was $3,800. The second: the money had to be raised in three weeks.

"I sent out letters to faculty members, to family, friends," Alexis said.

She even planned to borrow some of the money if necessary.

"I was going to go even if I had to walk and swim," she said. "If I get something in my head, it's going to happen."

The day Alexis had the money in hand, she received another phone call: the trip was off.

The easiest thing to do at that point was to admit defeat and give the money back, but Alexis wasn't ready to surrender.

She said she felt she had an obligation to all the donors.

"I made a promise to people who gave me the money," she said. "I called (the trip organizer) back and said, 'you're not going to Africa, but I'm going to Africa and I need you to help me find a way to get there.' "

Which is what they did, putting Alexis in the hands of Heaven Sent Ministries, a nonprofit agency founded in 1997 that facilitates short-term mission trips to Central America, India and Africa.

Before she was out of Africa, Alexis was inspired to form a Web-based business. She launched the site Oct. 29. Being an individual full of action, she verbed her first name into a gerund and came up with annaING. The Web site is annaing.org.

The mission of AnnaING is to "educate, inspire and challenge individuals no matter their circumstance, to reach for truth and equality as they lead lives of continuous learning, service, and aspire to live their dream."

She has plans to lead a group back to Ghana after the first of the year. The contingent likely will be laden with school supplies, but near the top of her to-do list is the construction of a library.

"I've had people tell me, 'You're the busiest person I know,' but I don't feel that way," she said.

"I feel I haven't scratched the surface of what I want to do with my life."

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