Imagine studying French in a Maine village, learning about nutrition at a historic North Carolina spa, or helping rebuild the devastated communities of the Gulf Coast. Weave a Navajo rug; make a film in New York; learn to surf in Mexico; or choose any of scores of other possibilities.

Travel industry experts report that more and more people are combining vacations with volunteer work—the growing phenomenon called "voluntourism." Professionals predict this will be a key growth area for years to come; the voluntourists themselves find it a rewarding activity, good for body and soul. And nobody provides such a fun, inviting overview of the possibilities as savvy travel writer Pam Grout in the latest title in our 100 Best Vacations series. With its elegant two-color design, playful cover, and winningly positive goal, it’s a travel guide with heart, inexpensive yet inspiring—an ideal gift book for people who care to share. From building houses in Appalachia to saving sea turtles in Costa Rica to teaching English in Thailand, this book is a rich resource of ways to use your skills to help out the world and reap some lasting benefits yourself. Like its two predecessors, it includes an engagingly descriptive menu of choices for tastes and talents of all kinds, along with detailed specifics to turn good intentions into satisfying reality. Throughout, sidebars describe nearby places to visit, little-known facts, and more, providing depth and variety, while a comprehensive resource listing gives additional information about the different organizations offering volunteer vacations.

For the increasing number of people looking for ways to make a difference while on vacation, this fully updated edition is filled with in-depth information to get them ready for their adventure, including contacts, locations, costs, dates, project details, and profiles of 150 select organizations that run thousands of programs in the United States and around the world. Including new details about long-term projects and organizations specifically tailored for families, seniors, and people with disabilities, this definitive sourcebook provides a wealth of opportunities for anyone interested in taking a truly meaningful vacation and provides new anecdotes about all kinds of jobs and the positive impact they had on volunteers' lives.

Provides a broad spectrum of volunteering possibilities, spanning six continents and a hundred different opportunities ranging from archaeology and tourism to humanitarian aid and conservation.

What if your church had more volunteers than you knew what to do with? Sound far-fetched? It doesn't have to be. Now consultant, pastor, and author Nelson Searcy unveils his secret to doubling your volunteer base in as little as one day. Yes, you read that right. This step-by-step guide shows church leaders how to create a culture that attracts, keeps, and grows volunteers. Taking a comprehensive approach to the often frustrating issue of finding and retaining volunteers, Connect gives leaders the practical insight and tools they need to effectively involve people in serving the local church. It details how to help people see the importance of serving, how to continually raise up new volunteers, how to really delegate, and even how to "fire" a volunteer. Every church leader who has struggled with getting and keeping people active in the church (and that's all of them) will love the practical, workable strategies found here.

Travelers are showing a huge interest in the fast-growing sector known as experiential tourism-vacations that encompass heritage, culture, nature, ecology, and soft adventure. In the footsteps of the briskly selling The 100 Best Vacations to Enrich Your Life featuring North American destinations, our new title extends these ardent travelers' sights to global scale. From helping to build a health clinic in Tanzania to learning massage in Thailand to aiding green turtle conservation in Belize, The 100 Best Worldwide Vacations to Enrich Your Life is full of fun, meaningful, and memorable possibili.

Inspiring and insightful, Our Better Angels: Seven Simple Virtues That Will Change Your Life and the World celebrates the shared principles that unite and enable us to overcome life’s challenges together. “When the waters rise, so do our better angels.”—President Jimmy Carter Jonathan Reckford, the CEO of Habitat for Humanity, has seen time and again the powerful benefits that arise when people from all walks of life work together to help one another. In this uplifting book, he shares true stories of people involved with Habitat as volunteers and future homeowners who embody seven timeless virtues—kindness, community, empowerment, joy, respect, generosity, and service—and shows how we can all practice these to improve the quality of our own lives as well as those around us. A Vietnam veteran finds peace where he was once engaged in war. An impoverished single mother offers her family’s time and energy to enrich their neighbors’ lives. A Zambian family of nine living in a makeshift tent makes room to shelter even more. A teenager grieving for his mother honors her love and memory by ensuring other people have a place to call home. A former president of the United States leads by example with a determined work ethic that motivates everyone around him to be the best version of themselves. These stories, and many others, illustrate how virtues become values, how cooperation becomes connection, and how even the smallest act of compassion can encourage actions that transform the world around us. Here are tales that will make readers laugh and cry and embrace with passion the calling of our better angels to change the way we take care of ourselves, our families, our communities, and the world.