College or the World race? This was the question I asked myself and prayed about for several months. But let us back up some to shortly before I had ever heard about the World Race.
In the fall of 2013 I had heard about an exchange trip that Bethany High School was going to be participating in. The trip was to Israel, the students would spend two weeks in Israel. Then the week before would be spent in New York and D.C. with other Americans and students that came over from Israel.
The only way I would be about to go on this three week trip was if I got a full scholarship. So I applied for the scholarship and a couple weeks later I got it. So God opened the doors for that trip. Getting back from that trip I was ready to travel more my mom said I had the “travel bug”. So that is when the adventure of looking for trips began. But I was search for more than a vacation, more than and educational trip, I was searching for a mission trip.
When I knew I wanted to go on a mission trip and that it was what God was calling me to I didn’t know where to start. So I started where most kids in my generation would start with Google. So I googled mission trips and found out about the World Race. But the story doesn’t end here, remember I was just a sophomore in highschool I couldn’t go on an eleven month trip and I was to young. So I glanced at the trip that I found so amazing and moved on cause I knew I couldn’t. Next thing I knew God called me to Peru the following summer of 2014 with Christian Motorcycle Association. Next in 2015 I went to Romania with a group from Hope Church. Both were so amazing and my passion for missions and traveling was growing so strong.
I had forgotten about the World Race if you would have asked me at the beginning of the summer of 2015 what I would do after I graduated, I would tell you college. I felt like there would be more then that but I just didn’t know what else. So going to college was just what my plan was and what I would tell people. God is good though and He had other plans that he showed me shortly after I got back from Romania.
While teaching swim lessons at the Bethany YMCA, I entered into a conversation with one of the parents. She mentioned ‘World Race’. I told her I had heard of it and had been interested at one point but hadn’t considered it recently. She encouraged me to look into it more of course I did.
There were several different occasions within a couple of months in which World Race had been pressed upon my heart. As I dug deeper I discovered it was just one of many programs sponsored by Adventure in Missions. As I prayed and researched I felt God calling me to serve in the World Race: Gap Year trip. So about two years later after finding out about the World Race I can officially say I am going on the October 2016 World Race Gap Year trip to India, Malaysia, and Zambia.
