Why the World - Explore Archived World Race Alumni Blogs

I went to the Brazil Amazon for a month last May. I went with 10 of my schoolmates & it is the most astonishing place I have ever been. It was the first time I ever traveled out of the country, and the most rewarding.

I made me appreciate everything we take for granted in America.

Brazil is more than beautiful; it’s exquisite, down to the giant army ant. The Amazon River is grand and wonderful. The Brazilian people are fascinating; the fruit is the best I have ever tasted. The night sky, with the stars is the clearest, and most divine picture you could ever come up with.I discovered in my awe of Brazil, there is a whole other world out there. There are so many people and so many places. I could never imagine my life after Brazil to work at the same job, in the same building, viewing the same sensory, in the same place for the rest of my life.

I want to taste the whole world!

I use to say when I was a little girl, that all I ever wanted to do was travel, BUT not just anywhere, but everywhere. I want to see every place possible, and people tell me I dream to big. Well, God instilled in me, dreams that are as wide and as vast as the planets and stars. My first list on my bucket list is travel to 166 different countries before I die. There are about 196 countries in the world, so if I get 12 down before my 22th birthday I think I am making good time.

The world is incredible. Whenever I get asked what super power I could have I always say “ to know every language possible, that way I can go everywhere and talk with every person I come in contact with.”

This chance going on the World Race is such a blessing, because I believe God is using not only my wildest and biggest dreams to go on this track around the earth, but to break my heart for all the same reasons. I think I have such a thirst for the world, because I feel more a part of the broken and powerless than I do with the rich and powerful. I could honestly spend my whole life, traveling. Every day would be a new adventure, and what an experience to make adventures with Jesus who surprises you with His goodness and grace. I can’t recall the many times in Brazil where God’s glory was always shown in the most catastrophic situations.

Yes the world is cruel. Yes the world is ugly and evil. I know this; I have experienced it first-hand. But in all of the disgrace and wrong doing, in all of the injustice and poverty, in all of the pain and suffering, God is still in every aspect of it all; in the mountains, in the sky, in the animals, in every part of nature, but most importantly in every single human being. That’s why I love it. That’s where my soul flourishes, meeting face to face with God’s beauty.