Dear Friends and Family,
How are you doing? I hope that God is doing amazing things in your life like he is doing for me right now!! I am currently days away from graduating from West Hills High School and embarking on the next chapter in my life! I couldn’t be more excited for what the Lord is doing in my life right now! This past year has been a great one for me! I have made countless friends that I know will be with me forever and have really put all my trust in the Lord for my plans this next year as I didn’t know what I would be doing until just a couple weeks ago!
I want to share with you a challenging but worthwhile ministry opportunity that Lord has placed in my life. As many of you guys know, I traveled to Costa Rica for a week with Newbreak Student Ministries, my home youth group to work with Latin American Child Care which changed my life forever. I know what you are thinking, how dramatic… How can one week change someones life. Well, when I left for Costa Rica I never imagined I would come home with a new found love for missions work and a burning desire to keep going! I knew as I was about to start my senior year of highschool that I needed to go to college and make the “right” decisions for my future but I had a tugging on my heart for taking some time off to work in the missions field. I spent months looking for organizations that I could pair with but didn’t really find anything that made me want to give up a year of my life… Until about a month ago.
After searching for trips left and right and not finding anything I took it as a sign from God that I needed to stay home and go to college, so I abandoned the idea of missions and was ready to go to college. As the months went on I just felt like God was telling me to go more and more everyday but I didn’t know where. I prayed for weeks for God to show me what I was supposed to be doing in the fall and before I knew it I ended up on the Adventures in Missions website. I had been on the website many times before because I was originally interested in their World Race trip, an 11 countries in 11 months journey but of course, I wasn’t qualified because of my age. I decided to look at their routes despite the fact that I wasn’t old enough and thats when I found World Race: Gap Year. I knew as I clicked the link that this trip was made for me, this is the trip that God had me waiting for!
You must be wondering what the World Race: Gap Year is and maybe even what Adventures in Missions is all about. A brief description of AIM is that they are basically an organization that helps get people out into the missions field so they can share the Lords Kingdom with those that do not know it. (If you are interested in knowing more on what they believe and how the trips work feel free to visit http://adventuresinmissions.com) The World Race: Gap Year is a 9 month trip visiting 3 different countries to create relationships with the people that need to know the Lords love the most. This trip is designed like the original World Race trip but this time we get to stick around to really help the communities we get thrown into!! It’s safe to say that this trip is a trip of a lifetime but thats where I need your help!
As many of you can guess, a trip of a lifetime has a price. My trip is $12,488 which will include all of my field expenses while away and there is just no way I can do this alone. Once I applied and got accepted into the Gap Year team I looked for a full time job that paid higher than my last job and by the grace of God I got hired at SeaWorld and will be working full time this summer to make this trip happen but that still won’t be enough to go. I am asking you to help support me, if that means financially or through prayer, both are appreciated. I am so excited for this trip and really feel like the Lord is calling me to go on this journey with him but I can’t do this alone, so please take the time to pray about my trip and whether you would like to support me in this journey!
I will be calling you or emailing you soon to check in and see if you have any questions about my trip and see if you are feeling lead to support me! In the meantime, please check out my blog (taylornettles.worldrace.org) that the race has provided me with that can explain where I am at, a little bit more about me and why I am going on this trip and prayer requests are I start this journey!
God Bless,
Taylor Nettles
