Hey all! I am so excited for everything God has planned for me and my team in this coming year and I am so excited to be able to share with you along the way. For those of you who may not know, my name is Joshua McKinley and I am 18 years old. I was born in Louisville, Colorado, but have spent the large majority of my life in Orlando, Florida with my mom, dad, and three siblings. I have spent the past four years of my life studying, surfing and sleeping, but more importantly, I have been journeying with the Lord seeking His will for my life, which has brought me to the World Race. I have been doing everything that I can to be involved in ministry ever since I first felt God calling me toward that life and it has been such an amazing journey. My heart is found in sharing the gospel message with those that have not heard it and I have had the chance to do this over and over again in the past few years. Before God called me into ministry I was living a life very distant from Him. Until the summer after my 8th grade year when I met this guy named Blake and we slowly started to become friends. There was something intriguing about the way that Blake lived his life. At first we never talked about our struggles, our issues, our desires, we kind of just enjoyed each other’s company. As we became closer friend’s I began to realize that there was something different about this kid and whatever he had I wanted. I didn’t know how to explain it at the time, but he lived with a spirit of joy in the midst of the loss of his father, he lived in peace despite his mom’s struggle, and he lived this incredibly generous lifestyle despite the fact that he had little to call his own. Growing up in a Christian family I was always taught about God and about who He was, but I never grasped what Christ was like. And what I began to realize was that Blake was modeling this Christ that I had thought I knew my whole life. I was excited about this Jesus that I was finally beginning to understand. I surrendered everything to Him and to His teachings seeking the same kind of life that my friend Blake had. Shortly after, I received my call into ministry and fell in love with sharing what God was doing in my life. Every day, God continues to humble me, teach me, and reveal His will for my life and that is what the World Race Gap Year is to me and I am so excited to see what God has in store.
