I’m a senior in high school which means I constantly get asked the question “So do you know where you’re gonna go to college yet?”. Sure many of the people asking me this are saying these words because they think that’s what the next stage of life for someone my age looks like. Which they’re right that is typically the next step for many people, but any time I hear this question directed towards me they get a different response than what they are probably expecting. At first i laugh to myself because I know that saying I am going on a gap year makes some people think that I want to sit on my couch for a year because I am too lazy to go straight to college, or that I want to travel around so that I can get cool pics to post, etc. But the good thing about all these different ideas of what a gap year looks like is that people have lots of questions. So this simple question that would usually be a one to two minute topic turns into a conversation where I get the chance to tell people that yeah college is awesome but it isn’t the place God has called me to next year.
I am getting the opportunity to go to four different countries for nine months to be involved in different ministries and love the people throughout different communities that I get to live in. In September of 2018 I will leave to go to Costa Rica, then South Africa, then Thailand, and last but not least Myanmar.
Last year is when I realized God was calling me to do a Gap Year, I just had no idea what it was going to look like. I have always had a heart for missions so I knew that it would definitely be missions based but I could not find a program that gave me some feeling that this is where God is calling me. I did know about the World Race because at the time my sister was actually in the middle of her gap year with them. But my heart was not in the right place to see that God was constantly telling me in many different ways…”Avery this is what you’re going to do too!”. Once my sister, Sarah Catherine, came home she was constantly bugging me with
“oh the World Race is perfect for you”
“Avery I can give you one of my friend’s number’s so they can tell you about their race experience”
“I think you should just apply to see what happens”
And so many more things like that. Every single time I would say no and end the discussion but she was relentless in bringing it back up again later. I never had any real reason for why I said no…but I just kept saying it. Then one day she decided that she was going to get real with me and not let me avoid the conversation. So we talked about every possible reason that I could think of as to why the World Race “wasn’t for me”. By the end I realized that I was saying no because I was being stubborn and it was out of my comfort zone, but guys…I have always talked about how God moves in incredible ways when we get out of our comfort zone and are stretched by Him…so why would I not want to do exactly that and use the opportunities that the Lord gives me?? By the end of the conversation I was open to the idea of sure i’ll apply to the World Race Gap Year like my sister wants me to but i’m still going to look for other programs. Of course this was all in my head and I wasn’t saying any of this to my sister who was sitting right across from me, then for some reason I had the thought, wow I really need to check my email right this second. This isn’t something I usually think so I was kinda weirded out but I checked it anyways. Of course the first email I saw was from the World Race with the subject “How the World Race Gap Year Changed My Life” that had been sent just a few minutes before…I looked at my sister and said “You have got to be kidding me…i’m going on the World Race”. To some people this may seem like just an email with some coincidences with it, but it was so much more than that. It was the Lord’s way of being persistent and not letting me push the conversation away in the same way I talked about Sarah Catherine relentlessly bringing it up. The Lord gave me a confidence that day that the World Race Gap Year is what I am being called to.
The World Race is not what I initially imagined myself doing next year but once certain situations in my life changed and I told the Lord “Where you call me I’ll go”. I finally realized that I had been trying to make all these plans for my life but I had to let that go because I understood that the only plans that were going to work out for me were the Lord’s. I am so excited for the Lord’s plans for my life and what these nine months will look like. I appreciate all of the prayer’s and support from you guys!!
Lots of love,
avery
