At the beginning of September this year, I was scrolling through the Instagram explore page. I came upon a photo of the map of the world, with a few pinpoints in different countries. I quickly checked out the photo, but moved on and didn’t think twice about it. About three days later, the photo showed up again on my feed. I read the full caption, and discovered a girl had been accepted to this interesting gap year program called “The World Race.”
I decided it was something worth checking out.
I searched for it on Google, and the moment I clicked on the website link, I was hooked. I spent the next two hours searching through the World Race website, reading blogs, watching vlogs, and consuming as much information as I could. I was enthralled, and immediately felt called to apply.
Rewind to about 6 years ago, when I was eleven years old and at Catholic summer camp.
All the cabins were about to participate in a camp-wide relay race, and I was preparing to run as the anchor and climb the tower at the end. Before I embarked, I was talking to one of my counselors named Andrea, and we got to the topic of helping other people. Eleven year old me already had a big heart. I began to tell Andrea how I wanted to help the less fortunate so badly, and I reminisced on an experience I had the previous winter, where I served homeless men dinner at my church. The act itself wasn’t profound, but I began to cry because thinking about it made me so happy. My friends looked at me like I was crazy, but I didn’t care.
Coming back to the present day, as I looked through the World Race website, I began to have those same feelings of joy and that my heart was gonna explode because I was so happy imagining the possibility of serving.
In the next couple weeks after this, I continued to research the program, and found nothing but positive reviews and aspects of taking a Gap Year to serve. Even though college has always been in the plan for me, and it still is, going on the WR Gap Year now seemed like the only possible option I could take part in.
So, I filled out my application and scheduled an interview. I asked all my close friends to pray for me during this discernment, and I found myself praying every day about whether or not I was called to do this. I felt so strongly about wanting to go myself, but I prayed to know whether this was part of God’s plan and purpose for me.
Going into the interview, I was scared out of my mind because I had feelings that I wasn’t good enough or worthy enough to be chosen. This sounds silly to me right now, but at the time, the feelings were very real. After looking at the current World Racers on social media, it seemed that they had it all together and were way more perfect candidates than I could ever be. The woman conducting my interview, named Alyssa, spoke to these fears when I told her about them, and she immediately reassured me that I was worthy for this.
My favorite part of the interview was when Alyssa said she felt called to share a bible verse with me, Joshua 1:9. She began to say it, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” I smiled immediately, and before she could finish the verse, I already knew the ending. My mom had gotten me this verse on canvas for my birthday about three weeks before, and I knew that this was all part of God’s plan. His timing is so incredible.
About a week later, I received a call during school saying I was accepted to the Gap Year, and I again started crying during school, and immediately told my friends about it who had been praying.
So, now here I am. Accepted to the World Race Gap Year, embarking on Route 4, to Guatemala, Thailand, Malaysia, and Swaziland in September 2018.
I cannot explain how stoked I am about this. The opportunity to bring the love of God to the poor and the broken, and to live selflessly for 9 months doing God’s work. Not to mention, all while surrounded by a team with the same goal and purpose in mind, and to bond to them while all becoming closer to God. There are so many exciting things about this trip, and it’s crazy to think that in a year, I will be across the world.
At the same time, I am scared out of my mind just a little bit, because of the unknown and the total 180 degree change this will be. I’m not going to college, I won’t be with my family for nine months, and that is scary to imagine. But, Exodus 14:14 tells us that “The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still”. So, that’s what I’m doing. Being still and knowing that this is where I’m called.
In the upcoming months, I will continue to update you on my faith journey and with more news about my trip, but that’s the introduction I have for now. Thank you so much for reading my blog, and I ask that you continue to pray for me as I prepare for this trip, and to donate to my fundraising, because that is a huge part of my preparation. Coming soon, I will release some of my fundraising shirts and bracelets, so stay tuned!! Thanks again for reading! :))
Mary Grace
