For those of you who know me, you know that I’m not a blogger so let’s get right into it.
My name is Ariane and I am 20 years old from sunny Southern California. When I was applying for colleges I decided to go to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona which is where I have been living the past two years. Before moving to Arizona, I had no idea what I was getting myself into and once I moved here I started to experience more downs than ups. After a series of unfortunate events I experienced depression and anxiety for the first time in my life which put me in a really dark place. I wasn’t passionate or motivated to do anything here in Arizona which made me want to transfer back home, but before almost committing I decided to give Flagstaff another chance. I stared to build relationships and a community through Young Life which is where I met my best friends.
My sophomore year of college was better than the first, but was still not motivated or passionate about anything. I decided to become a Young Life leader because it seemed like the right thing to do but in my heart, I never wanted to do it because I wasn’t able to pour into people and I was the person who needed to be poured into instead. When I stepped down from Young Life, I started to do things that made me happy again like playing intramural soccer, photography, and playing the piano.
Towards the end of my sophomore year I needed to pick classes for the following semester. When I was looking through my progression plan I noticed that I didn’t have many classes left to take which was very confusing and I didn’t believe it. I went into the advising office at my college and asked them if something got messed up and that’s when my advisor told me that I had the opportunity to graduate a year early. Turns out that during this dark place of my life I kept distracting myself and ended up taking more credits than I was supposed to, which I am now thankful for.
Although Flagstaff was not the place for me, I do value all the friendships and the community that I found in this small mountain town. Finding out that I was graduating early was a huge relief because it meant that I get to leave Flagstaff even sooner than I had planned. I had very strong relationships with some of my teachers and they encouraged me to apply to internships, grad schools, and to start my career but none of that seemed exciting to me. I knew that I wanted to use this leftover year to serve the Lord and I didn’t know where that would lead me and sure enough I later came across The World Race.
The World Race is an eleven-month mission trip where I get to travel to eleven different countries. Starting in October of 2019, I will be traveling and living in Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Benin, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, India, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines. This is the first time in two years that I have felt passionate towards anything. I am excited to serve in partnership with churches and ministries in local communities to preach the Gospel not through just words but my actions.
James 2:17 “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”
I’ll be serving in different ways including feeding the hungry, healing the sick, building relationships with people in trafficking, and much more. I would like to invite you on this journey with me whether that would be through prayer or donations. For prayers, I would appreciate prayers for the people I am serving, the team I am serving with, safety, and for myself preparing for this journey and endurance while I’m there. Thank you all for being a part of these two years and helping me rediscover Jesus’ love and the things that I am passionate about, and I hope that you can continue this journey with me.
With all my love,
Ariane
