My journey to find the World Race was not a straightforward decision. There was a lot of questioning involved to build up my confidence in Christ that this was the path He had for me. I never would have imagined this to be my next journey and walk after high school. Maybe in ten or twenty years but not fresh out of high school.
Let’s throw it back to the end of junior year. I’m a junior in high school in the process of researching colleges and possible majors. I had only been on my walk with Christ for a few months at this point but enough to know that college wasn’t the road the Lord was calling me to, at least not right after high school. The whole process didn’t seem right to me. No colleges were standing out to me for one reason or another, all the classes and majors I looked at just seemed like your normal run of the mill classes. I know many people at each of the schools so I knew how special and wonderful these schools were but nothing was standing out to me. I had this constant feel that whatever college or major I chose, I would be missing out on something. I prayed to Lord for peace constantly because I knew I would have to start making decisions within the next few months and my time to make a decision was running short. But the Lord answered my prayers in a way I was not expecting. I had the expectation that the Lord would tell me what major or what college I was to pursue in order to fulfill the path He had laid out for me. But it was the exact opposite. The Lord first called me to take a gap year. No one in my family has taken a gap year and I shortly realized that this would be one of many times that I would be going against the flow of my family. I didn’t know what exactly I was to do during my gap year. I knew the Lord was calling me to something to fill the year but I wasn’t sure what. Looking back, I now realize that there were five different people encouraging me to go into the mission field, I know that was God working through them to help me continue focused on the path He had laid down for me. With more and more prayer came my calling of missionary work.
I had been working with a college mentor for several months now and brought the idea up to her. Serving missionary work during my gap year. She loved the idea and helped me to find programs I could get involved in. World Race being one of them. I continued to look back on it, researching, praying and asking of the Lord to give me clarity. It wasn’t the most defined decision of my life but I knew this was the way the Lord wanted me to serve during my gap year before pursuing anything else.
For World Race Gap Year, you have the option of six different routes to choose from. I chose the Swaziland, Thailand and Nicaragua route. I chose this because I knew I would have widely diverse experiences in all three places. In this opportunity to serve the Lord’s people, I wanted to spread my love throughout the world. I am thrilled to be travelling abroad starting in September to serve my current calling. I have slowly been getting to know the other lovely people on my route. They all have such kind hearts and I am excited to get to know them more during the race and live with them and serve the Lord for nine months!
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Fundraising Update!
I’m still selling shirts so if you’re interested contact me and we’ll get you hooked up with one!
I’m partnering with Go Rings for the month of May so check it out and choose my name at checkout! They have awesome jewelry products!
Still working towards my first fundraising goal of $5,000 by June 18th!
Let’s fundraise!
Much love,
Hannah Upkes 🙂
