Hello everyone,
My name is Danny Vaughan and I am super excited to be a part of the World Race Gap Year 2019 (this is about to be all over the place.. sorry)! I’m 17 years old and finishing up my senior year at Brighton High School in Michigan. I had plans to take a gap year and travel a bit after high school, when my cousin introduced me to the idea of combining the gap year with a missions trip. I was onboard with that idea as soon as I heard it and immediately began to look for different ministry groups to go with. One of my friends from church had previously served with Adventures in Missions on their World Race 11n11. I am very excited to serve with this organization as well.
Growing up in a home where I learned about Jesus from a young age, I asked Him to be my Savior when I was about five. I didn’t think that I could be too sure that it worked, so I asked him a couple times because the whole idea of saying a prayer and then being saved seemed too simple to me and I wanted to make sure it worked. I’ve done 3 Mission trips before and each time has been amazing! I love traveling and have always had a heart for serving, another reason I got so excited hearing about the World Race Gap Year!
A few things I love to do… Everyone in my family plays some sort of sport because thats just something that we do. Growing up I tried a little bit of everything but what I really enjoy are rugby and skiing! I also really love working out and being active because it’s a great way for me to burn off some energy and relax. Something that has always seemed to come naturally to me, I’m very forgiving and have the gift of compassion (or at least I’ve been told). I love exploring, I’m always up for an adventure as well as learning something new.
When it comes to my spiritual journey, like I said, I grew up in a Christian home. Growing up however, I feel like I never made my faith personal and was kind of just going through the motions. I always had a love for my families faith but it wasn’t consistent. I didn’t want to say “one” single thing changed my faith. More like a lot of little things combined such as: my Grandmas, my parents, and several missions trips that I went on. Let’s start with my Grandmas. Both of my Grandmas have always been a great influence on me, growing up. When my Grandma Kaiser was diagnosed with ALS six years ago, it was really hard for everyone in the family. It stunk, but Grandma surprised me because she accepted and handled the news best out of all of us. She has always been really close with God but I feel like this circumstance became her platform to show other people how Jesus is her rock and treasure. For the past six years, she has been touching everyone’s lives around her, including mine, making all of us want to be closer to Jesus also. My other Grandma, Grandma Vaughan, has also impacted me since I was little. The thing that stuck out the most about her was the morning and evening devotions that we’d all do when we went to their house to visit. Because my siblings and I were young, she would make it easy for us to understand the Bible in her own fun way. My Dad encourages me to take risks and do new things which is what joining the World Race is all about for me. My Mom is my biggest cheerleader to live for Jesus. Last of all, the missions trips that I have been on have affected me by giving me a stronger desire to go serve other people and share the love of Jesus with them (Matthew 28:16-20).
What I hope to get out of the World Race is spiritual growth. I struggle with spiritual growth which is why I look forward to experiencing more of it with our team. Going on missions trips have always left me on this “spiritual high” when coming back. Unfortunately, I always have trouble hanging on to it maybe just one month afterwords. This is something that I’d like to work on and, like I said, to hopefully gain from this coming year.
After high school, I had always planned to take a gap year. At first I was looking at doing something in the medical field because I’m interested in a future career in something medical. Then my cousin introduced me to the idea of taking the year to do a missions trip though and immediately I was on board. When I learned about the World Race, and how you travel to several different countries, it combined my love of experiencing new cultures with my desire to serve Jesus for a year. It was a perfect fit. My hopes for the year are to grow spiritually but I worry about the details because I don’t know a lot of them.
If you feel led, please keep me in your prayers that I reach my funding goal so that I can go serve on the World Race Gap Year. Another big prayer request of mine is for protection and that my team and I actually do make an impact for Jesus over the duration of this nine month trip.
Lets spread some Jesus!!! 
P.S. I’m a ESFP if that means something to you
