Dear Family and Friends:
I hope this message finds you and your family in good health.
As many of you know, my plans to take a gap year through the Eden Prairie Rotary Club and be an exchange student in Denmark were canceled due to COVID-19. While feeling upset and hopeless, I started searching for another plan for my gap year. Through my search, I was led to an AMAZING organization called The World Race. This is a Christian organization that offers a gap year mission program through which I can strengthen my relationship with God while serving others and making a difference across the world. Originally the program has the Racers (gap year students) start going abroad in September, but due to COVID-19, our international travel will be delayed. In September, I will be going to Georgia where I will have missional training, leadership development, and discipleship while growing closer with the other Racers. Hopefully, after three months, we will start our international travel to Costa Rica, Guatemala, Eswatini, and Thailand.
First, I will travel to San Jose, Costa Rica where I will be serving these causes: teaching English, working on community projects in slums devastated by gang violence and poverty, helping with feeding programs, serving the community through manual labor, and working in sex trafficking ministry. This is the first stop on my journey that I can show God’s love in tangible ways!
Next, I will be heading to Antigua, Guatemala to build relationships with the locals, help with the children, and do community outreach. Similarly to Costa Rica, I will spend a lot of my time teaching English while playing sports with the children. I am excited get the chance to use my Spanish in these two countries!
After that, I will serve the people in Chiang Mai, Thailand, also known as the “Land of Smiles”. Our focus here will be on children’s ministry, teaching English, and community outreach such as prayer walking through the red-light district and playing with street kids.
Finally, I will venture to Nsoko, eSwatini in Africa. There, my squad and I will bring hope to orphaned children affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. We will be equipped to care for these children by providing food, clean water, education, healthcare, and discipleship. I am excited to see how God’s work is present in these different continents.
I am truly blessed to have this opportunity to grow in my faith while making a difference around our world. I invite you to support me on this journey in the following ways:
-
Pray: With COVID-19, there is a chance that the international travel portion of my gap year will be canceled and I will not have the opportunity to serve others outside the United States. Therefore, I ask you to pray for the world to recover and that God gives me the strength to help others as much as I can.
-
Donate: You can help make this journey possible by supporting me financially. These are the ways to donate:
-
Venmo: @Abby-Horn-7
-
Check: You can make it out to me, and I will upload it to my fundraising blog
-
Connect: Stay up to date by following my blog and see what’s going on!
Thank you for supporting me through high school and now on this gap year mission program through God. I am joyful to start this next chapter of my life by serving others and making a difference across the world. I will keep you updated throughout my gap year, along with praying that God continues to watch over you and your family during this pandemic!
