In the last year I have really grown quite a bit in my faith, however, I haven’t grown much in sharing my faith. I’ve felt God pushing me to be bolder in sharing my faith, and fearless in following his directions. Two things I have never been good at doing.
For a long time I thought I wanted to do missions work, but I was afraid of the idea. I didn’t like the idea of having to raise money and travel across the world where I can’t go home on the weekends. I was especially uncomfortable when I felt like God was leading me towards this Thailand/Cambodia trip. I had heard about the world race from a couple people and seen the ads but it wasn’t what I planned to do.
One day, an ad for the World Race Gap Year program popped up on my Instagram and I thought, what would happen if I clicked it, just to check it out? I read about the program, realizing that I want to do something like that, but the training was at a time when I would be in Puerto Rico, but I kept looking at the other trips. At this point it was just a research project to put in the back of my mind for later, something I might consider once I’m a bit less afraid of everything. But God had another idea. I was about to graduate high school and really praying for God to show me what to do next, and day after day, I kept seeing these ads on Instagram, and every time I felt more and more tempted to apply. So, I found the Semesters program and thought it looked perfect for me, just the right duration and everything. I don’t know why exactly I chose the Thailand/Cambodia trip, I suppose I just liked the idea of seeing a culture I’d never seen before, but, I applied. Over a span of like two weeks, I slowly applied, planning to back out every time I logged on. I finished my application and submitted. At this point, I was very nervous about the idea, but getting excited by the opportunity.
The next step was the phone interview. Little backstory on this, I hate phone calls, they make me very nervous for some reason. So, I scheduled my phone interview and waited for the day to come, it wasn’t a long wait really and I answered, and was calm and not nervous. For every phone call I’ve been calm. I’ve enjoyed getting to know who I’ll be working with leading up to the trip and I’m getting more and more excited about the trip itself.
Through all of this, God has really taken my fear and doubt and crushed it. Yes, there are small things I’m concerned about, but I know that God has a plan for all of this. I know that through this experience I will grow in the areas I need to grow in, and I’ll get to see a new part of the world while doing it.
