Kaci was born and raised in Chanute, KS. She grew up going to church every Sunday and was active in just about any way that she could be in the church. It wasn’t until her freshman year of high school when she first learned that being a Christian wasn’t so much about just going to church every Sunday but it was about having a personal, intimate relationship with the Lord. That was the year Kaci gave her life to Christ. The Lord also put a strong desire and passion on her heart for overseas missions. Kaci didn’t know when, where, or what that would look like (certainly wouldn’t have guessed 11 countries in 11 months), but she knew that she was supposed to go.
Fast forward to college; freshman year, Kaci had her first opportunity to go overseas and she was ecstatic. She spent 10 days in Honduras and quickly fell in love. Once she got back to the states she couldn’t wait until she was able to go back. The next year, in 2009, Kaci went to a missions conference called Urbana in St. Louis, MO. That is where she heard about the World Race for the first time and it has been on her heart ever since.
This past July/August, almost 5 years after Kaci first heard about the World Race, God gave her the “go ahead” to apply for the Race. She had so much peace about it and knew without a shadow of a doubt that this was what she was supposed to do. So, the day AIM released the routes for July 2014, she filled out an application. Two days later she had a phone interview, and two weeks and a day after the interview, she received the phone call saying that she had been accepted.
Kaci has said that she can honestly say that her life isn’t anything like she thought it would be. She doesn’t yet have a college degree. She doesn’t have that “big kid” job. She’s not married. She doesn’t have a house….etc. But, she wouldn’t have it any other way. Her time spent in college, though she doesn’t have a degree to her name yet, wasn’t time wasted. Kaci met some incredible people along the way who have pushed her closer to Jesus. Over the years she has had some amazing job opportunities that have given her a wide range of experience from banking and working at a cupcake bakery (yum!) to nannying, preaching, and youth ministry. God sure has a funny way of working things out – it’s usually not what or how we expect it. However, from Kaci’s experience, what He has for us is so, so good.
Kaci is very grateful, humbled and honored that the Lord would allow her this opportunity to travel around the world to show those who are lost, hurting, broken and who have lost all hope, this amazing, undeniable, love that is found in Christ alone. Kaci is so excited to see what He is going to do in these 11 months and beyond.
I am so blessed to call Kaci a friend and to experience this amazing journey with her. She is one of the sweetest, most kind hearted individuals I have ever met and she will touch so many lives around the world!
