Hello! By now you are probably aware that my name is Bri. To start with telling you about myself, I am seventeen years old and have been blessed to participate in the World Race Gap Year where I will be traveling to Nicaragua, South Africa and Thailand over the course of nine months. I am from small town, Holderness, New Hampshire and live with my mom, dad and two sisters; I am the middle sibling of the three. I love sports and have played on my high school’s field hockey, basketball and lacrosse team since my freshman year. I am also very passionate about photography and art- I love to scrapbook and paint. I will be graduating this June and my plan is that I will complete the World Race and then attend Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Boston to pursue a Nursing degree. Although there is some fear attached to the next nine months of my life, I know that with prayer and support, “I can do all things through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13)
My journey of faith has never fully begun until now. I have always grown up in a family where we went to church, prayed and I attended a Christian camp for three consecutive summers. I became so used to “going through the motions” of being a Christian but I never was doing anything to better my relationship with God. I was first challenged when I went to Camp Berea one summer when I was still in middle school. Here is where I met so many great people and listened to messages that made me want to be a better person and more importantly, a better Christian. I wanted to be more dedicated and faithful but I seemed to fail as soon as camp was over. I had attended public school since I was in second grade and since then I had struggled to find friends that supported me in my walk with the Lord. As that struggle presented itself over and over again, I never seemed to do anything about it.
My second challenge of faith was presented to me last summer when I attended an advanced studies program. I went to St. Paul’s school in the summer of 2014 to study in one class over the course of six weeks. This class happened to be World Religions where we looked at the belief system within Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism and Christianity. For each unit, we read about what is believed and discussed why that’s what is believed. When we were in our Christianity unit I was surprised to learn that I didn’t know as much as I thought I did. I had a realization that if someone were to ask me what I believe, I might be able to tell them, but if someone were to ask me why I believe that, I would have a difficult time answering them.
With this “bitter-sweet” realization, I decided that I wanted to be able to defend why I believe what I do. This has helped lead me to where I am now because from that point on I knew that I needed to attend a Christian college or doing something as incredible as the World Race to reaffirm my faith. In early September, I started to think more seriously about this opportunity while also applying to colleges. After Christmas, I decided that this was something I wanted to do and so I applied and was accepted. My next step was to request a deferral of enrollment to college and with God’s blessing that was granted.
Since I have begun this journey, I have seen God work in my life in ways I would have never expected. I am beyond excited to continue this journey and for my life to be forever changed.
I would like to thank those of you reading this for your time and continued support.
God Bless!
