Why the World Race?
For as long as I can remember I have had a heart that has hurt for those who are hurting. I have always felt such a strong sense of compassion for those who are lost. God has called me to love on everyone around who is in need of love, I have always felt a strong call to missions but I never knew when the right time was. When I was looking for the perfect college nothing felt right to me, my friends were so excited about finding their dream schools and starting the next chapter of their life at a University, but I knew in my heart that it wasn’t for me yet. Shortly after I came across the World Race Gap Year and honestly at first I thought that there was no way, I had no idea how I could live out of a backpack for 9 months and fund raise over $13,000, so I pushed the idea to the side and kept on with my college search, but the World Race was all I could think about. And after a lot of prayer and thought I finally knew that the World Race was the perfect fit and that I needed to trust the plans God has in store for me because His plans for me are FAR greater than anything I have planned for myself. Through this I will get to serve others and spread the love of Christ, all while finding the woman God created me to be.
While on the World Race we will be telling people basically “This is what I believe, and I think you should believe it too and here’s why” and if you don’t have a strong faith, that’s hard to do. For a while, I had no relationship with God, I pushed him out of my life completely. Then one night I fell to the ground completely broken and prayed to him saying “Take everything, I’m yours” and he has put my life together so much more beautifully than I could have ever imagined and now I’m just living the life he has planned for me, following Him every single step of the way and putting all my trust in Him. I want my life to be less of me, and more of Him.
In my eyes, we are put on earth to love others and lighten their burdens in any way that we possibly can. It is SO easy to strive for the “American Dream” and long for wealth, beauty, and fame. But in my opinion, that’s not why we’re here at all. We are here to simply love one another as Jesus loved us, with compassion and full of respect, without judgement. We are all connected and we’re honestly not as different from each other as we think we are. We are all ONE flesh and we should treat people with the same respect, whether they be wealthy business owners, or people living on the street, we are all worthy of love that is free of judgment no matter what our circumstances are.
I feel like a lot of the time when I tell people that I’m going on the World Race they tell me that I’m amazing and how special my calling is and as much as I appreciate everyone saying that and I love the kind words I’m really not amazing! I’m just following the path God has set for me. In my eyes, there is no path that is more special or amazing than another person’s. I believe that life is all about following our call, whether that being going to college, starting a family, finding a job, or going on a mission trip, life is about trusting that God has our back no matter what and just following what he has planned for us.
What will you be doing?
While on the World Race I will be teaming up with 50 other 18-22 year olds from around the country, and we will be broken up into teams of 5-7 and those will be the people we live with and do ministry with. We will be going to Guatemala, Lesotho (landlocked by South Africa), and Cambodia. While we are there we will be doing things like teaching English, doing construction work, ministering to sex trafficking victims, working in orphanages, door to door ministry, preaching in churches and prisons, and much more. We are basically going to be doing whatever it takes to spread Christ’s love to whoever we come in contact with.
I am so excited for all the things in store for me over next year, if you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact me, I love talking about the World Race and the journey that brought me to it! Thank you all so so SO much for all your support and kind words, it really means the world to me.
Love,
Caitlynn
Acts 20:24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.
