Hey friends! Welcome to my blog ^-^
If you are reading this, then you probably know that I am taking a gap year after I graduate to go on a nine month mission trip called the World Race Gap Year. It will take me to three continents (four countries) where I will live out of two bags and show the love of Jesus.
Every time tell someone about my trip, I get a response that is something like this:
Don’t get me wrong, I see where you’re coming from. Most of my peers will be in school and/or working while I’m gone. The average high school graduate doesn’t rush out to go on a school year of missions across the world. It just isn’t done.
Since I neglected to explain why I’m going in the About tab of my blog (oops), I thought I would make this my very first post. Here are five reasons that explain why I am going on The World Race Gap Year.
1. God Called Me To Go
First and foremost, the reason I am going on the World Race Gap year is because this is where God wants me. Ever since the end of junior year, I have been trying to figure out what to do after graduation. I applied to some colleges, looked into various programs, and prayed that God would show me an answer. After a closed door I arrived at three options- college, regional missions, or international missions.
I labored over this decision for a few months, sometimes changing my mind multiple times a day. I “felt right” about all my options periodically, but I never felt peace.
It was about this time that the World Race came back on my radar. I first heard about this program when I was fourteen. It seemed so cool that I was ready to go right away, but I was too young. After seeing an ad for the World Race on Instagram, I began to explore the Gap Year again. Initially I was fired up and ready to go. However I began to fear how long I’d be away from home, so I put that idea on the back burner.
Well friends, God had other plans. Last fall I attended the last service of the former senior pastor of my church, Ric Stanghelle. In his final sermon, Pastor Ric pointed out all the wonderful things Lakes Evangelical Free church has done. One area he touched on was missions. When he began Lakes Free, Pastor Ric prayed that twenty people would leave our church to serve in ministry. In His glory, God lead not only twenty, but forty-one people to go into ministry before Pastor Ric retired.
It was at this moment that God reached out to me. When Pastor Ric said the word forty-one, a number came into my own heart- forty-three. I was going to be number forty-three. Initially I pushed this thought aside, because I didn’t think any of my peers would become number forty-two. Who else would go into ministry?
For the record, I was wrong. A few weeks later, the new senior pastor Jason began incorporating “Faith Stories” into church services, beginning with a woman named Erin. Poised and transparent, Erin shared how she walked away from darkness into the promise of Christ. After sharing her story, Erin said something amazing- she was going to become a missionary in Africa. The church clapped their praise as a small thought crept into my mind. I realized that Erin was the forty-second person to go into ministry, and I knew that I would be forty three.
2. Travel Now, Not Later
While the World Race Gap Year is a missions trip, I can’t say I’m not excited to see the world. This year offers me the chance to experience new cultures and to see things that I would never encounter in college. Someday I want to settle down and live the simple life or go to school, but for now I have no ties. I will be traveling the world without any worries about relationships, debt, or contracts. My main obligation is to tell all of you my adventures and to serve people in need. How could I say no?
3. “I’m Going On An Adventure!!” 
When I was young, my mother used to read me and my siblings bedtimes stories. Some were short and silly, like “Horton Hatches the Egg” and “Horton Hears a Who”. Others were more lengthy, like all seven of “The Chronicles of Narnia”. I used to read book after book about mystical lands and daring adventures, always wishing that I could be the heroine of my own story.
As I prepare for the World Race Gap Year, I view this next year as a great adventure, one that I get to share with all of you. If you have been apart of my life or read my About post, then you have a glimpse of how I came to be who I am today. I have seen what darkness can do to people, both to myself and to others, but I have also seen how the light of Christ can take the shadows away. If I had lived a life without pain, then I would have never thought to help people in pain. It is the brokenness of my story that compells me to serve.
Like Bilbo Baggins from “The Hobbit”, I’m strapping on a backpack and leaving everything behind to serve people in need. I will be going to places I’ve never heard of in countries that are completely different to my own. After he finishes his journey, Bilbo writes all of his adventures down in a book called “There and Back Again”. Instead of writing a book, I will be documenting my journey on this blog. As I go across the world and back again, I hope you will join me on my adventure. Its gonna be one heck of a backpack trip.
4. Major Problems
People have been asking me what I am doing after high school since junior. Actually scratch that. People have been asking me about college since junior year.
“What school are you going to?”
“What is your major?”
“What are you doing after college?”
Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of college. It is a space for people to explore who they are, what they believe in, and what they want to d with the rest of their lives. I wish all of my peers going straight into college the best of luck.
Ironically, part of the reason why I’m glad that I won’t be going to college next year is because I have too many college credits. Its a great problem, but I have accumulated enough college credits that (depending on the school I went to) I could enroll as a junior and graduate in five semesters. HOWEVER, this also means that I would need to pick my major right away. Since I don’t know what I want to major in or do when I grow up, this gap year provides an opportunity for me to learn who I am in Christ, what abilities I possess, and how I can utilize my strengths to build a brighter future.
5. There Is A Need
Let it be known friends: This is not a vacation. There will be fun days, incredible sights, and lots of adventure, but the core of my mission is to serve the needy. If you google the countries I am going to- Cambodia, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica- you may see a lot of attractive tourist destinations. Not gonna lie, I will be in some of those areas. However, I encourage you to also look up the poor and desolation in these countries.
In the 1970s, Cambodia experienced a genocide that killed 1.5 million men, women and children. Ethiopia is a country that is well equated to civil war, famine, and no running water. One in four Nicaraguans is either starving or suffering from malnutrition. Behind the tourist traps in Costa Rica are impoverished locals and broken families (all of these facts came from here).
My family isn’t rich, but I would argue that we (and even you) live a life of relative wealth. The fact that you are reading this post suggests that you have an electronic that is worth more than some of these people have in their lifetimes. And that’s just one item. If there is some way that I can serve these people, whether it is through labor or Christ’s love, then I would gladly give my time to do it. There is a need for help and hope, and God has called me to go. Who am I to refuse?
There you are friends, five reasons that explain why I’m going on a gap year. Some of these reasons are for myself, some are for others, but I wouldn’t have the courage to do this without God’s call.
Thank you so much for reading this blog post!! Please subscribe to my blog so that you can continue to follow my story during this next year as a prepare and launch on my trip. Give as you feel lead, and please pray for my trip. If you would like to learn more I encourage you to explore the World Race website, or to contact me. You can find my contact information on the Contact tab of my blog.
Once again, welcome to my blog ^-^
~CLS
