To all the friends, family, and supporters reading this, you may not all know much about this trip at all or why I chose to take a year off school and go on a crazy journey with God, so here goes, this is about me and where my heart has brought me;
Going into my senior year, I was unsure of my years after high school. I had always assumed on heading to college and continuing my education. I was going to follow the path that every student is told to follow. Getting to the middle of my senior year I still had no clue where I would go to school or what to major in and just feeling it wasn’t for me. Then God led me to the World Race and I immediately knew it was what I had been looking for.
I tried to find why I’ve always been drawn to mission work and I figured out the start to it all. The reason I’ve always wanted to be a part of something like World Race Gap Year is from an experience I had when I was about 8 years old that stuck with me the 10 years since. My family and I traveled to a small village in Tanzania and we visited a small school and explored. I can still picture it in my head like it was yesterday; the villagers had almost nothing. I mean their bathrooms were holes in the ground and their homes were made of any materials you might find on the side of a road, tires, discarded trash, you name it. Being so young, I was never fully cognizant of exactly how much we have and take for granted in the states but the juxtaposition of their lives versus mine made me understand how big and diverse the world is and how differently people’s lives are on the other side of the planet. All most people get to see of these places are a couple pictures. Some pictures might make us feel sympathy for the families living in so much poverty but it always seems to slip from our minds as we go on living our own lives. It’s hard to keep it on our radar when we don’t experience it first hand and experience it through our daily lives. For us, fresh food, clean water, it’s just… there. It’s not a constant thought for me either, but it is something I think about often and that’s part of the reason I want to go make a difference in these people’s lives. I’ve learned that’s one of the biggest reasons I felt unfulfilled in school; I always felt like I was just sitting in class, yes, learning, but on the other side of the world there were people that needed help when I wasn’t even sure about my own future. So now I’m finally doing something about it.
One person that I really connect with intellectually is my sister Lauren. We often go deep in conversation about the most obscure topics. With a lot of things we always go past the surface of a thought (if that makes sense).. For example with these people living in countries with poverty, I go past the “surface thought” of them and I picture them in this moment right now. They are as real as you and I are. As you are reading this just try and imagine a real family living in Tanzania. They could be sleeping or they could be awake doing something, but in some of these places the people have no technology, minimal medicine, and so little food or clean water. Life isn’t easy for them and I want to go and hopefully change that in some way. I want to share the word of the lord with them so they can learn to know God as I have.
My heart has pulled me to do mission work through and with the Lord in three amazing countries. I hope to change the lives of people in Malawi, Thailand, and Guatemala living and creating relationships with the people in these communities for 3 months each. I hope to change them as much as I know they will change me. I know when I return to the states I will be a new person and I am so excited to be that person! This trip is going to change my life and I am so lucky and grateful to be able to be a part of something so amazing.
I am inviting all to join me on this mission with Christ!!!
If you have any questions I would love to answer any and all of them. Feel free to email me at: [email protected] or you can call or text me at: (616) 566-9362!! I am so ridiculously excited for this journey so join me and subscribe to my blog!! I’ll hopefully be writing a blog at least once a week while I’m on this mission trip letting you know what I am doing in those countries and sharing my experiences.
Keep me in your prayers as I prepare for this journey<3
“The journey is my home.” ~Muriel Rukeyser
Drew Alyssa Jansma
