Hi friends. First of all, thanks for tuning in. Writing a blog post is weird and I’m not at all used to it so bear with me (please). As you’ve hopefully heard, this fall I’ll be leaving for a nine month mission trip to Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Nepal. I am so so excited. I’m pretty overwhelmed as well but mostly excited. As I’ve spent the last month trying to process the fact that this is real I’ve also been trying to process the end of my senior year being cancelled due to the national pandemic going on which means no real graduation, last band awards, and the endless senior activities that were planned. It’s definitely been a few of the weirdest months of my life. Before this quarantine, I was going to attend an in-state University and study Economics. Now, a few months later, I’m traveling the world to share how cool Jesus is to some peeps I barely know. You’re probably wondering how I ended up here so I’ll fill ya in.
Around February of this year I was talking with a buddy and he randomly asked me “If you knew Jesus was calling you to, would you sell all your belongings and move to Cambodia?” My answer was something along the lines of “Yeah dude, why not?” That short conversation kick-started all these tiny, weird occurrences over the next two months that somehow always nudged toward the World Race. That same night I came across an old dream log from 2018 where I shared a dream I had awoken from without any memory of what happened, just this “ache” in my chest to go. I described in the log that it didn’t matter where or when I was going, but that I was going to go and serve the Lord. I can still remember that feeling in my chest from two years ago as clear as day.
I let a few days pass and thought about how random it was for those occurrences to happen on the same day – then I learned that one of my coworkers, a girl who I also went to school with, had been accepted on the World Race Gap Year. Now, let me just state that at the time the World Race was something I knew of only through some of my biggest roles models and/or camp friends going. It was never something I imagined I could do. When I heard that someone I knew who’s on the same level as me was going, it (for lack of a better word) shook me. I couldn’t get this off my mind for weeks, and was terrified at the thought of even telling someone about it. In early March I attended a weekend retreat I served at throughout high school called Dynamos and finally built up the courage to talk to a priest there about these random happenings. He reaffirmed to me that all of these occurrences seemed like signs from God and to keep pursuing and praying about the topic. He also made me realize that most people don’t just easily answer “Yeah dude” when someone asks them if they’d leave everything behind to move across the world because they knew that’s where God wanted them. On the same day, one of the friends I mentioned who’s a World Race Alumni texted me asking to hang out the following week (which is even more wild because get this – she lives out of town and I hadn’t seen her in months). When I met with her and shared all that was on my heart about the World Race one of the things I clearly remember her saying was “You’re going to go, whether it’s this year or next, I know you’re going to” followed up by “the States aren’t going to keep you for long.” I don’t know why those words in particular stuck with me, but I had never felt so reassured that God is calling me to mission than in that moment.
In the following two to three weeks I applied for Route 1 of the World Race Gap Year, had my interview, and got accepted. It all happened so fast that I’ve only been able to describe it as unreal. Except it’s so real and so good. And when I really think about it, I know everything is happening the way it’s supposed to.
I’ve never been on a mission trip, I’ve never even been out of the country for that matter. I have no expectations for my nine months on the Race (I do know God’s going to do some pretty cool things though). I know this is what I should be doing, nothing has ever felt more right. Yeah, it’s kinda terrifying leaving everything that I have here at home in Florida, but if my heart’s calling me to do this, people always say that your home is where your heart is anyways right?
Much love,
Grace Schuppie
Please feel free to reach out to me anytime!
Phone: (352) 792-2871
Email: [email protected]
