Hi guys!!
Wait a second.. Is this real life?? I can not believe that in a little less of a year I will be on my way around the world to Ethiopia, Thailand, Cambodia, Honduras, and Guatemala to be one in Christ. I got accepted to The World Race: Gap Year about two weeks ago and this is my very first blog post, so bear with me I am new at this! I guess I will start off telling you guys a little bit about myself. I am a middle child, I am left handed, I absolutely loooove sushi, and most importantly my faith is a huge part of my life. I come from a family of six awesome people. My parent’s names are Bob and Pam Gierke, they have been married for 23 years! I am so fortunate to have such amazing role models and they have enormously help me in my journey with God. I have two brothers and two sisters and one soon to be sister in-law. David (28), Abby (19), the twins Ryan and Robyn (13), and my almost sister in-law Jenna (23). My family has four cats and three dogs. My dog’s name is Louie, and I absolutely love him like he is my own kid! I am still trying to fathom the fact that i am leaving him for nine months, I will definitely miss him.
Now the interesting part, my faith journey (so far). If you would of told me that I would be going on a nine month long mission trip around the world 3 years ago I might of thought you were crazy. Before then sure, I was a Christian and I loved Jesus, but I surely did not have the relationship I have with him today. My priorities were I guess you could say a little out of order. I was a traditional high school student who participated in almost every activity possible, but my passion was volleyball. My goal was to be recruited to play at the collegiate level, but little did I know that wasn’t the plan God had in store for me. 2 ½ years ago I sustained a traumatic brain injury in a downhill skiing accident. I was staring life or death straight in the face. This completely changed my life. I really needed my faith in God to carry me through this tough journey and during this time is when I fully accepted Jesus Christ in my heart. Through my extremely supportive community, family, friends, and most importantly my faith all carried me through the most difficult time in my life and all of a sudden things that used to be important to me, like volleyball seemed less of a priority as my faith became the center of my life. As I now look back on this experience I am truly blessed. I am so thankful for each and everyone of you even if I don’t know you, we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. Thank you all for taking your time and visiting my blog!!! Have a blessed day and I will be praying for you all. You rock! 🙂
