Hello! My name is Katie Rhodes, I am 18 years old and I am going on The World Race. Well, The World Race: Gap Year Program, but still. What is The World Race: Gap Year, you ask? Well, it’s a nine month mission trip to three different countries, in which three months are spent doing ministry and living life in each country. Instead of going to college, like pretty much all of my friends, I get to spend my first year out of high school serving the “least of these,” creating lasting relationships with the people I encounter, and traveling literally around the world. I have been called to Guatemala, Malawi, and Thailand, and I could not be more excited to experience what God has in store for me in those wonderful countries!
Sometimes, even now, I can’t really wrap my head around how amazing and awesome our God is. I can’t fathom it, can’t understand it, can’t truly know it. Can’t really see how He could’ve taken someone as lost and broken as me, and turn me into one of His most precious jewels. Can’t know why He chose me for such a task as this, but only that He has. And that He did. Now, looking back on my life, I can tell He was shaping me for such a time as this, for this task, for this life. Every mission trip, every piece of my heart that I’ve left behind in Mexico and Uganda, were only teaching me about and getting me ready for this call He has put onto my life.
And that call is the missionary calling. This calling on my life was realized by me when I was in Uganda this summer. But when I came home from Africa, I didn’t really know how to put that call into real action in my life. I was confused, and just a little bit lost. And so I started to make plans for college, where I would major in Intercultural Studies and Bible/Theology. I decided that that was the right path for me, going to college to be a missionary, sitting in a classroom and learning about it, and going to the mission field afterwards.
But The Lord had other plans. And somehow, The World Race was put onto my radar. I tried to shake it off, the nagging feeling that kept coming every time I saw a post about The World Race. But the feeling wouldn’t go away. I couldn’t get it out of my mind, off of my heart. And that’s when I knew that I had found God’s plan for me for the next year. I knew that THIS is what God wanted me to do.
And so I jumped right in. I applied, did my interview, got accepted, and am starting to prepare for the trip. I am heading to Mexico on January 4th, to spend three months living and teaching ESL lessons at an orphanage with one of my best friends through our church. And then in October, I am going to spend 9 months of my life literally living and traveling all across the world. What is this crazy awesome life of mine?
Friends, the only thing I did was say “Yes.” God took care of the rest. I hope that if you only take one thing from this blog, that it would be to say “yes” to whatever it is that God is calling you to do. You never know where it’s going to lead you.
Welp, how’s that for a first blog post? Make sure to subscribe to get updates every time I post a new one!!
Blessings,
Katie Rhodes
