In 2018 I was planning on going on a mission trip, my first mission trip, down to Antigua, Guatemala. I had everything planned out for the perfect week. Little did I know, God had something much bigger for me in the mixing.
We arrived in Guatemala and spent our first night at the base camp. The next day was incredible, we spent the day walking around Antigua, we were at lunch when we heard tapping on the roof. It wasn’t raining, so we went outside to check in out. It was raining down ash, it was getting everywhere. We later found out that Volcano Fuego had erupted. That night, the base got a couple of calls saying the schools were shut down so we couldn’t do VBS. Therefore we instead helped families clean up the ash from their homes.
Another call that came through was a little more important. World Racers that were in Guatemala before our 10 person mission group, had no way of going home. The airport was shut down due to all of the ash, the racers had no where to stay the night. The racers came back to the base to spend the night.
The racers were in the main room and some of the girls went to meet them. I was talking to one racer about their experience from the past 9 months, I loved everything she was saying. I asked if we could talk some more about it, so she grabbed some other racers, and I brought some of the girls from our trip, so we could talk to them.
We spent the whole night talking and getting to know them. I learned so much about the World Race and I absolutely fell in love. After the airport cleared up and it was safe to go home, we said our goodbyes to these amazing, God loving, faith driven people. The next night I spent hours and hours researching the World Race Gap Year and reading countless blogs. I have prayed and prayed about stepping out of my comfort zone, this journey is nothing like I have ever done before.
When applications for The World Race Gap Year 2020 came out, I spent a lot of time thinking and praying about what I was about to do. I was worried about the money, my education, my family and friends back home. My strength comes for the Lord, and I know I have so much support from everyone at home. Although I know this journey will extremely challenging and I know it will test my faith in many ways, yet I know that this will be a life changing experience and it will strengthen my relationship with God.
“For we live by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7
