My name is Layton Hahn and I have the privilege to be a part of the World Race Gap Year, route 5 to Swaziland, India, and Guatemala!! Before I tell you more about what exactly that means, I am going to tell you a little more about me and what Jesus has done in my life.
I grew up in a loving home with a loving family, who throughout my childhood taught me the meaning of hard work and how to love well. My home was very comfortable and all of my friends lived right in my neighborhood. I was very close with my grandparents and other family members who loved me so well. The only thing me and my family were missing was Jesus. Once I got into High School I started to feel that brokenness that this world gives you without Jesus. For once my life wasn’t going well. My heart was broken, I was lonely, and I was lost. I was searching in all the wrong places for comfort and peace and I could never find that one thing that brings me from death to life.
The summer going into my junior year of High School was when things finally changed. Me and my friends were talked in to going to a Young Life camp called Malibu and God worked on someone who has never heard of him before… Me. While at camp I was mind blown by how the camp workers (who were working their hearts out!) were so joyful and just seemed to have this glow about them. I would ask my leader what it is that made them like that and he told me it was because of Jesus. By the second to last night of camp I realized that what I wanted and needed was this God that everyone was talking about, but I couldn’t just believe something because I wanted too. On the last night at camp we were given 15 minutes of silence and for the first time in my life I prayed to God. I prayed that he could show me something, to prove to me that he is real. Then God changed my life forever. OUR GOD showed me how powerful and real he is. For the first time in my life I felt the Holy Spirit, for the first time in my life I felt a joy that is unmatched by anything on this earth. I committed my life to Christ that night and the Lord has set my soul on fire for him and the perfect love that he provides.
That fire in my soul has lead me to serve at Young Life camps in Morocco, Africa as well as in Oregon. During both of these experiences I learned that serving the Lord who saved me, is the mother of all blessings! The joy I have experienced from these moments is so overwhelming and from that I fell in love with serving the Lord. This love has eventually lead me to the World Race Gap Year!
The World Race Gap Year is a 9 month mission where you travel with 54 other “racers” who are from the ages of 18-20, (as well as some mentors and leaders) to different countries around the world, and you serve the Lord in many different ways. You might be Preaching one day, doing construction the other, doing outreach on another day, the possibilities never end! I get the privilege to travel to Swaziland, India, and Guatemala with so many amazing people who I will build life long relationships with, while we are doing the thing we all love the most, Serving our Lord.
There are soooooooo many things that the Lord has done in my life that absolutely blow me away, but one thing really stands out to me. While I was lost, lonely, and heartbroken without Jesus, I found myself on the ground crying because of all the pain and emptiness. Now that I am filled with the perfect love of Jesus Christ, I find myself on my knees crying because my God is so real, so loving, so overwhelming, and brings me a joy that nothing can give or take from me. My God has brought me from Death to Life and I need to go show the world the treasure that I have found.
God Bless and thank you for taking time out of your day to read this!!
