Hey guys, so I guess I am supposed to tell ya who that guy in the picture is and how he got to the point of writing on this blog. Well my name is Mark Gingrich and I love smoothies and long walks on exposed cliffs at 14,000 feet…ok seriously. I’m from Monument, Colorado, a small town at the base of the mountains where it snows nearly every month and all the kids complain of boredom constantly. To me, I can’t think of too many better places to live in the country.
So as far as “hobbies” are concerned, my life is in the mountains and I could spend every day of my life camping up there and climbing or biking every day experiencing God in the splendor of his amazing creation. I have summitted all 54 of the peaks in Colorado above 14,000′ elevation and biked thousands of miles in the past five years I have lived in Colorado (easily the best state in the country). Naturally, with all that time spent in the beauty of the mountains, photography has become an increasingly popular passion for me, and I now sell my photos through a website I’ve created. I believe that God shows himself to anyone whose heart is honestly searching for his presence, whether in solitude in the mountains or in a classroom at school. Given that, my times up in the mountains remain the most real times I have personally experienced with God, as his presence is most easily felt when I am farthest away from the worries of the world.
After all, how can anyone not love standing on a tiny summit with the cool wind and hot sun your only accomplices overlooking hundreds of miles of snowcapped peaks below you, with no sign of civilization or responsibility (can you tell I’m wishing I was up there now)?
That same adventurous desire combined with the incredible opportunity to serve is what first attracted me to the ministry of the world race. While considering what to do with my life this summer, I really felt called to go into some type of ministry. I thought about being an outdoor adventure camp counselor at a Christian camp or doing a couple of missions trips before college; but when Tom talked to me about the ministry of the world race combined with the travel and adventure of the experience, I knew this was the opportunity I had been praying for that aligned with my passions and God’s calling for my year. So here I am, turning down an academic scholarship from the University of California at Santa Barbara to go on this adventure called the world race, ready to surrender my life all over the word, and to follow whatever God may put in my way and wherever he may lead me. I’m incredibly excited to embark on this adventure and see how God will use me, and I know my faith will continue to grow as I surrender myself to his will in every circumstance. Well I’m not much of a writer, so I hope this little bio temporarily satisfied all your curiosities about who I am. God bless!
