“let us become more aware of your presence. let us experience the glory of your goodness.”
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family & friends!!! wow I am pumped for you to be reading this right now & wow I am pumped to share with you guys some BIG news. the Lord has a crazy way of taking you out of your comfort zone & putting you in places & situations where He can shine even brighter through you. & I believe He is doing just that by putting this calling on my heart. a call to take advantage of the opportunities that are right before me. with that being said, I get the amazinggg opportunity to go on the World Race Gap Year!! for those of you who have no idea what that is, it is defined on their website where it says “the world race gap year takes college-aged students on a journey to 3 continents in 9 months to serve the least of these among raw and real community.”
taking a year off school to travel all around the world & serve our God– how sweet is that??!!?!?! I am beyond humbled that after a lot of consideration & prayer, I can officially say that I will be traveling to thailand, malaysia, ecuador, & costa rica. I will be staying in each place for roughly two months & living almost entirely out of a backpack. (God only knows how I am going to be able to manage shoving all my stuff into a small backpack. challenge accepted.)
to pinpoint my exact feelings at this moment is nearly impossible because I am incredibly nervous and but even more incredibly excited for this next chapter of my life. not only that, but I am in awe that Jesus wants MY help to reach to different people in different countries when we all know that He is capable of doing this all on His own.
as far as what we “do” on the trip, we will be investing in communities through schools, orphanages, churches & assisting people of the country in any way possible. according to their website, everyday on the race looks different so I am thrilled to keep you guys in the loop of what’s going through my upcoming blog posts that I am planning to update as often as possible.
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Mark 16:15-18 NIV “He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.’”
this verse means a lot to me because of how specific, uplifting & urgent it is. preach the gospel to ALL creation. just because my life looks a whole of heck of a lot different than the people of these countries, does NOT mean I am more or less deserving of God’s love in any way. & I am so blessed to have the privilege to try & encourage people all over the world to believe that. we are SO loved. so loved it legit blows my mind & I am literally smiling so big as I am typing this. He is loving, forgiving, redeeming, & powerful. not only that, but it is so clear that He is inviting us to do this thing & be in a relationship with Him because of all the things that He promises to do through us just in that verse & in many other circumstances. I am typing so much & there is a good chance you guys are confused, but long story short, our God is mega cool and boy are we lucky!!!
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it doesn’t end there because I need your help!! since this is going to be such an amazing trip, it is almost 16 thousand dollars. I have no doubt that the Lord will provide where I am struggling but seriously any dollar helps. I need to reach my full goal of $15,800 by december 2018. in the time leading up to this date, I will have multiple fundraisers in hopes of earning anything that people are generously willing to donate. BUT in the meantime, you can also donate on the top left side of my blog homepage where it says “Donate!” or in the top middle on the homepage, there is a money bar type thing where you can see my goal & my current status on the funds I have raised. in the bar on the right there is another button that says “Donate!” as well. anything helps but if you don’t feel urged to donate that is okay too!! I would LOVE a prayer in support because prayer is huge & can go a looooong way. knowing I am not alone in this process is really important so you are all appreciated.
the world race is partnered with an organization called adventures in missions and they are the people who take care of all the financial stuff & fundraising & donations. so to acknowledge technical things that potential donors may be concerned about it says on their website, “Adventures In Missions is a tax-exempt organization under IRS code 501(c)(3) and is a member of the ECFA. (Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability). Due to IRS and ECFA regulations governing the administration of tax deductible donations given in support of a particular trip/program, support contributions given on behalf of an individual will be used to offset the costs of the trip/program you are involved in. All contributions are non-refundable regardless of the participant’s success in completing the program.”
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I struggled making this blog post for quite a while because it wasn’t easy to put into words what all I wanted to say. but please know I am over the moon grateful if you took the time to read all of this or if you lifted my name up in prayer or even gave financially. lots of love to all of you people & am hoping that you will stick with me alongside my journey!
