Hey ya’ll!
If you have found this page, you are probably one of my family members, friends, acquaintances or maybe even a stranger. Whatever you are, I welcome you to my World Race Blog and I invite you to be a part of my journey! You may be asking, what journey? Well I am talking about my journey through Christ and my journey to take a Gap Year.
During my junior year, while everyone was excitingly taking college tours I was feeling a little unsettled. College was definitely something I knew I was going to have to do, but the idea of going right after high school left a pit in my stomach that I could not quite explain. I had heard of people taking a Gap Year in the past, so it was something in the back of my mind. But I did not realize how much it had been on my mind until I was in Haiti, riding in the back of a bus talking to my mentor Joshua during the summer of 2016. Talking to him I realized how much I disliked the idea of following the typical path of college and he named some non-profit’s that I could research when I got home to see if there was maybe a Gap Year opportunity. One of those non-profits was Adventures in Missions (he did the 11n11 World Race) and when I went home and researched it I found that they had a Gap Year program. It felt like fate! My parents had made it clear to me that if I wanted to take a Gap Year I needed to have a well thought out plan and I would need to have my college plans settled. So in the fall I applied for college, in January I applied to the World Race, and then I had to wait.
I was accepted into the World Race in February and accepted into NC State in March. NC State accepted my gap year request last week for admission in the Fall of 2018. Everything is falling into place!!!! My originally unsettled feeling about my after high school plans has vanished because God has lead me to his amazing and glorious path.
On my World Race I will travel to six different countries, Swaziland, Lesotho, India, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Guatemala in nine months. I will be immersed in the mission field and have the opportunity to serve the “least of these” just as Jesus did. I am ecstatic to answer the call of the Lord and devote a year to discovering myself through him.
Now here is where I need YOUR help! This once in a lifetime opportunity is not cheap and I will need support from you to get me there. But I do not only need your support financially, I need your prayerful support as well. Please join me in praying for the countries I will be traveling to, the people I will meet, the other 54 members of my team, safety and that everything will align with God’s glorious plan.
Thank you to each and every one of you for the role you have played in this path that I am on!
With love,
Payson
