HI EVERYONE! Welcome to my blog. Here I will bring you all along in this amazing journey God has placed me in. I am so full of joy to know that God has called on me to be part of this journey and to spread his word (Matthew 29:18). I am so excited for this opportunity and can’t wait to share it with you all. So here is a bit of what World Race is, how I found out about this, and about myself.
World Race Gap Year is a nine month missions trip, where I will be going to three different countries to share the Gospel and live as a missionary. I will be heading to Thailand, India, and Costa Rica. I will stay in each country for 3 months with a group of incredible people doing the same mission. For the mission I will need to raise $16,600 in donations, with God’s guidance and your help I know it will happen.
I always knew I wanted to take a gap year to build a stronger relationship with God, get more involved in my church, and to gain more experience in ministry. When I spoke to my youth pastor about my next step in my life and he found out I wanted to take a gap year, a few days later, he texted me and told me to check out this website and see if I wanted to be part of it. When I opened it, it was World Race. From the moment I read a little about it, I felt God was calling me to do this mission, and I knew this is something I wanted to do. I then sent my application and got accepted, I was baffled and excited.
The first time I knew I wanted to have a relationship with God was when I was 3. My mom and dad had recently separated and it was a really hard time for my family and me. My mom and I went to a Christian Concert and that was the first time I can clearly remember feeling God presence. They were playing a song called “Cuando levanto mis manos” which translates to “When I lift my hands”, I began to lift my hands up and I couldn’t hold it in, so I began to cry. When my mom looked over to see how I was doing she saw that I was crying and asked why I was crying, I told her, “Because I can feel God mom”. Since then, I knew God was always going to be there for me and my love for him has grown.
When I was eight years old, my mom and I moved to Pennsylvania to live with my step-dad and his family. It was definitely a hard transition, I left my whole family in California, including my two older sisters. My family was going through a lot at the time, it was definitely a time to test our faith. At the end of that time, it only made our relationship with God grow. Once I was 14, we were invited to go to a church event and the moment we walked in, we knew that church was going to become another home. I know that it was God calling my mom and I home because our faith had began to fall. We didn’t go to church or study our bibles. Looking back I can definitely notice that my attitude, vocabulary, and thoughts were not Godly. I can’t thank God enough for calling me back home, I have definitely changed since then. I began to get more involved in church and I love being part of it. I am part of the Youth Worship team, Spanish Worship team (My church is split into a Spanish and English service), the Preschool ministry, the Infant ministry, and I am part of the leadership program.
Here are some random facts about myself. I have two older sister named Kristy and Katy and two younger siblings named Cesar and Darlene. I was born in Los Angeles, California on December 31, 2000. I am currently 18 years old. I live in Pennsylvania and attend High School. I was baptized October 2, 2016, when I was 15 year old.
All of this brings me to where I am now. I am so excited and can’t wait to go on this great adventure. Looking back on my life, the good and the bad, I can see God’s will working in every situation. Thank you for reading my blog and I pray you will tune into my next one. I am very excited to be part of the mission trip but it is very expensive, if you can help in any way just click the “Donate” button on the home screen of my blog. God bless you.
See you next time, Ruby.
