Hello family, friends & complete strangers!
My name is Tim Guindon, and I’m going on the September 2010 World Race!
A little bit about me…
I’m 22, recent graduate from Wright State University in Dayton, OH with a degree in Mathematics and a minor in Sociology. While at WSU I led Young Life, a Christian ministry to high school students, at Fairmont High School in Kettering, OH, which has been such an incredible blessing since I started leading my freshman year. I like music, reading a good book (or 6), sandals, and campfires. I no longer have long hair.
A LOT more about me…
I’ve done most of my growing up in Dayton, OH. I spent my first few months of life in Aberdeen, Scotland, then a handful of years in Albuquerque, NM before ending up in Bellbrook, OH thanks to my dad’s job in the Air Force. I am the middle child of a family that I far too often take for granted. I have an older brother, Pete, and a younger sister, Claire. I have spent my entire life living with a 20 mile radius of my parent’s house. Until now.
<– My dad, me, my mom, Claire, and Pete in Atlanta where Pete lives
“He has also set eternity in the hearts of men…” -Ecclesiastes 3:11
I grew up in the suburbs of Bellbrook, OH under the loving care and guidance of my two wonderful parents. I was a pretty good kid growing up, mostly just looking to please the people around me – teachers, parents, peers, whoever. If you’re happy, I’m happy. I went to church every week with my family, going through all the religious education courses with varying degrees of willingness. I definitely exhibited the understandable reluctance in my younger years, though as time progressed I began leaning farther into whatever it was faith had to offer, beyond just doing what made my parents happy. When high school rolled around I began asking big questions about life and purpose and morality, those questions that seem to be ingrained into us all. During my sophomore year in high school, as many of these thoughts were beginning to come to a head, I heard about this organization Young Life through my friend as well as my cousin.
One of my senior pics from HS. It’s okay to be jealous. —->
I went to my first club (the weekly meetings) and had my mind blown by a group of people who seemed to genuinely enjoy life, love one another, and who exhibited a confidence and joy that were entirely foreign to me and my high school surroundings. When I heard about summer camp, I knew I had to go. A few months later, I was climbing onto a bus for a 30-hour drive to 
Crooked Creek, a YL camp out in Colorado. This week proved to be one of the best weeks of my life, and provided me with an explicit explanation of the Gospel in a way that applied to me and elicited an understanding of God’s love and grace that I had never previously grasped. This was all grounded in my reality by my leader Dave who gave me a glimpse of the love and truth found in Christ through our conversations. He helped me sort through the issues that had been plaguing my mind and led me to accept Christ by the end of the week.
<– Me, my leader Dave, and friend Aaron at YL camp
Crooked Creek, a YL camp out in Colorado. This week proved to be one of the best weeks of my life, and provided me with an explicit explanation of the Gospel in a way that applied to me and elicited an understanding of God’s love and grace that I had never previously grasped. This was all grounded in my reality by my leader Dave who gave me a glimpse of the love and truth found in Christ through our conversations. He helped me sort through the issues that had been plaguing my mind and led me to accept Christ by the end of the week.<– Me, my leader Dave, and friend Aaron at YL camp
“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.” – 2 Timothy 2:2
What has followed since that camp trip after my sophomore year in high school has been primarily pressing into God’s work through Young Life. My junior and senior years in high school I saw how God could use me, with all my imperfections and shortcomings, to sh
are His truths with my friends and peers. When I graduated and went to Wright State University, a short 20 minute drive from my parents’ house, I made the decision to go through training to be a volunteer Young Life leader. Half way through my freshman year I was placed at Fairmont High School in nearby Kettering, OH. Leading has been an incredible opportunity to see how God can work through me to share the Gospel with and disciple high school guys in many different capacities, challenging and growing me in ways I never could have imagined. Beyond the ministry I’ve been given, my fellow leaders at my school (see picture) and in the area have been an incredible community of faith that God has blessed me with the past few years, offering amazing encouragement, accountability, and love. “He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.'” – Mark 16:15
Where’s the World Race in all this?
All in all, it was exactly 40 days from the day I first heard of the World Race (12/27/09) and my acceptance phone call (2/5/10), but God has most certainly been working on me for a whole lot longer than that, preparing my heart for this trip. My life after college has been a huge looming question mark, waiting to be answered. God has been slowly turning my heart towards a faith that will follow Him anywhere, whether my own neighborhood or the other side of the planet, and I’ve been desperately searching for what that will look like. Particularly in the last year or two, God has been challenging me through people I talk to and books I read to consider what I’m putting my trust and dependence in, and my willingness to give up every comfort I have grown so fond of and pursue a new path for His glory. I heard about the World Race at Apex, a church here in Dayton, when at the end of a regular Sunday service they brought up a couple girls (Hope and Kristen) preparing to leave on the January trip. I never met the girls and had never heard of this organization, but the brief glimpse that I caught right then was enough to get the gears spinning. That week I started some research, browsing countless blogs and getting questions answered, and saw an excitement cultivating within myself that was beyond what even I was expecting. In the next few weeks I began the application process, anxiously hit “Submit,” and before I knew it got the acceptance call. It’s been a whirlwind with no sign of slowing, but I can honestly say I can’t wait to see what God has yet to do in and through me.
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