I cannot believe I am about to start the World Race again! Today, I checked my World Race fundraising account and saw that I was launching in 13 days! I feel very grateful in this moment for all the Lord has done for me over the past year and a half!
The World race has had a huge part in my spiritual and mental maturation. My gap year race was utterly life changing to say the least! Some of the things I experienced were once in a lifetime! I bungeed off the tallest bungie bridge in the world, rode on the backs of elephants, surfed with seals, and climbed an active volcano and got to watch it erupt up close. All of these experiences were totally awesome but even more so awesome were the ways I got to partner with the Lord in these places. I got to see miraculous healings, demons being cast out of people, and most amazingly of all, see people giving their lives over to Christ for the first time. I have experienced what it truly feels like to be in the presence of the Holy Spirit and feel His love wash over my entire being.
During my time on the gap year, there was a week in Guatemala where I felt lead to do a seven day fast in which I only drank water and ate nothing else. It was one of the hardest experiences of my life but also one of the most spiritually fruitful. Around halfway through this time of fasting, I was praying about my future and where the Lord wanted me to go next in my life. I felt a clear calling to squad leading but I did not feel ready to do something like that yet, so I decided next year would be better for that but now I had a year in between and I felt like I had two answers for what to do during this time to prepare me for becoming a squad leader: go home and work for a semester or go on the 10/40 alumni trip and both of these options were a semester long so I decided to do both. The only problem was that there are two different 10/40 alumni trips, one to the Middle East and one to Nepal and India, and they launch at separate times. After doing a Bible study with a mentor of mine that focused on the difference between Muslim and Christian doctrines, I felt a passion for muslims, and the 10/40 trip to the Middle East was confirmed for me. This trip is for World Race Alumni who feel a calling to the 10/40 window which is the most difficult and challenging area of the world and will launch in January of 2025. The 10/40 window is a region of the world between 10*N Latitude and 40*N Latitude that stretches from North Africa across the Middle East, through India and into Southeast Asia and is the most resistant to Christianity and the least evangelized area of the world.
For the past five or so months, I have been at home in Idaho, working and growing in my faith. I started at an intern program at my church, Eagle Naz, and have been working with the youth at the church since August. I had the privilege of serving at a summer camp with the high schoolers and got to mentor and disciple them. I had mentors that poured into me over the 5 months and I got to preach twice for the high schoolers and lead three different boys small groups, 6th grade boys, freshman boys, and sophomore boys. Being a part of some of the amazing ways the Lord has been moving amongst the youth here has been such an honor and has taught me so much! This semester of being home has been more fruitful than I ever could have imagined! I cannot wait to see what crazy adventures this next episode of The World race holds!
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