Hey everyone!

I’m taking a gap year and I can’t wait to share all of my adventures and ways God is working in my life through this page! This is the start of a nine month journey with an organization called World Race. I’ll be traveling with ≈50 people to Cambodia, Thailand, South Africa, and Guatemala starting with six weeks of training in Georgia.

I’ve been asked a lot about how I came to the decision to take this trip. And I mean there were a lot of factors that went into this but these were the biggest:

1. I wanted a better global perspective. - There are many great things about my hometown, however one downside is that it is very much lacking in diversity. For this reason I sought out the opportunity to travel to new places and immerse myself in completely different cultures. Traveling in a way that allows me to see so many places while also allowing for me to stay long enough to get involved in the communities there is an opportunity that I may never get again. An experience as potentially eye opening as this one is something I see as valuable going into adulthood.

2. I want to grow in my relationship with Jesus. - One of my biggest takeaways from spending my summers at Jesus camp is that one of the most effective ways to grow with the Lord is to serve others for his glory surrounded by a community of people who share that same love.

3. I literally have no idea what I want to study. - On a real note, before world race was even on the table for me I was looking into colleges and trying to figure out what I wanted to major in and I came up blank. I lacked the passion to follow any certain career path. College is a significant investment of both time and money. And I didn’t want to go to college just because it’s what many of my peers are doing this year. I landed on the realization that the most responsible decision was to take this year to surrender myself to the Lord and to be receptive to him as I figure out my next steps after this trip.

As I mentioned, I want a year filled with experiences that will teach me and force me to grow. That being said, I will very much appreciate people praying for me! I will need it!

Thanks so much for reading!

Much love,

Sophie