abigailasher

Why am I going on the World Race Semesters trip? I am going on the World Race for a couple of different reasons. First of all, I have been able to go on a couple of mission trips with my church's youth group to TX. They have been some of the best times in my life and I grew a lot in my faith and in my relationship with God on each trip that I was able to go on. They were so fun and each one has increased my desire to be able to go on an international mission trip and serve the Lord in a different country. Second, mission trips have always been a big part of my life growing up in many ways. The biggest one would be that my dad is an MK (missionary kid) and he grew up in Nepal. Now he and my mom are a part of a group called Rejoice Ministries International (RMI) where they go on a couple of missions trips a year to different countries. My family also has been going to Family Camp through our church and they normally have a missionary family come and stay and share about what they have been doing where they are in the world. Because of these many reasons, my parents want each of us kids to go on a mission-focused trip after we graduate high school. Last year my older sister did a Gap Year trip with World Race and really enjoyed it and learned a lot from it. Since she has been home for the last month or two, she has told me a lot about it. Hearing all about her trip, it really drew me in and placed a desire in my heart to be used by God in a similar way. So, I have decided to do a similar trip as she did through the same organization in the Fall. It will be a 3-month long mission trip to Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

Why did I choose this route? This route, of all the ones that I looked at, was the main one that really drew me in and increased my desire to learn the Lord this way. The different ministry focuses for this trip include kids' ministry, sports ministry, special needs, teaching English, and manual labor. I felt called to be doing these things and felt like this is where God was calling me to spend my Fall this year. Also, my parents' first missions trip through RMI was to Guatemala and I thought that it would be really cool to visit there, especially on a missions trip.