The first story

Hi, and welcome to my first ever blog! (wow, I can’t believe I just said that!!) I am SO thrilled to be writing this and am even more thrilled that you are reading! Thank you for stopping by! For those who know me personally, hey!! And those who don’t know me, HEY! I can’t wait to get to know you through these blogs! I’m glad you all decided to follow me along on this journey.

I’m sure you all have many questions about the World Race, so I’ll be doing a Q&A soon. Be looking on my social media (my social media usernames can be found under “contact” towards your left) I’ll be posting a page on my stories soon where you can comment all of your questions. But for this first blog, I’m going to be sharing with you my personal journey with the World Race and how I got here. So, let’s jump on in!

Since I can remember, I have dreamed about going to college! Seriously guys, going to college was something I wanted so so bad! I did my research, and I had a very interesting list of colleges that I would like to possibly attend. Even after all my research, I felt that I wasn’t drawn to anything. I was left in a place of having no answers and no plan. I struggled with this because everyone around seemed to have it all figured out and I just felt behind! Around that same time, I also grew a big heart for missions, I wanted to serve in a different kind of way, I wanted to serve the broken, the lost, and the forgotten people. I randomly googled “youth mission trips” and the World Race website popped up! I wasn’t really sure what I was looking for, but I took much interest in their Gap year program. As I was reading, I immediately could feel the spirit moving. Instead of taking that as my “yes” I decided to wait and see if this is really what God had for me. I didn’t want to fall in the trap of “having a plan” and it not be the plan that God wanted for me. Weeks went by I kind of set it aside, praying about it occasionally, aside from not being sure about the World Race, there were also many other things I just wasn’t sure about. 

One Sunday, I was at church, worshipping. While in the middle of worship (some good, getting down kinda worship) God told me “yes” so loudly and so clear. Being super confused I asked God what he was saying yes to, and I heard Him say…nothing. I began to cry out to God, asking Him for answers and asking him to reveal His will for this next season. I was completely exasperated and about ready to give up…and then BOOM! God answered and he said to me,  exactly, “yes, go on the World Race.” Since then, it’s been my “next step” and it has become a dream that I’m very passionate about. I began telling my family and friends about it, assuring them that I was serious about this. It was no longer an, “I think I’m going to do this” but now an “I am for sure going to do this!”

This past summer, a friend invited me to join her on going on a mission trip with her church. We went to a town called Lyford (Stil in Texas…located right on the border of Mexico.) It was a super small trip (but is there really a scale when it comes to growing God’s kingdom and serving the lord?… I think not!), that trip served as a spark that confirmed in my heart that mission work was what I wanted to do!

I waited for the World Race applications to open, I went through the application process, which within its self was a journey, and then got accepted(yall the amount of joy I had was unreal! Hands down one of the happiest days of my life)! Allllllll of that summed up now leaves me here! YAY!

As I come to an end on my blog, there are a few people I would like to thank: First off, my family and friends for the constant support and prayers (especially Granny-You rock), the Peterson family for the encouragement and editorial guidance throughout the process, and Mrs.Kutac, the greatest high school principal know on the face of the earth, who has shown me a great amount of support and love, as well as the one who has believed in me since I first told her about this dream of mine. Thank y’all for being the amazing people that you are. 

This is the first story that I have had in my journey with the World Race and it’s the first of many many many other stories that are to come. God is on the move, in me, in my team, and in this organization. 

I want to end this blog asking for your prayers. Prayer is the biggest way that you can be supporting me, and my team, in this mission. Below you’ll find a handy dandy prayer plan that I created to help with giving you ways you can be praying each day. 

Monday: our hearts preparation for the trip

Tuesday: that we grow more and more in sync each day with the Holy spirit

Wednesday: Mack (my teams’ amazing advisor) 

Thursday: Our fundraising

Friday: Guatemala

Saturday: Ecuador

Sunday: Nepal

And finally, if you feel led, please consider donating. As you may have seen, I have a longggg way to go before I reach my goal.

Thank you again for sticking around and reading this. I’ll catch ya at the next blog! (PS: Be sure to follow and subscribe so you can be notified when I upload my next post!!) 

Much love, KV