Okay! Before I get into anything, I just want to say that working for God is the best! When you're on his team, you can say you're going to do great things and have them actually come true. Starting any project can be intimidating, but when you're working with/for God you can see miraculous things happen in a short time, which makes every day exciting.
The big question is "why?" Why are you going on the World Race? Why are you doing it right after school - you're still 17! Why do you feel called? Why are you leaving everyone you've known? The question "why?" is a small word, but it can lead to a lot of different and long answers. Not only does it end in long answers, but it also produces more questions: who, what, when, where, and how?
Well, let's start with the first question: why are you going on the World Race Gap Year? The answer to that starts before I went through the application process in November. To give some background, my whole life my parents followed God's calling and even moved our family across the country twice because of him. So I've seen mission work first hand. In 2012, the Lara family moved from Grandview, WA all the way to Little Rock, AR to join the ministry of Cru, specifically FamilyLife. Joining a non-profit meant hours on hours of fundraising, actually working at FamilyLife, and taking care of our family of 8. I think seeing my parent take that leap of faith at a young age planted a seed in my mind: it may be scary to go to faraway places, but with God, everything is going to be okay!
As my senior year got closer and closer, of course, you're going to start thinking, "what am I going to do after school?!" When I was looking at colleges and next steps, I felt that I really wanted to go abroad. So then I started looking at schools abroad; however, I never felt completely at peace with a school that I would pick. Then I came across the World Race. With them, I'd be able to travel to more countries, in a longer time, for less money than the college I was looking at. I'd also be able to travel with people that love God and are staring God's love! It's a win-win-win-win-win! A five-time win! What could be better than that? Not only was it a five-time win, but when approaching the first deposit, I felt an overwhelming peace about the decision (a sixth win). So I put in that deposit and began this journey!
So knowing me, I'm a master procrastinator. I got accepted back in November but didn't start the fundraising until now... in January. Before you head out, I want to brag in God. My sister Dani (going on the activation route!) and I started this process around the same time, so we started fundraising together. Because we had our dad and his 10 years of fundraising experience, we kinda knew how to fundraise before we started. But don't get me wrong, those first four meetings were the most awkward things ever. Now as we go into our fifteenth meeting, I can definitely see us improve in confidence and excitement. We started fundraising last Sunday (1/16/22), and by today (1/25) we both have 50% pledged to give by the end of the year!
When we started this week of fundraising, I thought I wasn't going to have enough to do all my homework or spend time to get creative or have a week as good as the previous one when I started my pottery class. As always, God exceeds my expectations. Being able to share with everyone my excitement for the trip and seeing God in every meeting has given me so much joy. God gives me the confidence for the next meeting, the next trip, and the next adventure.
