Hey there friends!
Below are some logistics and a trip outline so ya can see what I’ll be doing and where!
The first location our squad will be traveling to is South Africa, then Thailand, Costa Rica, then back home! The whole trip is nine months, from September 1 to May 31–basically a school-year.
Our team is comprised of 30 18-21yr olds, and we are going to be separated into ‘squads’ of 6-7 that will always stay together through the whole journey.
We have a group chat with the whole team on it and we communicate daily! For fundraising, we are put into cohorts of 4 to support each other. I am so blessed with my little cohort! We facetime for hours, communicate daily, and we are best friends already despite not meeting in-person yet! We get to share prayers and feelings of excitement, gratitude, disbelief, and amazement at how good God is!
I will probably say this sentence too many times over the next seven months, but I literally cannot get over how excited I am for this.
Location:
Nsoko, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Africa
Focus:
Children’s Ministry, Community Development, Leadership
Eswatini is known for its incredible sunsets and simple pace of life. During the first three months of our Gap Year journey, we will partner with the Adventures in Missions Eswatini base, which is bringing hope in this country where thousands of children have been orphaned by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. At Carepoints around the country, local staff are providing these children with food, clean water, education, healthcare, and discipleship. Base staff will equip us to holistically care for these children and teach them about Jesus.
Location:
Chaing Mai, Thailand
Ministry:
Network of local ministry partners
Focus:
Children’s Ministry, Teaching English, Community Outreach
This nation’s famously friendly inhabitants have earned Thailand its suitable nickname as the Land of Smiles. Though an alluring tourist destination, Thailand’s glimmering cities and sandy beaches are marred by the dark reputation of sex trafficking and sex tourism. Here we will have the opportunity to reveal the truth of Jesus to a deeply unreached country, whether we are prayer-walking through the red-light district, ministering to tourists, playing with street kids or teaching English to local Thai people.
Location:
San Jose, Costa Rica
Ministry:
Adventures in Missions Costa Rica base & partners
Focus:
Sports Ministry, Community Outreach, Children’s Ministry, Manual Labor
Costa Rica, where misty volcanoes stand guard over bustling San Jose, home to our Adventures in Missions base. During our time in this tropical country, we will work with a variety of ministry partners who are showing the radical love of Jesus to this city. Our team might be teaching skills like dance or English, or teaching neighborhood kids about the Bible. Or our team might do community projects in slums devastated by gang violence and poverty. As we grow in our spiritual gifts through weekly teachings from our local base staff, and walk out our faith by showing this pura vida nation the true source of Life
Thank you for reading! Dont forget to subscribe so you can follow along on my adventures!
All the love!
Grace
For the gap year general info: https://www.worldrace.org/gapyear/
For my route specific info: https://www.worldrace.org/route/gap-year-2021-route-3/
And follow our team’s instagram page @wrgapyear_route3!
*descriptions from World Race website and photos from the route 3 Instagram page. Thank you to Amelia Tabatt for setting that up!!<3*
Congratulations. May God bless you.