Hi :)

Do you ever look back on a time in your life and finally become aware of how present God was even though you didn't know it in the moment?  Every person, every conversation, every dream, every heartache, every thought... he was in it all without fail.

God had placed missions (specifically in Africa) on my heart since I was a little kid.  As a child however, I completely ignored the whole thing and wanted nothing to do with it.  So, the nudging went away and eventually faded out of my memory entirely.  That is until a few weeks ago when I got this picture in my head of a mud hut in Africa.  The same vivid picture I received countless times as kid.  As I stood there in tears, I began to realize how intricately our father had pieced everything together.

As crazyyyy as the mud hut picture story was to me, that wasn't why I signed up for the world race.  Months before hearing about WR gap year, I had another crazy God-filled experience.  At the time, I had never considered mission work before.  God planted the idea in my mind for a week or two and it was all I could think about.  Then out of no where, in the middle of my bedroom, I started bawling my eyes out.  Visions of Africa, mission work, and communities in need were FLOODING my mind.  I couldn't stop crying. His presence was so strong in those moments. It was utterly overwhelming but from that experience, I knew God was calling me to Africa.  

The next few months I had multiple people mention the world race to me.  I still thought I was going college to either be a therapist or go into social work so I wasn't sure where a mission trip to Africa was supposed to fit in.  Eventually, I looked into the world race myself and fell in love with how they're furthering God's kingdom.  

After a lot of thought and prayer, I realized that I only told people I was going to go to college to study psychology because it seemed like an acceptable plan from society's standards.  It wasn't God's plan.  As soon as I let go of that I couldn't picture myself doing anything else besides mission work next year.

Words can't explain the feeling I get while thinking about all the ways I will grow over this journey.  I am SO beyond excited to step into everything God has for me to learn and experience.  Even with the trials, heart break, and pain, there will be peace and rejoicing, and I'm thrilled for it all!

From the bottom of my heart, I thank each and every one of you for supporting this journey whether that be financially, through spiritual encouragement, or just reading along with my adventure.

Sincerely, Talia

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