Hello Everyone! I am on here today to talk to you guys why I chose to join the World Race. It is the beginning of a new year and I am beyond excited to see what is in store for 2021. As you all probably know, I am a senior this year at a private Christian school, CTCS, and this is my 6th year here. With being a senior comes a lot of decision making which can be stressful at times. I was going into my senior year with eyes open, whole lot of ideas, and lots of questioning. This summer I was supposed to go to Nepal for a month long mission trip, but with Covid that had to be cancelled for safety reasons. Little did I know, God would use that for an even bigger plan this year. At the beginning of my senior year, I had a very hard time trusting God with all the uncertainties in my life. I didn't understand why he kept letting me down with all these disappointments, it was tough to find the good in all the hard things coming out of senior year. Until, I started trusting God and figured out that I don't need all of these things to fulfill my year, what's really important is the friendships I've made and my relationship with God. In September of last year I decided to make the call and figure out if I could switch my funds over to the World Race Gap Year Program and I could! When I got accepted I instantly felt at peace and happy that I knew what God wants me to do. I got so excited to tell my family and friends about this journey God had called me to go on. It makes me want to cry to see how blessed I am. The World Race has always stood out to me, I just never wanted to commit. I believe that it will give me the opportunity to grow my relationship with Christ, but also give me the opportunity to share the Gospel with people who have never even heard about it. It just blows my mind that I will get the opportunity to come along side believers from all over the country to spread the Gospel to three countries that are in desperate need of the word. The activation route spoke out to me because I will get to connect with a lot of local families in each country. By connect I mean build relationships with, minister to kids, and share the hope of the Gospel with them. The three countries I will be going to is Guatemala, Cambodia, and Swaziland. It was such a God thing that 2 weeks after I got accepted some of the girls from the team were meeting up to have a friends giving an hour away from me! I was able to meet some of the girls that I will be living with for 9 months and it was AMAZING!! Let me just tell ya, the girls that I got to meet were some of the kindest people I have met and welcomed me into the squad so fast. They are all such strong women of God and it felt like I knew them for years by the time I had to leave. The relationships I have made with the girls on my squad are so uplifting and it just makes me even more excited to live with them in a couple of months!! Anyways, I hope this blog wasn't too long and it's my first one of many so I'm excited to learn more as I go. I will be using this blog site to give you guys updates on my journey and what God is doing in my life. I'm so stoked to have you guys walk along this with me and support me in what I've been called to do!

Much love,

Grace Bloker