Introduction to GAP

Now that I've graduated high school what comes next? Normally I would be thinking about college - where to go, what to major in, where to live - and so on. But instead I've decided to take a more adventurous route into the future. Let me back up to the beginning. In 2008 my church youth group and I participated in a short term mission trip to the Dominican Republic. While I was working with the people of the villages, the single most frustrating thing that I had to cope with was a language barrier. Now God blessed me with an extreme love and interest in the field of languages, and I had the opportunity to study Spanish in high school, so I wasn't too terribly lost when someone would start speaking to me. But I still wasn't fluent, and that's where I wanted to be. One evening I shared my desire to be fluent in every language in the entire world with an intern/translator with whom we were working during the week there. He smiled and shared my desire, but pointed out the obvious that one language at a time was the smarter way to go. He then introduced me to the GAP program. SCORE International, the missions organization that we were working through, is the missions organization that I'll be traveling with to study in the GAP year program. This program stands for Global Advancement Pursuit and is designed to give students an opportunity to not only become fluent in a foreign language, but also to be immersed in the culture of that language and be actively involved in missions for one year, typically between high school and college. When I heard about this program I instantly fell in love with it. I knew that it was what I wanted to do. God had given me a specific love for languages and Spanish-speaking people as well as a desire to do missions, even if only for a short time. Because of this, I decided to pursue this program and eventually reached my senior year, applied, and was accepted to GAP Year 2010-11. This fall I will be flying down to San Jose, Costa Rica in early September to study Spanish and church missions with SCORE International for two semesters. The focus will be on learning the Spanish language in an affective way in order to further the work of the Lord in Hispanic nations. I will be living among native speakers and will not only experience the language, but also the culture. This will boost my knowledge and understanding of Spanish so that I will be able to communicate the love of God to the people of Costa Rica. Please be praying as I spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically prepare myself for this one-year journey to a foreign land pursuing the Mission of my mighty and awesome Savior and King.