The word surrender can be deceiving. Some may think of it as a defeat, weakness, or the wave of a white flag, but I am going to explain how My Surrender had led me to make one of the best decisions so far in my life!

Before I start, here is a little background for those who do not know me. Hi and welcome! My name is Evelyn and I am currently a graduating senior in high school from Edgewater, Maryland. Some fun facts about me are that I own a successful photography business, I am obsessed with making smoothies, I am quite literally a fashion fanatic and love a good sunset. I could keep the list going on and on but I know I would get too carried away.

Like most seniors, college has been on my mind for at least the whole year. There seem to be too many decisions and not enough time to figure everything out. I started all my college applications back in early September of 2020 but something felt a little off. Sure I was excited about college but I felt a calling elsewhere that I did not know at the time. Shortly after, I began considering a gap year to do ministry but assumed I was getting ahead of myself and thought that it would be too unrealistic for me to actually go though with. Once I got into all the colleges I applied to, I still did not feel fully satisfied like I thought I would have. I retouched on the idea of a gap year but still had some impediments preventing me from moving forward. Once God removed those, I was able to see the plan He had already made for me. However, God used one of those impediments to help influence my decision making. In March of 2021 I lost one of the most important people to me. The Lord decided to welcome home my grandfather and through his passing God also revealed how I share the same strong passion to spread the Gospel like he did. My grandfather lived his life solely for Christ and changed so many lives. The Lord opened my eyes to this and helped me realize that I have been called to an adventure of ministry. It took months of prayer, trust and faith to settle on such a big decision but I finally became ready to surrender. Now I know what you must be thinking. What is this talk about surrendering? or what is the decision you may ask? Well let me tell you! I am so excited to announce that I will be taking a gap year with an organization called The World Race! It is a nine month period (September-May) where I will be traveling to Costa Rica, Thailand, and Eswatini, Africa to minister and share the Gospel with others who may not have heard it before. I have chosen to completely surrender my life to Christ and am so excited to completely step outside of my comfort zone and for the new adventure ahead. Over these past couple months I have been strongly reminded of how important it is to trust God with your entire life, an not just the parts we may prefer. It is okay to not completely understand why God does some of the things he does, but it is important to remind yourself that he is always doing what is best for us. I am overjoyed to be able to share this and all I ask is for leading up to and during my gap year is for prayers and support!

"Lord, I know that peoples lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps." (Jeremiah 10:23)