Hello beautiful people! Welcome to my blog! My name is Reagan Polcyn, I’m currently a senior in high school, and if you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m going on the World Race Gap Year! I will be on route 5, traveling to South Africa, Ecuador, and Cambodia.
When I tell people about my plans for next year, I am immediately overwhelmed with questions, so I thought it would be cool if this first blog post served to answer the 5 W’s, who, what, when, where, and why!
What
The World Race Gap year is a 9 month missions trip to 3 different countries. During these 9 months, I will be living as a missionary (whoa!) sharing the word of God with people all over the world. As of right now I don’t have exact details as to what our exact ministry projects will be, but we will be living with local ministry hosts and serving the needs of the communities we live in. I’ll be living out of a backpack. That’s right, a backpack, for 9 whole months. It’s definitely a big step outside of what I’m used to, but I am actually most excited for this kind of unconventional living!
Who
I’m not doing this alone! I will be in a group of about 30 people also on route 5, called a squad, and all of us travel from country to country together. Within this squad we will be divided into teams of about 8! These people are who I will be living with and doing ministry with. Basically my family for the 9 months on the race!
When
I launch for 9 months on September 5th 2019, and will be gone for 9 months! You heard that right! That means no break for Christmas, but that’s okay because I’m pretty sure the Lord wants me in Ecuador for the holidays 🙂 I will return home in May!
Where
Like I said I will be a part of route 5, traveling to South Africa, Ecuador, and Cambodia. I don’t know what our specific locations within each country will be quite yet, but I couldn’t be more excited for each of these countries. Choosing my countries was sooo hard for me; I just want to go everywhere! But route 5 was carefully placed on my heart and feels SO RIGHT!
Why
This response is going to be a lengthy one. To be honest, I have about a million reasons why I’m choosing this path, but if I had to sum it up in one sentence: The World Race is a dream I didn’t even know I had.
I have such a big heart for missions, and I knew I didn’t want to pursue something ordinary, but I didn’t know what. I didn’t know what exactly I was looking for until I found the World Race. The idea of a Gap Year had been on my mind for about a year, but what on earth was I going to do? I saw an Instagram post about this program called the World Race. I did a ton of research and truly felt a pull on my heart to go, but there were sooo many “buts” and “what ifs.” Around the same time I was considering the World Race, my theology class was learning about the discernment process. I took it so seriously. I would bring my notes home every night, and sit in silence with the Lord to try to figure this thing out. I wrote out pros and cons lists, talked to a friend of mine who was currently in Liberia taking a gap year (Thanks Audrey!), contacted a current gap year racer from my hometown (Thank you Maggie!), and did even more research.
I decided to apply to see what would happen. Why not? The application felt like I was pouring out every little piece of myself into writing, and sure enough, I got accepted. Shoutout to my first semester theology class that witnessed my dramatic tears of joy. After being accepted, things got serious… Is this really what I’m being called to do? So then came more prayer. LOTS and lots of prayer. And long story short, as I write this post I couldn’t be more confident in my decision to pursue this opportunity.
The last thing I need to address is fundraising. At the top of this page you’ll see a bar to show my fundraising progress. I have to raise a really big and scary amount of money for next year, but I’m not going to let it discourage me! I know that I have been called to the World Race for a reason and that the Lord will provide! I will have some fundraising info coming soon, but as of right now I would like to prayerfully ask you to consider donating at the link above. Every single dollar brings me one step closer to this dream come true! If you are not able to donate, I ask that you consider praying for me as I prepare for the journey ahead. Prayer is equally as important as financial support, if not more important!
This blog post doesn’t even begin to cover everything that is on my heart right now. If you made it this far, thanks for sticking with me! If you have any questions I would LOVE to chat with you, so don’t hesitate to reach out! Feel free to subscribe to this blog so you’ll know every time I post!
Thank you in advance for all your support. I couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come! God bless all of you!
-Reagan
