Thank you all for coming to my first ever blog. This blog is one way that I will be able to keep you informed about what the Lord is doing on my adventure with World Race. I have grown up in a loving home and have been going to church for as long as I can remember. I have done many mission trips but have never blogged, or journaled any of them. With this being my first ever blog I am unsure on what to say or do and nervous about how I am going to keep up with it. But I am excited to see how the Lord will work through me, through this blog, to help impact those back home while I am across the world sharing the Good News to those who need it. While the trip itself does not start until late August, I will be posting a couple of blogs before then to keep you all informed about what the Lord is doing in my life to prepare me for this adventure. As this is my first entry I have a bit to cover, but will only give brief details as most of you will be able to talk to me more in person about this trip before I leave.

My journey began in the summer between my junior and senior year of college. During this summer I got to intern at The Wonders of Wildlife in Springfield Missouri, and through this I got to see what it would be like to do what I originally planned on doing with my biology degree. At the end of the summer I was bummed out as I realized that was not something I was wanting to do for the rest of my life. Because of this I started to wonder what I was going to do, so I decided I would travel. During this time I began to pray and realized that I love to do missions, but have not been on a mission trip for quite some time, about four years, and prayed about it. Not to long after this my mom was talking to a family friend about my situation and she mentioned the 11n11 trip that World Race puts on every year. I was intrigued by this as soon as I learned about it as I had never heard of a mission trip like this before. While praying about it and looking into other trips it just felt as if the Lord was pushing me to go on this 11n11 trip, so in the end I decided I'd better listen to my Father and do as He says.

From the time I decided to go on the 11n11 trip I have been learning more about it and I have become almost overjoyed with the idea of doing this trip! I will get to spend one month in 11 different countries learning about each culture while also doing the Lords work and helping others get to know how awesome our Savior truly is. This journey, so far, has not been all sparkles and rainbows as I have been extremely busy and anxious with the idea of being gone from home for so long. But through this I have begun to lean on the Lord more and more and I can already feel my faith, as well as my love for the people that I will be meeting on this adventure growing and I am ready to see what more he has in store for me.

Thank you all so much for taking time out of your day to read this. I love you all so much and am exited to talk to you more in the coming year.

Trenton Hilty