2027 World Race | Gap Year 27G0903 - Mend

Discover more of God, yourself, and your calling

World Race: Gap Year is a 9-month Christian gap year program created for recent high school graduates to serve others, dive into Christian community, and grow in your identity and faith. Gap Year gives you an opportunity to work alongside experienced leaders who are sharing the hope of Jesus and meeting the tangible needs of their communities every day. Along the way, you’ll discover more of God, yourself, and your calling. Gap Year is not a year off. It’s the launching pad for seeking first the Kingdom of God for the rest of your life.

Route Info!!

South Africa: Known for soccer, safaris, and beautiful scenery and coast lines, South Africa is the southernmost country in Africa. The country is among the most diverse on the continent, with people from many ethnic groups and nationalities living in the same communities. Workers often come from other countries to support their families at home. Challenges linger following the country’s history with   and the nation is still in the process of healing and reconciliation.

Ethiopia: Ethiopia is one of the oldest stories on earth. The birthplace of coffee. A land where archaeological finds reach back to Bible times and the Orthodox Church claims to guard the Ark of the Covenant itself. Sit down for a traditional coffee ceremony with a local family and you'll taste a hospitality that's thousands of years deep.It's also a nation well acquainted with pain. The last century brought civil war and famine, and the wounds linger. Out in the rural villages, many families are still cut off from the resources the rest of the world takes for granted. But the Ethiopian people are proud, warm, and deeply resilient, and there's a strength here that will humble you.

eSwatini: Known for its battle with the HIV/AIDS pandemic, 12 percent of Eswatini’s population is made up of orphaned children with a staggering 40 percent of the population living in poverty. Serve alongside our Adventures in Missions base staff as they live out the belief that the key to the nation’s future is its children by caring for their physical well-being through the fulfillment of basic needs like food, clean water, shelter, and in their education.

Nepal : Nepal looks like something out of a dream. Mount Everest crowns the country, the tallest mountain on the planet, and the whole place sits up near the roof of the world. There's a sweetness in the air here, and Racers keep coming back describing the same thing: a quiet stirring, a sense that God is doing something tender and real. But under the beauty is a hard reality. Poverty and isolation leave many people, especially women and girls, deeply vulnerable to those who would take advantage of them. It's a heavy thing to sit with. And yet the Nepali people are gentle, warm, and endlessly hospitable, quick to share a cup of milk tea and a story, and the Gospel runs straight at the darkness, because freedom for the captive has always been God's heart.

Kenya : Kenya is as wide as its people are diverse. Forty-two tribes, sixty-nine languages, and stories that stretch from the Maasai bush all the way to the crowded streets of Nairobi. It's the Africa of your imagination, lions and giraffes and elephants on safari, sunsets over the savanna, and it's the Africa most people never see, where a lot of families live with very little. Here's what makes Kenya a Mend country. The people carry real hardship, from poverty to sickness that a little care could prevent, and far too many girls grow up facing harm the Gospel calls us to stand against. And yet with most of the population under thirty, this is a young, hopeful nation, full of energy and faith and a hunger for something better. Kenyans are warm, quick to laugh, and generous even when they have little.

Thailand : They call it the Land of Smiles, and they earned the name. Thai people are some of the warmest you'll ever meet, the food alone is worth the plane ticket, and if you get the chance to visit an elephant sanctuary or wander Chiang Mai's night markets, you'll be glad you did.But the smile hides something heavy. The same tourist economy that draws crowds also feeds one of the world's ugliest trades, with women and children caught in the middle. It's a hard reality to sit with, and it's part of why Thailand is a Mend country. This is a place where the light of Jesus matters, and where His people are called to shine it.