2027 World Race | Gap Year 27G0904 - Harbor

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!!

Albania: Albania is one of Europe's best-kept secrets. Rugged mountains, a coastline on the Adriatic and Ionian seas that rivals anywhere in the Mediterranean, and ancient hilltop towns where cafes and centuries-old architecture sit under old stone castles. Spend time there and you'll wonder why the rest of the world hasn't caught on yet.It's also a country still finding its feet. Albania spent decades locked under harsh Communist rule, and it has only recently opened its arms to the outside world. In the capital, Tirana, you'll find young, hopeful energy. Out in the remote villages, you'll find families holding tightly to old traditions, often cut off from basic resources and overlooked by everyone but God. Albanians value a neat appearance, calm conversation, and trust that's earned, so this is a place that teaches you to slow down and pay attention.

Greece: Greece is the birthplace of so much of the world we know, and standing in front of the Acropolis in Athens you can feel the weight of it. But the thing that'll surprise you most isn't the history. It's the welcome. Hospitality in Greece is sacred, an honor and a duty, and foreigners often find themselves pulled into family homes and celebrations. Greeks even have a word for the joy that comes from gathering and sharing life together: kefi. You'll feel it.Underneath the postcard, though, Greece has carried real weight. It has wrestled through a brutal economic crisis and one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, and for years it has been one of the main front doors into Europe for people far from home, landing on its shores with nothing. A country famous for welcome has been asked to welcome on a scale few places ever face.

Colombia: Colombia is almost impossibly beautiful. The Andes, the Caribbean coast, the Amazon, all in one country, which makes it one of the most ecologically diverse places on the planet. Cartagena's old town glows at sunset, the coffee is unreal, and Colombians will fold you into a dance party before you know what's happening. It sits at the crossroads of Central and South America, a meeting place of cultures and people on the move.That crossroads location means Colombia has opened its doors to a huge wave of families crossing in from Venezuela, often arriving with almost nothing and straining a country that's already stretched thin. Add the long shadows of homelessness and addiction, and you've got a lot of people who feel forgotten. But God is in the business of restoration, and you can watch Him do it.

Peru: Peru hands you three worlds in one country. The Andes and the lost-in-the-clouds ruins of Machu Picchu. The vast coastal deserts and the food capital that is Lima. And the Amazon, thick and alive, stretching past the horizon. It's one of the most biodiverse places on earth and the home of ancient civilizations whose story you can still walk through in the old streets of Cusco. What will get you, though, is the people. Peruvians hold onto a rich heritage and carry a quiet, generous warmth, and the pace of life runs a little slower and a little kinder than what you're used to. If you're welcomed to a table here, you'll be fed well and treated like family.

Brazil: Brazil is pure energy. It's a rising power on the world stage, a country of beaches and rainforest and music that doesn't stop, where Christ the Redeemer stretches His arms over Rio and the people greet you with hugs and kisses on the cheek before you've even learned their names. Brazilian culture is warm, physical, and unhurried, the kind of place where being thirty minutes late is just being on time.But the same country that throws huge celebrations for Jesus also carries deep wounds of homelessness and poverty, and a lot of people here feel completely forgotten. Brazil has also taken in families crossing its northern border with nothing, looking for a door that will actually open. Into all of it, Jesus is on the move, looking for hands and feet willing to tell the forgotten that He sees them and treasures them.

Guatemala: Known as “The Land of Eternal Spring”, Guatemala is one of the most beautiful and diverse countries in Central America. Tourists travel from all over the world to climb its volcanoes, drink its coffee, and zip line through the rainforest. However, the true beauty of Guatemala is its people. Gripped by poverty, the people of Guatemala hunger for the Kingdom of God. The majority of Guatemalans practice a form of Catholicism, and it’s estimated many also mix in ancient tribal religions and cultural traditions into their faith. Will you share the beautiful truth that there is so much more to this life with people in Guatemala?