Howdy! My name is Austin Pierce! I was just recently accepted into the World Race Semesters program, and I am so excited to embark on this journey of service and adventure! But let me back up a bit. I am 17 years old and currently in my senior year of high school. I currently live in Brazil, but am from Texas and I am going to finish high school a little early. For this reason, I decided to take a gap year before going into college. However, even though I knew I did not want to go straight into college, I did not know what I wanted to do, just that I wanted it to be a spiritually testing time and that I wanted to have an experience that would force me to figure things out on my own, in relation to life, faith and other things. This led to a long search for different gap year programs with my parents, which is how I found out about this program. There were many many things that caught my eye in relation to this trip, however, one on the most prominent was the fact that it was a missionary trip, totally dedicated to serving the Lord. This fell hand-in-hand with what I already knew I wanted for my gap year, because I know how missionary trips force you to become dependent on the Lord, both in the preparation to go, as well as in the field. So, through much prayer and thought, I decided to take this next step in my life, and to apply for the Semesters trip to Southeastern Asia, which goes through Australia, Indonesia, and Nepal. I am so excited to have the opportunity to go and serve the Lord, while, at the same time, going to visit such extraordinary places on Earth! I pray that the Lord will use me to further His Kingdom during this trip, as well as shaping me and showing me how to trust in Him. I am so excited for this opportunity and looking forward to the next steps in launch prep, as well as the actual trip!