My Life, My Job, My Calling :: God's Guidance, God's Strength, God's Plan

As many of you know, in just over 2 weeks, I will be heading back to the Dominican Republic to begin my 3rd year with the GAP program!  What many of you might not know, however, is what exactly I do there.  Some have referred to me as "Chandler" from the show FRIENDS because no one knew exactly what he did either.  I know that I'm not the best at consistently sharing what goes on in my life and usually all you see are pictures of the students, staff and me on various sunny, tropical adventures.

So here's what I do...I am the director of the program.  I get 12-15 American college-aged students from all over the United States and I do whatever I can to make sure they have proper food, shelter, transportation, schooling, spiritual growth, safety and balance school, ministry and being thousands of miles away from home, some for the first time ever.  I work with an awesome husband and wife duo, and this year we are welcoming back a student from last year as an intern. Between the 4 of us...we execute the program...24/7 for about 8 months and we do it as a team. I guess as the Director I get the final say and it's a constant learning process.  Some days I feel like I get more wrong than I do right!  It's hard to pull out what I do vs. what we do as a leadership team because without my team there would be no program.   But what do I do specifically?  Well on any given day I organize: calendars, mission trips, budgets, transportation, excursions, small groups & ministries. I get to be mom and dad. I get to be principal and disciplinarian.  I've wrangled centipedes, and rats, killed tarantulas and other creepy-crawlies. I've fixed sinks, toilets, shelves and countless other things.  It's tough...but it's a blast!

I do a lot...and at times it's exhausting...but it seems to be working.  The program is growing and we have more students than ever. But I want you to know something.  This is GOD'S PROGRAM. HE arranges how the students to hear about the program, HE provides the funds for them to live and work and study and minister in the DR for 8 months.  HE takes the students (and staff) out of their comfort zones and speaks to their hearts.  HE provides patience, strength, & guidance.  Any good that comes out of this program comes from HIM...and I am blessed to be a part of it.

I want to share with you a testimony of a student that I had my first year.  Everyone's story is different, everyone comes for different reason and in different stages of their lives...but I believe, now more than ever, that the Lord has a specific purpose for the students every year.  The program provides an environment where students can hear and see God better.  And even when they struggle, because in one way or another they will struggle, God provides the guidance and truth need to deal with everyone in their situation.

Here's Lauren's Story:

I accepted Christ into my life June of 2013. I was living in the Dominican Republic and starting my GAP year two short months later. God used the GAP program to grow and mature me in my faith before I even arrived on the island, and is still using it in my life everyday. God was teaching me before any of the Bible and Spanish classes, before any ministry started, and before I was even living down there. He taught me to trust in Him with raising support in two short months, and He provided. He taught me to follow Him and have faith, even when you're not sure what that means. Through the program He gave me mentors to guide me on my new found faith, and to help me get started on my GAP year. 

I have to be completely honest… when I signed up for the program it was because I was so on fire for the Lord after being saved just a week before. I was on that salvation high. Little did I know that the growing process with the Lord would be a rollercoaster. A couple of months into it I panicked. I thought I had signed up for a crazy program for mature Christians who knew so much about the Lord, and were full of previous Bible knowledge. I was scared that I was the only one with a past, and everyone else was perfect. Here I was a brand new Christian who knew hardly anything about Christianity, or what being a Christian really meant. God knew why He had me there though. The truth is everyone has a story, and EVERYONE learned something that year. 

The GAP program provided each and every one of us with the fundamental foundation to our faith. It taught us the truth, without the distractions of American life. It brought us back to the basics of the Bible, and what it means to stand strong in your faith. But more importantly what is means to live like Christ, and not just as a luke warm Christian. God tells us that He would rather us be cold Christians than lukewarm Christians in Revelation 3:15-16 “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” I believe from this verse, and from what I learned in the Dominican that if you aren’t on fire for the Lord every second of everyday than you need to be praying to be on fire for Him. I will not sit here and pretend like I have been on fire for every second of every day since I have been saved. I WILL sit here and say, however, that a year later the GAP program still works in my life. The program was a part of my life that motivates me even more to want to be on fire for the Lord. 

I may have had some rough times that year, but God got it ‘out of my system’ if you will. He made me into the follower of Christ I am today through all of the circumstances, and growing opportunities in the program. He used the SCORE International community, and the island of the Dominican Republic to isolate me from temptation and distraction. He made me focus on Him. It was impossible to not be surrounded by God when I was there. Even when I didn’t want to be! When I was in my low points in the Dominican I may have wanted to rebel against the work God was doing in my life, but God still had me sitting in those Bible classes. He still had me surrounded by strong Christians. He pounded me with His Word until I had no choice but to give it all up for the Lord. He showed me in those nine months so much about myself,  about the sins I needed to work on, and the forgiveness I needed to give. Most importantly He showed me who I am in Christ. 

Like I said the year was full of so many highs and lows, so many moments of being on fire, even moments of wishing I never even accepted Christ, and then the best moments of surrendering it all back to God. When I say highs and lows I mean the absolute extremes. Looking back now, a year after the program, I can finally see so clearly what the Lord did with me that year. A lot of Christians go through years and years of being on fire for the Lord and also years and years of wanting nothing to do with the Lord. Not everyone is like this, but I’m speaking broadly. Essentially, God crammed these years and years of maturing into one, and I could not be more thankful. I’m not saying I am an all-knowing perfect Christian by any means. No body is. What I am saying is that God blessed me with my GAP year. He knew if I didn’t go down there two months after being saved, that I may have turned from Him a couple months down the road, when my salvation high wore off. Like I said a few months into the program I panicked, but what if the panic hit me while in America living my comfortable life? I would have no Christian friends to fall on, no mentors to talk to, and no Christianity around me. I could’ve been in years of a low point on my roller coaster, but God put me on a seven second roller coaster, not a seven hundred second one. I never wasted time falling back into temptation for months or years. I had no choice but to keep focusing on God. 

God WILL use this program in a unique way for each students life. I am just one story of many more to come. It is truly amazing how God uses the same GAP program in so many different ways for each individual person. The program has forever changed my life, and will always be where God poured the foundation to my faith. I couldn’t end without saying that this program has and will continue to be what God uses to guide me in whatever plans He has for me. Yes, through this program He taught me to plan my ways in life, but He also taught me to let the LORD establish my steps (Proverbs 16:9). God uses the GAP year to make me want to be more Christ like. I’ve said it before and will continue to say it. I think every single person should participate in some sort of GAP year. I look at it as a year for God to truly sculpt you into the strong Christian you need to be to stand firm in this world of so many evils.

I know that not every student will have the same experience as Lauren had.  I also know that there will be times where the students may not realize how much they actually learned during the program...and that's ok.  Some students will finish the program and begin college, some will find jobs and careers  some will seek other short term mission programs or being their training to become full time missionaries.  What I know is that their time in the program is never wasted.  And I am blessed to be a part of it and by being a part of it.  I wanted to give you an opportunity to be a part of it and to be blessed by it as well! You can support me, a student or the program by donating any amount!  

You can send a check to the SCORE office in Chattanooga, TN.  In the memo line of the check put the name of the student, staff member that you would like to support or you can put GAP program on that line as well if you want to support the overall program.  You can mail the check to: PO Box 9994, Chattanooga, TN 37412.  If you would like to support me, you can also donate online at https://scoresponsor.org/missionaries-staff/shop/snyder-jaime/