In my beginning years as a mentor to youth students, I noticed I was lacking in the ability to be the best leader I could be. I had been looking for a way to grow in my strengths as a leader, and one day the program director of the TRLP, Ryan Aldrich, had joined a zoom held by my college youth group called Young Life, offering the final position to join a gap-year program where aspiring Chrisitian leaders can come live in the Truckee/Tahoe basin and learn to grow in their relationship with God in relation to their leadership capabilities. This year was jam packed with surprises from God.
Moving here in general was a surprise as I learned about this program and moved out less than a month later, leaving my childhood town of 19 years. Chico, California and leaving what I called home for the very first time. That was at first my hardest struggle, not having my family in my corner and having to meet all new people who were all strangers to me as I slept in the same house as 4 dudes, who now though I consider to be some of the people who know me best, even though I had met them just a few hours before. Another surprise was seeing how much I have gone on depending on other people to help me grow in my faith, to seeing how much I have been depending on myself and convicting myself to have that very close relationship with God that I have always strived to search for.
Joining this program has been one of the hardest things I have ever put myself through willingly. But at the same time, it has been one of the most rewarding seasons of life. From people I had never met before, to people who know me best outside of my relationship with God, to being a stronger leader with a passion to be even better each and every day. This season of life will be one I will never forget.
Trevor Adams