Our generation needs to get out more - and no I don’t mean Friday night parties  or weekends spent up at the mountains (no hating, I love a good campfire). I mean get out, get out. Break down the invisible walls that were forged after years spent living in the same city, state, coast, and even country. It doesn’t matter whether it’s 100 miles, 500 or a few thousand away, a lot can be learned and gained by being in a new place.  

However, don’t take my word for it. I encourage you to read the stories of people who experienced it for themselves. Starting tomorrow, every day for the next six days I’ll post two stories from an amazing set of individuals who ventured out beyond their borders. They decided to see what more the world had in store. They’ll be a part of a 7-day series called Beyond My Borders. I consider myself grateful for knowing each of them because all have inspired me to live life adventurously and to enjoy every minute - good or bad. I only hope that reading their stories will have the same, if not greater impact on you. 

Beyond My Borders: Tyler & Jordan Dardis

Jordan and I both grew up in the Portland area. We met in high school and went on to study at Oregon State University together. We both knew we wanted to be together and in 2011 we finally married. In our last year of college we began planning what we would do after graduating. As much as we loved Oregon, we knew we wanted to move somewhere new. We talked about various places we could go, and as soon as we brought up Alaska, we knew that was it. We both love the outdoors, the mountains, the snow… Alaska had everything.

It was important to us to set a date to move by because we knew we could be sitting around the rest of our lives for the perfect time, which may never have come. So on July 22nd, we packed up the car, grabbed our puppy and headed to Anchorage. When we arrived we pitched our tent and started looking for jobs. After about a month, I was offered a job by my top choice organization in Anchorage. We found a great place to live with a big yard for our dog, and soon after, Jordan was able to move into a position where she could apply her degree in design.

This year we’ve spent in Alaska has been incredible. It definitely pushed me far outside of my comfort zone, which was scary but awesome at the same time. We both were given opportunities we wouldn’t have had in Oregon. We have been able to see and do things that we wouldn’t have been able to see or do in Oregon. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. We both truly believe that everybody should travel and experience a new place in their lives. It doesn’t take a lot of money or tons of planning. It just takes willingness to get up and go. In hindsight, the month we spent living in a tent was just a small sacrifice for the amazing experience we have had here. We are not sure how long we will be here or where we will go next, but we will always have this experience for the rest of our lives.

Beyond My Borders: Heather Bush

My name is Heather and I was born and raised in Hillsboro, Oregon. When I was 22 I left my hometown and I moved to Belize to do a discipleship training school through Youth With a Mission (YWAM).

After I graduated high school I went to one year of University. Upon realizing that I didn’t really know what I wanted to do and that college was overly expensive I dropped out and moved back to Hillsboro. For the next few years, I worked at Old Navy and went to community college off and on.

Over those few years I just found it so mundane and I knew that God had put an adventurous spirit inside of me for a reason!! I knew a bunch of people who had done a YWAM DTS before and they had loved it!! I wanted to see the world and experience new things while I was young. I also wanted whatever I was doing to be meaningful and be able to impact the lives of others. I figured that college would always be there.

In the last two years, my main home has been Belize, but I have spent time in Venezuela, Costa Rica and El Salvador as well as I have travelled through Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. I have had SO many experiences that I NEVER would have gotten when I was in Hillsboro. I have also met some of the most amazing and loving people and had some amazing deep friendships. One of those being my future husband.

God has opened my eyes and my heart to the world and to His children in a way that I had never imagined. YWAM has a saying “Ruined For the Ordinary” that is so true. I can no longer have just a normal/ordinary life. I now know that there is so much more out there. I am stoked to see how else God is going to use me and where in the world He is going to lead me.

I would definitely recommend to anyone to leave their hometown for a bit. Step out of their comfort zone. To see the world while you can. Turns out you can learn so much from that, maybe even more than you would sitting in a classroom all day. My advice would be to just do it! Dive in and see where it takes you!

Our generation needs to get out more - and no I don’t mean Friday night parties  or weekends spent up at the mountains (no hating, I love a good campfire). I mean get out, get out. Break down the invisible walls that were forged after years spent living in the same city, state, coast, and even country. It doesn’t matter whether it’s 100 miles, 500 or a few thousand away, a lot can be learned and gained by being in a new place.  

However, don’t take my word for it. I encourage you to read the stories of people who experienced it for themselves. Starting tomorrow, every day for the next six days I’ll post two stories from an amazing set of individuals who ventured out beyond their borders. They decided to see what more the world had in store. They’ll be a part of a 7-day series called Beyond My Borders. I consider myself grateful for knowing each of them because all have inspired me to live life adventurously and to enjoy every minute - good or bad. I only hope that reading their stories will have the same, if not greater impact on you. 

Tune in tomorrow to meet Alyson Raabe from Costa Rica and Joe Vassel from New York. 

Want to share your personal experience?!  Upload your picture, tell your story and don’t forget to hashtag ”BeyondMyBorders” on Instagram or Facebook. I’d love to hear about it as well as post it on the blog and instagram too. 

Our generation needs to get out more - and no I don’t mean Friday night parties  or weekends spent up at the mountains (no hating, I love a good campfire). I mean get out, get out. Break down the invisible walls that were forged after years spent living in the same city, state, coast, and even country. It doesn’t matter whether it’s 100 miles, 500 or a few thousand away, a lot can be learned and gained by being in a new place.  

However, don’t take my word for it. I encourage you to read the stories of people who experienced it for themselves. Starting tomorrow, every day for the next six days I’ll post two stories from an amazing set of individuals who ventured out beyond their borders. They decided to see what more the world had in store. They’ll be a part of a 7-day series called Beyond My Borders. I consider myself grateful for knowing each of them because all have inspired me to live life adventurously and to enjoy every minute - good or bad. I only hope that reading their stories will have the same, if not greater impact on you. 

Tune in tomorrow to meet Alyson Raabe from Costa Rica and Joe Vassel from New York. 

Want to share your personal experience?!  Upload your picture, tell your story and don’t forget to hashtag ”BeyondMyBorders” on Instagram or Facebook. I’d love to hear about it as well as post it on the blog and instagram too. 

Our generation needs to get out more - and no I don’t mean Friday night parties  or weekends spent up at the mountains (no hating, I love a good campfire). I mean get out, get out. Break down the invisible walls that were forged after years spent living in the same city, state, coast, and even country. It doesn’t matter whether it’s 100 miles, 500 or a few thousand away, a lot can be learned and gained by being in a new place.  

However, don’t take my word for it. I encourage you to read the stories of people who experienced it for themselves. Starting tomorrow, every day for the next six days I’ll post two stories from an amazing set of individuals who ventured out beyond their borders. They decided to see what more the world had in store. They’ll be a part of a 7-day series called Beyond My Borders. I consider myself grateful for knowing each of them because all have inspired me to live life adventurously and to enjoy every minute - good or bad. I only hope that reading their stories will have the same, if not greater impact on you. 

Tune in tomorrow to meet Alyson Raabe from Costa Rica and Joe Vassel from New York. 

Want to share your personal experience?!  Upload your picture, tell your story and don’t forget to hashtag ”BeyondMyBorders” on Instagram or Facebook. I’d love to hear about it as well as post it on the blog and instagram too. 

I just got "home" from two months at home.

It’s safe to say that I one of the worst feelings in the world for me is missing a noun. I get attached to certain persons, places, or things quite easily. It’s been a day short of a week since I left Nigeria and man do I miss it something fierce. While my stay only last two -what seemed like extremely short- months, the experiences I gained through this trip will last me a lifetime.

Stupidly enough, I only brought one more-than-half-full journal with me even though I just bought a new one right before the trip. To conserve the little writing space I had left I tried to limit my entries but I found myself writing at least once a day. Mostly letters to God on how fortunate I felt to be on this journey of a lifetime but also my recordings on everything I went through.

I won’t bore you with all the daily written sentiments but I still want you all to experience a little of what I did. Here a few more photos I took during the remainder of my stay in Nigeria.