Cassidy Vanderheiden participated in our Gap Year program as an intern in 2021, serving in Siguatepeque, HN from February to November. This account tells of how the Lord worked in her heart to bring her into Honduran life and ministry full-time.
Cassidy first heard about the internships during a short-term mission trip through SEPE International with Spring Creek Bible Church in 2019. The internship programs had just launched, and she was drawn to the opportunity to learn the Spanish language in an immersive context.
“Once I heard about the internships, I really wanted to come back. I wasn’t sure if I would end up In a Spanish-speaking country or back home, but I wanted to use biblical counseling and Spanish together.”
Throughout that year, along with taking Spanish classes, she served in various capacities, helping with medical and administrative tasks at Clínica Betania, making social media posts for SEPE International, and teaching English to young Spanish speakers.
She also experienced the richness of relationship and culture in a foreign context, learning to make arepas from a Colombian seminary family, visiting some of Honduras’ natural wonders, and, as she relates, “interacting with people and seeing the culture through just living life with Hondurans.”
As her time came to a close, she was again faced with the question: “Am I supposed to do long-term missions or just use this back home?”
“I was hoping that I would get to the end of my internship and know exactly what I was supposed to do,” she says.
But the Lord had a more perfect plan.
As she became friends with Renato, a seminary graduate, about a month before her return to Washington State, it became clear that not only were they interested in each other, but they also had a growing desire to serve the Lord together. By February of 2023, they were married and settled in a little apartment in the heart of town.
Renato is now working with a current seminary student, Job Gámez, in sustenance farming and evangelism in the community of Potrerillos.
“The goal is to plant a church up in the mountains, 20 minutes from town,” Cassidy says. “There are some churches up there, but they don’t have good doctrine.”
“Maybe there are some believers,” she says. “I think most people aren’t even saved. But if there are some believers, getting to disciple them is a little tricky because a lot of people already do go to either the Catholic church or the Pentecostal church.”
As they navigate this new chapter of life with a little one on the way, they are trusting in the Lord’s faithfulness to build His church and provide for their family.
Although a need for dependence on the Lord is an area Cassidy is always growing in, it is a lesson that she had already begun to learn throughout her gap year mission trip.
“One of the biggest takeaways from my internship was just seeing God’s faithfulness,” she says. “That affects all of life – going back home after my internship but also coming here. So much has changed in my life, but knowing that the Lord was never going to change was something that comforted me a lot.”
Living far away from family, it can still be hard to miss birthdays and holidays and wonder how many more times she will be able to see her grandparents.
“I think a fear that I’ve had is a family emergency or something big happening…and not being there,” she says. “It’s made me see that I just need to trust the Lord. I can’t take care of everything or everyone…but…the Lord is taking care of my parents and my siblings and my grandparents.”
As Cassidy reflects on the Lord’s kindnesses in her life, she has a word for anyone interested in Christian gap year programs.
“It’s good to think through…what you are going to use the internship for,” she says, “because it can be just a great cultural experience, but it can also be great preparation for future ministry or missions work.”
“My one-week trip was probably what spurred me on to get involved in longer-term missions, so without that short-term trip, I probably wouldn’t be here,” she says. “But then also having something longer…can really help prepare someone for actually living overseas.”
“Just as in all of life,” she says, “doing an internship or living overseas isn’t always easy, but to me, it’s worth it and it’s grown me a lot and I’m thankful for that – that the Lord’s used it.”
