Four people. Four paths. All leading to the Radius Gap Year Internship.
Among them are Nico and Rachel, two current interns at the halfway point of the program, and Gavin and Madeline, two alumni who completed it before them.
By most accounts, the internship is engaging and richly varied: interns learn Spanish, travel across different regions of Mexico, and form lasting friendships. Yet what drives the program is something harder to quantify. Radius is, at its core, formative. It is designed to shape the character and daily faithfulness of the people who go through it, and that is precisely what it did for Nico, Rachel, Gavin, and Madeline.
Nico: Character Development Through Challenging Circumstances
Nico's pastor is responsible for planting the Gap Year seed. Connected to Radius through his work with a sending organization, his pastor had encouraged him for years to consider attending.
Now halfway through the program, Nico has encountered more than he thought. Specifically, he's been confronted with his own heart. "Something I didn't expect," he reflects, "was seeing a lot of my faults when it comes to serving." The work itself can feel small: hauling chairs, maintaining the campus, and caring for children. But God uses the ordinary to expose what's hidden. "It just carries on the importance of having a serving heart and being humble," Nico says, "no matter the task.
"One particular day put this to the test. Nico and the other interns set out early one morning to cross into the US and pick up 150 chairs. They expected a simple grab-and-go trip. Complications at the border turned it into an all-day ordeal. "We were pretty tired and irritated," he admits. "It was just a challenge to continue to not grumble and complain."
This is exactly the kind of situation that reveals character. We all encounter frustrating days where the question is whether we will guard our hearts or let bitterness take root. Nico chose the former, and what could have become a bitter memory became a moment of growth shared with the other interns.
Beyond these daily tests, Nico speaks of growing in reliability and leadership. He's been watching the men around him, both staff and students, and has seen "how important it is to be a figure who can lead others and his household," something he considers a privilege to witness up close.
His understanding of missions has deepened as well. "Converts aren't enough," he's learned. "You need to plant a church and invest in disciples." Though he senses a calling toward Western Europe rather than unreached peoples, the vision for healthy, multiplying churches now drives him.
When asked what advice he'd give to someone considering the program, Nico was direct: "Be ready to be busy with a lot of things, 24/7. But these things are sharpening you and shaping you into the person God wants you to be." He summarized his time in the program so far as "challenging, but worth it."
Rachel: Growth in Spiritual Disciplines
Rachel's journey began in the Czech Republic, where her parents currently serve as missionaries. One Sunday at church, a former missionary who spent twenty years among an unreached tribe in Indonesia spoke about his time in missions. His testimony stirred something in her. She wanted to learn about this kind of work, but she knew she wasn't ready to be "thrown into the middle of the jungle," as she puts it. When she asked where she might go to gain this type of experience, he pointed her toward Radius' Gap Year Internship.
Now serving as an intern, Rachel has learned a fundamental truth about community: doing life and serving alongside others has a way of surfacing what's hidden in our hearts. "Living with so many people can just bring up a lot more than I originally knew was in me," she admits. "Things like pride, fear of man, and general discontentment."
Moving to Mexico (for the internship) also developed practical confidence. She learned to make friends in a foreign context, to navigate unfamiliar places, and to trust that she was more capable than she had believed. "It makes me feel more capable," she reflects. "I'm not just being afraid all the time."
She's also developed disciplines that will serve her for life. The interns are currently memorizing Romans 8 together, and Rachel has been reading books that challenge her thinking. "Before coming here, I'd never really read any book outside of the Bible," she shares. "But now we have discipleship books, and I think that has really grown me."
Shaped by her parents' example as missionaries and the teaching she is receiving at Radius, Rachel expressed her desire to go to the field growing stronger. Every one-on-one discipleship meeting and class she sits in on adds fuel to the flame. "I feel like there's a lot of people who are capable," she reflects, "but it's also the desire that God puts in their heart to want to do that. And I think, yeah, it's definitely made me want to do that more."
Her advice for prospective interns is honest: "Be prepared to serve and to serve well, and be prepared to be tired. But it's a good tired, one that makes you feel like your work has eternal value."
Gavin: Personal and Missional Maturity
Gavin's connection to Radius came through family friendships. His father had been good college friends with a Radius staff member, and during a shared dinner with both of their familes, someone asked the high schooler what he planned to do after graduation. At the time, he didn't have an answer. But through more conversations that night and the weeks that followed, the Gap Year internship became Gavin's path of choice.
Reflecting on the community he built in the program, Gavin said smiling, "I didn't think I'd get as close with people as I did. I figured I'd get close with my roommates and stuff, but student relationships, all of it, it's very tight-knit."
Similar to the current interns that we just heard from, he also recounted the challenges he expereinced. Like the time he was asked to take a staff member's vehicle to a Mexican mechanic. "I can tell you plenty of words in English to describe what's wrong with the car," he says, "but I don't know how to say that the exhaust isn't working in Spanish," he said with a chuckle.
Only being 18 years old when he started the program, there was some immaturity Gavin had to deal with when starting the internship. But through God's grace and the intentional design of the program, Gavin saw maturity. "I definitely dropped a lot of bad habits," he says. "Definitely grew in responsibility. Definitely stopped being as lazy as I was beforehand."
His understanding of missions was also transformed. Sitting in on classes brought clarity on biblical missiology and the scope of the Great Commission. "It totally opened my eyes," he shares. "I had such a naive view of missions. It made me realize how much I hang on to things of this world," he admits. "That was really helpful to flush that out of me."
Now Gavin carries a new conviction: if God doesn't call him to go, then he will try to be the best sender he can be. "I have to be a part of it," he says. "It's the last command Jesus left us."
Madeline: Accountability in Community
Madeline's path to Radius was the longest of the 4 interns. A Radius staff member had visited her pastor's home in Connecticut, where she first heard about the training and programs Radius offered. But it wasn't until a few years later, when she was personally drawn to missions, that she finally reached out.
When she started the internship, Madeline said she was most surprised at "how involved the staff were with discipling and mentoring us." This is no accident, as we have seen from the other 3 stories. The Gap Year Internship is designed with this in mind.
The community the program offers was also very formative for her. "You can't hide from your sin here. Back home, I was living on my own, and you can hide a lot like that. But here, you can't. You can't hide from anything. People were actually calling me out and helping me through those things they were lovingly calling out. And that was the first time that's ever happened to me."
Remembering her time serving in childcare, the main responsibility for female interns, she admits, "I really was not comfortable with it. So that grew me a ton, just learning how to even change a diaper and talk to kids." Living in Mexico brought its own growth as well: learning Spanish, using the local taxi system, and navigating a foreign culture. "I feel like everything was kind of pushing me out of my comfort zone," she reflects, "but it was super great. I loved learning how to do all that."
Madeline also arrived at Radius with questions about missions. A previous trip to El Salvador had left her wondering what short-term efforts really accomplished. At Radius, her eyes were opened to the thousands of language groups still waiting to hear the gospel in their own tongue. "It kind of changed my whole perspective on what missions looks like," she says.
Asked what advice she would give to incoming interns, she shared, "Come into it with a learner's mentality. Take every opportunity to pick the brains of students going to the unreached, to learn from staff, and to dig deep. Put yourself out there."
