What Does A Gap Year Look Like Day-to-day?

The Equip Discipleship Gap Year Program has been running strong since 2021, and the staff here at CMTS Ministries, have been impacted every year by the students. Each year is unique, not only to the staff, but also to the students. Your experience in Equip truly depends on what you are looking to get out of your year, and also what you are willing to put into your year. Maybe you’re not sure what to expect, though. Why not read what a past student experienced?

Logan’s Equip Experience (Equip Year 2)

“The 2023/24 year has come and gone… If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already heard bits and pieces about my year in Pennsylvania already. Nonetheless, I’ll give you a quick recap of my Equip gap year at Christian Missionary Technical Services. But before I do that, I’d like to offer a huge thank you to everyone who donated to support me and followed my journey there just to see how much I would grow. And grow I did! Thank you so much for everything, I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without your support.

“The primary goal of this year was to learn and grow in both practical life skills and spiritual wisdom. You might even learn you want a career in one of the focus areas! In order to best explain what we did this year, I’ll give a basic rundown of our schedule on a regular week. 

“Monday and Tuesday mornings, as well as Thursday evenings, we had classes. These classes were usually spiritual, though there were other practical topics as well, such as finance. Something that impressed me about these classes was the variety of difficulty. All of our teachers were amazing, and all volunteers. Some classes took it down to the basics, while others were willing to get into college level theology and apologetics if you were up to the challenge. I certainly was! I came in a little skeptical, since I’d already taken a fair number of Bible classes in high school. Some of it was familiar but I can say I still learned quite a lot from them. If I’m being honest, some of them were some of my favorite parts of the whole year. Big thank you to everyone who volunteered to teach 4 or 5 rowdy teenage guys theology. 

“I say 4 or 5 because sometimes Ace joined us. Ace is the eldest son of the Smith family, and we grew to be good friends through the year, although he wasn’t technically a student. Joel and Danielle Smith lead the overall ministry and helped run Equip, along with Nolan and Jenny Lapp. I’m also super thankful to them for leading and organizing this whole thing, they began to feel like a second and third set of parents by the end of it, and I must admit I wish I had more time with them. 

“To pick up where we left off: Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoons we did something called Flip Side Crew. Here, we prioritized serving the rest of the ministry. The four of us rotated jobs weekly that included: cleaning, landscaping, cooking for the ministry, and office work (like writing newsletters). These jobs helped teach us practical everyday skills as well as provide practical help around the campus.

“Other rotations included vocational trades in the afternoon. For these, we had two 4-week periods for each section over the course of the year. There were 4 trade areas total: Maintenance, Body Shop, Warehouse, and Mechanics Shop. Those were the order I did them in. In Maintenance, I learned a ton! We did a little bit of everything, and it was probably my favorite of the 4 options. We covered areas like: plumbing, electrical, flooring, painting, roofing, and even some odd jobs like working on remodeling a bus to turn it into an RV, or learning some computer code. Ray, the man who taught Maintenance, seemed to be knowledgeable in just about every area you could think of… including computers. He taught me a few things like how to install and use Linux in a Virtual Box; stuff that’s going to be very useful for when I go into software development! 

“Second was the Body Shop. I worked with Doug, where we did detail work mostly on the exterior of cars. We did things like painting, polishing, cleaning, rust removal, welding, and more. Third, I worked in the Warehouse. I did some heavy lifting and sorting, maintenance, and building. The warehouse was pretty chill. Finally, I worked in the Mechanics shop. I’ve never been much of a car guy, so this area was completely new to me. But because I knew close to nothing, that meant there was a lot of room to learn. I got to know the basics of how cars work in the process, and can do most common maintenance jobs, provided the right tools.

“On weekends we’d occasionally help out with service projects, which were completely voluntary; like sorting clothing and bagging it to be shipped out to poorer countries like Haiti. We also did 3 missions trips. The first one was local; we did some labor and repairs at an outdoor summer camp area and got to know each other better. There was a lake there with a pushing dock in the middle so we did some wrestling there too! The second one we went to was also domestic, but we took a road trip to get there. This one was in Georgia, where we helped for a week at a local church with house construction and painting.

“The final mission trip was in Mexico, and was one of the most memorable times of my life, as well as the truest to an actual mission trip. I truly experienced the Holy Spirit in such a strong way there, and I’ll never forget it. We helped needy people outside the hospital on the streets by giving them food, water, Bibles, and hope… We helped children and local churches by doing little services and skits and crafts with them. Still, my favorite part was visiting the Men’s Rehab Center. The worship there was some of the coolest and craziest I’ve seen, eventually evolving into a joyful dance in the center of the stage, all praising God in Spanish. The room was so full of joy and praise; there were what felt like 50 or 60 people there, and not a single one could be seen without a huge grin on their face. It was like a taste of heaven! Only there, we’ll be free from bondage forever! Praise God! 

“That pretty much sums it up. Overall, this year has been a pretty awesome experience, and it’s challenged me in a lot of ways. It certainly wasn’t easy, but it’s given me a lot of much needed experience in practical areas that can be applied almost anywhere: from trade jobs, just living the adult life and flourishing, evangelizing, to just serving with a happy heart. I’m super grateful to everyone who supported me or helped with the program, and I’m more than ready for the next chapter of life. Bring it on!”

Interested In Joining Equip?

As you can see, Equip offers a variety of life experiences within just 10 months of the gap year program. You will not only get a basic overview of multiple different trades, you’ll also have the chance to grow spiritually. Being surrounded by your peers offers a unique opportunity to encourage each other on, while also being held accountable for your own growth and development. Taking a Christian gap year can be one of the most beneficial things for your walk with Christ and for your future. Enrollment is open now! Fill out an Interest Form to get the process started today!

For a more in-depth discussion about Christian gap years, check out the article on our blog called, “What is a Christian Gap Year Program?”. You could also read through another article called “Common Questions About Christian Gap Year Programs”.

We hope that this gives you a good understanding of what our Equip Discipleship Gap Year program is like. If you have more questions though, we would love to talk with you! We can be reached by email (equip@cmtsministries.com) and phone (610-488-6975). Don’t hesitate to reach out for more information, or visit the Equip page on the website. And most importantly, be sure to pray and keep God at the center of your decisions!