Support Tony's Journey to Uruguay to learn Spanish!

Hi! My name is Tony Millspaugh, I am 18 years old and starting my first year of college at Pacific Lutheran University. I'm a Christian attending my Baptist church in NE Tacoma, and I am making this GoFundMe to help fund an opportunity that I believe God has opened the door for.

Pacific Lutheran University, the university I attend, offers wonderful study away programs, both for whole semesters and for shorter J-Term trips. I have already been blessed enough to receive a near-full tuition scholarship for my schooling due to my poor financial background, and that has opened a door for me to be able to look into various study away programs at the school.

There is a variety of programs they offer, but the program that caught my interest was a J-Term program in Montevideo, Uruguay, where I would get to live with a Uruguayan family and be fully immersed in the Spanish language and their culture. I would be taking this trip to learn more Spanish and build my elementary-level knowledge and fluency to the next level. I am currently a Computer Science major at PLU and plan to stay that way, but if I can go on this trip, I will be completing a minor in Hispanic Studies as well, so that I can continue to learn and improve in speaking Spanish!

Learning Spanish has been a heavy interest and desire that God has placed in my heart, for two reasons. My main reason is my heritage. My mother's side of the family is of Mexican descent, but unfortunately, we lost the Spanish language and much of the culture in our family a couple of generations ago, and this has created a desire for me to reignite this lost part of our heritage. I want to learn Spanish fluently, as well as the cultures behind it, so that I can not only bring it back to my family now, but also continue passing it down to my kids one day, and bringing our Spanish heritage back to life.

I also believe that God has placed this desire in my heart so that I can not only share the Gospel with English-speaking communities, but also take part in and spread the Gospel to Spanish-speaking communities, both local and abroad. My church does occasional mission trips to Honduras, a Spanish-speaking country, and I have always wanted to go and aid their mission in spreading the Gospel there. With this trip to Uruguay, I could be immersed in the language and experience another country's culture for an entire month, and I believe this would greatly aid me in the present and the future.

Now, while this trip is a wonderful opportunity that God has opened for me, it is still quite expensive. I have done a lot of work to acquire as many scholarships as possible, which are still in the process of being (hopefully!) approved. The due date for the funds is December 25th! So I will have this for two months :)

The trip details are as follows:

Destination: Montevideo, Uruguay

Length of Trip: January 3rd - February 2nd

Trip Fee: $7,200 (Plus money to take with me)

Trip Fee Due Date: December 25th (Quite the Christmas gift)

Classes I will be taking: HISP 201 (Intermediate Spanish Course)

The trip fee of $7,200 covers almost everything, including flights, group activities, housing, and most meals. I would need extra funds for other, minor necessities such as sunscreen, toiletries, and some meals, but I am trying to acquire those funds myself :)

Anything helps! And if you are in a situation where you can't afford to donate, any prayer for this trip and opportunity means a lot to me, and goes a long way! God is good, and He has the power to make things happen :)

I'll post any updates on the trip here:

Update 1: I was accepted for the trip!! :D