I fly with my team to the first of our 11 countries in July 2008. I haven’t left my job, haven’t been assigned to a team, haven’t yet finished my fundraising. But, as it were, my ministry has already begun. In fact, according to God’s Plan, I will be travelling to 12 countries, rather than 11. The first one, the one I’m in now, comes six months before the official start, but is so important to my beginning and completing the World Race.
I am in Israel, on a study trip to the Holy Lands. Over the next 12 days, I will read Matthew on the Mount of Beatitudes, touch the soil of Nazareth with my hands, be immersed in the same River Jordan that Jesus Himself was baptized. It is a pilgrimage. It is a pilgrimage to experience the small piece of land Jesus claimed for His own life to be lived upon. It is a pilgrimage to participate more fully in the steps of the Passion. It is a pilgrimage of my heart, in its always desperate attempt to grasp a little more of Jesus for myself.
Before my 30th birthday in March, and before I embraced God’s calling on my life, I felt misguided, confused and frustrated at myself for my lack of purpose and passion for my life. Yesterday, as we travelled the shores of the Sea of Galilee, the small area in which the vast majority of Jesus’ ministry took place, I remembered that even His own ministry began at 30 years old. Here-where he multiplied fish and loaves, healed a paralytic, stepped out onto the water-here He would begin another miracle- the miracle of putting to death my old life, my passivity, my past sin, my own self-serving desires, and begin planting instead service, gratitude, simplicity and humility that I might be able to truly serve Him. I KNOW God wants to use these 12 days in this sacred place to prepare me for missions. To burn away any remaining doubt and fear and to set my eyes and feet on the path towards the Cross. So today I claim Israel as the beginning of my own Race-against myself, my past and in a sincere and earnest effort in pressing towards the goal…
