We were recently encouraged to update our information on our profiles and go a little more in depth with our stories.
When trying to do that that I decided to take a look back at my application for the World Race and the Expedition route and after doing so I decided that I wanted to share it with you all so that you could have a little more insight into my story… .and I figured it might be good to remind myself of some of these things throughout this year.
Here are two of my application questions copy and pasted 🙂
How did you hear about the WR/Why do you want to go?
I believe that hearing about the World Race was an answer to about a years worth of prayers.
I have always felt called to reaching others with the Gospel and had it set in my heart since a young age that when I was ” older” I would be a missionary doing my part being the hand of Christ and helping to fulfill the great commission.
I started to actually get some experience with that in high school by going on a few mission trips to Mexico and I had every intention to seek other opportunities after high school and throughout college. However, long story short college and life proved to be very distracting and more challenging than I had anticipated and I found myself in a bit of a lost, downward spiral for a few years.
Thank God for his redeeming grace and persistent love though, that pulled me out of that and back into the life of joy and peace and freedom that comes with Him.
A little under a year ago I once again started to feel the call and conviction that what I was doing was not enough and that there was more to life than what I was doing . I knew that I needed to be helping to reach others and further the kingdom.
I immediately started to seek opportunities for different missions trips but for one reason or another they just would not work out or feel like the right fit . Nothing seemed to appeal to my spirit.
I then decided to just start praying about it , while still searching , but trusting that God would bring the right opportunity my way.
Now we can fast forward to late July and the actual way I found out about the World Race.
One of my best friends was moving to Colorado Springs over the summer and there is this cute little town here in Texas called Fredricksburg that I love. I found out that my friend had never been there so I decided that I was going to treat her to a day of exploring the little shops and wineries there. The day that we had decided to go was beautiful and sunny and so our plan was to visit one of the wineries that I always go to there and then eat and shop. Fredricksburg is about 45 minutes away from where we live and for about 40 minutes of the drive we had clear skies and sun. Sadly , a few minutes before we were about to reach our destination, it started to rain. When I say it started to rain though , what I really mean is that it started to downpour. It was raining so hard that when we did step out of my car water was rushing past our ankles. Needles to say we had to change our plans on the fly because wineries are mainly outside, as are the shops in this town . So instead of doing any of that ,we decided to pull into this little tasting room in the town that one of the wineries had, and this is where me and my friend had what we like to call a ” God moment ” .
Here we met Hailey , an employee who happened to be doing our wine tasting. In between our tastings we started talking to Hailey and soon found out that she had lived in Colorado Springs ( where my friend was moving to) most of her life. This fact spiraled our conversation into a frenzy of things about Colorado and her life experiences there. Through our conversation we also found out that Hailey was a believer . She told us her story of growing up in Colorado and how much she loved it there and that she had done this thing called the World Race after college where she met her husband, and then the story of what had brought her to where she was at now.
I asked Hailey a few questions about the World Race and what it was, and thought to myself “Wow that is amazing ” after hearing about it , but the conversation moved on quickly as her and my friend were deep into information and email exchanging about churches in Colorado that she liked and places to see and how much my friend was going to love it etc.
We left there about an hour later to sunny skies and so excited that God had rerouted us to that place so that my friend could meet Hailey. On the drive up my friend had been talking about how she was nervous to be moving and how she was afraid she wouldn’t like it there.
My friend left actually excited about moving to Colorado and hopeful about what God had in store for her there .We knew that it was God that had rerouted us to a place I never go to in this town and that it was no chance that she had met Hailey. I was so excited for my friend in that time that I didn’t realize that encounter was also a gift for me .
Later that day and the next I had been thinking about our little trip and meeting Hailey and how awesome it was to witness that for my friend. I also kept thinking back to the part of our conversation about the World Race. We really hadn’t discussed it in much detail but I had heard enough about it to think that it sounded like something incredible to do and wanted to find out more information. I decided to look it up online and about an hour after obsessively scouring it’s website I found myself saying ” I have to do this !”.
For the next day or so I tried to convince myself that I was crazy for thinking about doing something like this but the more I did the stronger I felt the tug on my heart to go.
Go.
That word kept coming to mind and as I prayed about it I knew that this was the opportunity that I had been praying for.
I had coincidentally recently been contemplating some life changes in regards to my job and where I live and work because I have just felt this urge to move somewhere different or change something about my life.
I had just been praying and trying to figure out what. After praying about the world race and everything I have realized that maybe my urge was for this all along, to GO . To step out in faith and dedicate a year of my life to God and his kingdom, seeing what he has in store for me , how he wants to mold me and change me, and how I can help to serve Him, be an extension of Him, and spread His name.
I can’t think of a better way to spend my time and hope that I can have the opportunity to do so.
Why do you think this is the route you should consider?
In the Bible God calls us to “make disciples of all the nations” . The countries of the 10/40 window and this route are the least reached and in the most desperate need for the good news that is the Gospel. God has placed the desire in my heart to help and care for people who really need it: the worst of the worst. It’s the reason I became a nurse and was drawn to a field that most people shy away from, pediatric oncology. Those nations and people have not had the opportunity to be transformed by God’s love not even by their own choice necessarily but more than likely because they just have not heard. I can’t think of anything more tragic. That fact pulls at my heart deeply and makes me want to do something to fix it.
That is what initially drew me to this route, but I am not going to lie to you and act like I am that selfless of a person and that I just absolutely wanted to put myself in the most challenging situation for said reasons.
When I talked to someone finally about this route and what it might entail I decided that it wasn’t for me and that someone else would be better suited for it.
As I have been going through this application process however and seeking God and His will for me I have not been able to shake the idea of going on the route. In fact , the exact opposite has happened.
I was set on doing another route and prepared to submit the application for it , until right before I was going to, I started to feel completely unsettled about not doing the application for this route ( and when I say unsettled I mean like my body tensed up and I started get what I imagine the beginning of a panic attack might feel like- basically the Holy Spirit spoke loudly.) Naturally, after this I had to fall in place with the Lords will. I brushed off this route thinking that I was not equipped, but I hear God telling me that HE will equip me.
I know that God at least wants me to peruse this so that is what I am doing. God’s plans are not our own , but they are always perfect and what is best for us, so I am excited for the potential to be pushed farther than I can possibly push myself, allow myself to be used in whatever way God wants to use me, and to be a vessel to help Him to reach the hearts of people who have mostly never heard of His love for them.
I am slightly mortified at the idea of doing something that is more difficult than something that is already challenging baseline ( I hope that made sense) . However, I think that may be exactly what I need; to be uncomfortable and completely out of my element so that I can fully and completely rely on Him and allow Him to direct my every move.
And now here I am about to begin month 2 in Thailand. I couldn’t be more grateful that the Lord rerouted my life to this time and place, and not only that but that He is already showing me more of Himself and transforming my life in ways I could have never anticipated.
He is inviting me into a new normal and its more than I could have ever imagined.
