My room is a mess.
Between piles of “I absolutely cannot go 11 months without this” and “can’t we squeeze this in somewhere?”, I can no longer see the floor. As I was looking through the never ending mountains of clothes last night, it finally hit. The World Race is here.
In this last month of preparation, God has been speaking to me through the book of Ruth. The first few verses of Ruth are loaded in tragedy as Ruth’s husband, brother-in-law, and father-in-law all die leaving Ruth with her sister-in-law, Orpah, and mother-in-law, Naomi. Searching for provision, Naomi decides to return to her original home, but tells Ruth and Orpah to go back to their homes.
Naomi is freeing them of any obligation to go on the journey. She gives them an out.
Although Orpah takes it, Ruth turns to her mother-in-law and pledges:
Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.
As I read this, I realized what a risk Ruth took by staying with her mother-in-law and going to the new land.
She didn’t know how she would be provided for.
She didn’t have any friends in the city.
She didn’t know for certain that Naomi could even secure them a place to live.
Ruth pledged to the journey anyways, and God provided for Ruth and Naomi in ways they could have never imagined.
During the study of Ruth, God was showing me that all the worries that lay in my heart about leaving are useless, because He will provide everything that is needed at home and in the mission field.
I have already seen God providing in an area that has caused me stress in the past: fundraising. I am absolutely blown away that God has raised $14,500 (fundraising bar will be updated soon)! This means that $2,500 is all that is needed to be fully funded. It’s beautiful to see the people that are coming alongside this mission and being called to partner.
I am confident that like Ruth’s story, God will provide more than my team and I will ever be able to imagine for our Race.
We just need to take the same step that Ruth takes. The step that says “I’m all in”.
