Wow
What is there to say really?
I suppose I’ll start with the basics. My name is Brittany Stilwell, I’m 21 and I will be graduating from Charleston Southern University in December.
Well, school is an interesting subject.
I loved learning growing up, but never really had a dream college. I’m not really a sports fan, so that didn’t really help either. When I was 16, I went on my first mission trip to Costa Rica with my youth group. It was very much designed like a typical exposure based mission trip, but I absolutely fell in love- with the travel, with the people, with God’s heart for the nations. I always knew I wanted to work with children, but could never quite figure out how. This was it. The next summer, I went to India with a small group from my church, and once again, my heart fell in love. I was completely hooked. Still needing a college plan, I decided to save some money and spend a year a the local community college, before going elsewhere. Really, I had no desire to be in school, but felt obligated to do so. While there, I returned to India, as well as went to the Dominican Republic. I wanted to take a longer period to be sure that I wasn’t simply attracted to the glamour of new places and new faces, so I looked into some longer programs.
Then very late one night, God brought Heidi Baker to my mind. Never having heard of Heidi, I saw a clip of her on TV once talking about the children she worked with, and how she knew that if she hugged them, she would have to deal with lice, and scabies, and whatever else, but she couldn’t not hug them because she was so motivated by love. That was it. That was the motivation I felt, and that small clip was such a huge confirmation for the direction God was leading me. So, when I remembered this laying in bed, I googled her name and found the website for Iris Ministries. The front page was the flyer for their Harvest School of Missions. Needless to say, the next morning I announced, “I’m going to Mozambique.”
(Mama Heidi and I)
I enrolled at CSU before I left, but I expected that God would tell me that I didn’t have to actually go. Wrong! Even though I met some really incredible people, who left college behind, moved to Mozambique, and have significant roles in the work that God is doing there, God instead sent me the opposite direction. While at CSU, God has continued to refine me and teach me more about His heart. In this time, I spent a summer in Alaska, and traveled to Nepal with a group from school. All the while learning more about love, and more excited for opportunities to share it with the world. So, in December, I will finish my time at CSU and move on to the next chapter.
I have no back up plan (as some have suggested),
no career to fund my part time mission work (as others have said I need),
no worldly wisdom of any kind.
just little ol’ me
and a heart for the King
to run to the orphaned, the widowed and the forgotten
to cry freedom to the captives
to be an outlet of the passionate love of God in the world.
Okay, So that’s about a little more than just school… Fine
I was ready for that next chapter to be India ( a church plant with a few friends), but the world race kept coming up. It kept drawing me back in. The blogs of other racers kept grabbing my attention and exciting my imagination. Then, I realized that there were some timeline issues with India. I felt God telling me to wait, take a detour, put it on hold. So, here I am. Getting ready for this 11 month journey around the world.
