I have always had a heart for missions!!!!! I remember when I was little I always wanted to be a missionary to China, and I guess growing up in Haiti as a missionary kid probably had a lot to do with that!!! I love to travel. I think traveling is in my blood. Growing up, my whole life, we were always going somewhere, whether it was driving to NC from FL at the age of three to visit my Grandma, flying back and forth to Haiti, or driving 4 hours from our house to Port-a-Prince to pick up our mail once a week!!!! We’ve always been a going family.
OK, so I moved out of Haiti about 7 years ago to take some medical courses in the US and I did that, but never ended up using them. About a year or two before I left Haiti, my two brothers and I started road cycling with several of our close Haitian friends. Then when we came to the states we started racing. That became our mission field and as we got better we started traveling more. Up until last year, we were pretty much traveling to races all over the US almost every weekend. I loved racing, but I always told God that at the point I was doing it only for myself and not glorifying Him through my racing and cycling, then that was when I was going to quit. So God gave me the chance to take the year off from cycling this year and He provided a new mission field for me which was bicycle polo ( pretty much the same concept as horse polo except on a bike!!). This year I’ve had the privilege of traveling to several Polo events across the US and be a light to my new found friends.
As far as this trip goes, I know God has a plan for my life so much bigger than what I can see!!! After I moved to the states, I somehow got this job ( that’s a story in itself!!) working on the facilities crew at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, which is really the only job I’ve ever had. I love working there. They are so good to me, allowing me time off to travel so much. But I’ve always known that this is not where God wants me to be for the rest of my life and I’ve just been waiting for Him to show me my next step. Pastor Kennedy passed away a few years ago and there was a church merger with the new pastor’s congregation and half the congregation left the church. Since the change the monies have been real low which has caused them to lay off so many of the employees. Thus, I thought I was the next one to go. Recently, my brother and I went to see some of our friends who had just left for college. On the drive up there I was making friendship bracelets to give to my friends when we got there. After we had been up there a while, I noticed one of my friends had on an anklet that looked a lot like the ones I had been making. I asked her if she made it and she said no that she got it at school from these people who were trying to raise money to go on The World Race. She went on to explain what it was and my heart started pounding, my eyes were watering and I got really excited. God, is this what I’m supposed to do next??? I came back home and I kind of forgot about it because I was real scared that I was going to be the next person to get laid off at work. After about a week or 2, I thought about The World Race again and looked it up. Right on the front page in big letters were the words “Apply now.” I was like, well, it’s not going to hurt to just apply. I did, not really thinking that it would be so soon!!! Since then God has just been working everything into place. I definitely believe this is the next big step God wants me to take!!!! Oh yah, I didn’t get fired. I actually got called up to the office 2 days after I applied for the Race. My boss told me everything was OK. I didn’t have to worry anymore. They weren’t going to lay me off because they needed me. I told him about the Race and he said that was OK. I could work until it’s time to go!!!
