If you read my About Me, this is that “more to come in a future post,” post. So, how did I get here? Twenty-two, graduating college, and leaving everyone and everything I know for a year. The entire existence of my “young adult” life spent doing exactly what our American culture expects of us. I am graduating in 4 years with a 4.0 GPA, two degrees, a minor, and from ASU’s honors college. In high school I was student body president, and I had the grades and test scores to achieve the full ride scholarship that has gotten me through the last 4 years. When I got to Arizona State University I joined a fraternity, got involved on campus, became a CA, worked, and balanced everything else a typical college student does, both good and bad. Amongst all of this the faith that I have known since a young age never waivered, but it absolutely looked and felt like different things over the years. I have had deeper relationships and friendships than many ever dream of having. Right now I am set to continue accomplishing the next set of glittering expected goals. Set to move to LA, San Fran, or NYC and land the career I have been working so hard towards, make the next set of friends in a new city, finally have a salary, buy a car, etc… but thats far from what is about to happen
In November 2014 I was walking through the studio that has become my home for the past four years and noticed Tori (a day one college bud) working on a set of posters that had a bunch of different countries on them. I asked what they were for and she started to explain the trip that one of her good friends was going on but then stopped and said “Here, just watch this…,” handing me her noise-canceling Bose head phones for me to watch the “More Than a Mission Trip” video that I have linked at the bottom of this post. My reaction to the video was unlike anything I had felt in months. I quickly rushed back to my desk to pull up the website, and that gut feeling of knowing you were actually going to do that unimaginable thing began.
That week I finally reached the point where I realized I could no longer go on living a life that only served myself. That simply saying I was a “Christian” was not going to cut it for the life I so desperately wanted. That if I truly wanted to start impacting people the way I envisioned that I needed to give all of my heart, soul, and mind to the call God has on my life. I am ready to fall in love with my creator and have a relationship with him that is as deep and intimate as the relationships I have with my closest friends. And with that first step these last four months have been the most incredible journey I could ever imagine- my WORLD RACE started in November. And the best is yet to come.
We are all on our own race, our own journey and we all need to experience certain things and grow through different seasons of joy, pain, mistakes, and victories to understand who we are and what our call in this life is. With the deep understanding that I could not and would not be exactly where I am today having not experienced EVERYTHING I have up to this point, I am able to confidently move forward knowing that he works all things out for good. That my degree and creativity will be absolutely invaluable as I move into this new season of life, and that every relationship and interaction has prepared me for what is to come. What will I do when I come back? I am not sure but I can guarantee that God will make it clear when he is ready and use all of my talents, and experiences for greater things than I could have never dreamed.
So in 8 months, January 2016, I will be leaving for the World Race. I will backpack to 11 different countries in 11 months; The Dominican Republic, Haiti, Panama, Costa Rica, South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Indonesia. My team and I will serve in partnership with churches and ministries in local communities to preach the Gospel, plant churches, work in orphanages, build houses, bring clean water to communities, minister to women and children trapped in prostitution as a result of human trafficking, and bring the restorative hope of the Father’s love to these countries.
If you want to be a part of this journey with me please click the subscribe button in the upper left. I would love nothing more than to talk in greater detail about all of this so please reach out if at all interested.
