Just about a week ago, I sat down to dinner at a reunion with other people who had gone on Mexico Mission Trips with my church. We chatted and caught up with people who have moved away, shared stories, and looked at photos (marveling at how young all of us kids were on the trips). It brought back a lot of memories that I hadn’t considered in a while – endless painting, cold showers, digging trenches, using outhouses, trying new foods.
To me, that seemed the perfect marker of the beginning of my next mission journey.
I first heard about the World Race a year ago to the day of that dinner (okay, I could be a day or two off, but that wouldn’t sound nearly as amazing). I had already been thinking about other options besides teaching in Spain another year, so immediately, I felt that God was showing me what He wanted me to be doing. Being a procrastinator, it’s taken a bit longer than I had envisioned to get through the process of deciding on a trip and applying, but now I’m in full planning mode!
On this World Race, I’ll be going quite a bit farther and staying much longer than our week-long trips. 11 countries in 11 months – Albania, Romania, Malawi, Zambia, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia – I almost can’t believe my luck! I never could have imagined myself visiting all these countries (or doing the fundraising I need to get there!). But by the grace of God, and with the support of family and friends, this July I’ll be harvesting the seed that was planted all the way back in 2003 during my first mission experience.
