Welcome to my first ever blog but more importantly, welcome to my journey 🙂
Since this is the first blog I have ever written, I thought that I would share with you about how I got to this point in my life and why I decided to leave behind the comforts of home for 11 months in third world countries.
I was born into a Christian family where attending church every Sunday, going to youth group every Wednesday night, helping out at church whenever needed and saying nighttime prayers every night were completely normal. I accepted Jesus into my heart as soon as I could understand what being a Christian really meant. When I entered junior high and high school, I was finally able to go on missions trips and I found a new love for Jesus and the relationship I had with him. Being able to see the difference I could help make because of him made me feel the most like myself and I loved every minute of it.
And then came the college years. Even though I didn’t go away to college, this was the biggest change in my life. It was a time when I thought I didn’t need to have a great relationship with God. It was a time that I thought I would be able to get through life by myself. During this time, God was trying to get me to come back to him but I was having a good time and didn’t necessarily want to come back. And then he got a hold of my heart. One Sunday in church, my pastor announced that they were taking a group of people on a missions trips to Kenya. Right then and there, I felt my heart beat fast and a call saying to go. In May 2014, I said yes to God again, traveling across the ocean to Kenya and fell in love with him again. I came back wanting a deeper relationship with him and wow, is his timing good!
Over the next several months after reuniting with him, my world flipped completely around. I broke up with my long term boyfriend of almost 6 years who I pictured my future with. I had to trust God that he would help me through that and that he had bigger and better plans for me. And then the unimaginable happened in December of 2014. My big brother, best friend, protector, and one of the only ones that I could really count on for everything passed away unexpectedly. How is one supposed to go on with life after an event like that? Well, the answer was to have faith and trust in God. He is the one who planned out our lives before we were even born. He is the one who put the people in my family’s lives to help us get through a time of grief and sorrow. He is the one who shows us love everywhere we go, even in the most random and unexpected places. Because of Him, I know that one day we will be reunited with Kory in heaven and what a glorious day that will be!
Now we come to January 2015. One day I was scrolling through instagram and I came across someone who was on the Race. I was instantly intrigued and went to the website to check it out more. I started to watch the testimony videos on there and I came across one that I related to a lot. My heart started beating fast, tears starting streaming down, and I heard “go” again. I talked to my parents at dinner that night and decided that I was going to apply to leave on a route in January 2016. When the routes were finally released and I was able to apply, I did right away. I made it through to the final phone interview when they told me about their grieving process. I had to wait until December to apply that way it would be a year after my brother’s death. I knew that this was something that I really wanted to do so I spent the next 10 months working through more of the grief process, working on myself, praying and asking God to show me what he wanted me to do with my life. I reapplied in December and here we are in January. It’s official that I will be leaving in August to go live in Ghana, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, India, Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia, El Salvador, Honduras, Belize, and Guatemala to love on God’s people and tell them about His word!
There are only two things that you can’t do in heaven that you can do here on earth; sin and tell others about Jesus. We were placed here for the purpose of the making disciples. So that’s why I’m leaving the comforts of home for 11 months. I want to obey God and his commands, build a deeper relationship with Him and his people, and see the beauty that he created with my own eyes.
I’m so excited to go on this journey and I would love to partner with you! I’m asking for help financially, with prayers, and with encouragement. Whether it’s donating $1 or $1,000, or it’s spreading the word to family and friends about this trip, or it’s praying for me and my squad/ for the countries we’ll be living in/ for safety while we’re gone, or it’s encouraging words along the way, I appreciate it more than you will ever know. So thank you, thank you, and thank you!
