How did I get here? What made me decide to do the World Race? I’m still wondering the same things – the best answer I have is that it is what I feel God calling me to do. But, allow me to give a little background on that.
I am a middle-class, white, male protestant, from the Southeastern United States. That is to say, I never have faced real adversity. During Spring Break, my freshman year at Auburn, I went to Kenya for a mission trip. It was a very cool experience, but I did not appreciate it fully at the time.
Toward the end of my junior year, I was preparing to study abroad for the summer. I got to talking to a friend of mine (who was about to graduate) about my trip, and she started telling me about this year-long mission trip she was about to go on, called the World Race. It sounded like a really neat opportunity, but with studying abroad, and then being a senior in engineering, I did not keep up with her trip very much. That was the first I encounter I had with the World Race.
I spent that summer studying abroad in the Mediterranean. I had always heard that Americans have a reputation abroad as being arrogant and closed-minded, and that we expect everyone to speak English. I had never thought much about these things until I traveled. And I’m sorry to say that I found them to be fairly accurate generalizations. The thing that bothered me most was that I could barely speak one language (and a little bit of high school Spanish) whilst the folks with whom I interacted could speak their native language, the language of the country whose border was nearest, and English (and some spoke more than that). Talk about feeling uneducated.
That experience taught me a couple of very important lessons. First, I decided that I would learn a second language. Second, I decided that in order to truly understand what it means to be a global citizen – to truly know God’s children, I must go see them where they live. Watching TV or reading books will only take you so far; experiencing firsthand the culture, the geography, the weather, the political environment all are necessary to know my brothers and sisters.
Shortly after I graduated, a dear friend of mine started talking about possibly doing the World Race. She is called to missions, and she is so good at going where God leads her, so I encouraged her to do it. I followed her trip very closely. Every email, every blog update I found myself thinking “That is so cool! I wish I was there!” So during that year my interest in the World Race grew to the point that I knew I wanted to do it, if I could fit it into my 10-year plan.
For those of you who know me, you know that I am a Type A and very much a planner who likes to be in control of his situation. That is what makes the last 3-4 years so important for me, on so many levels. I’m not sure who said it first, but they were right: “If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans.”
For as long as I can remember, I assumed that I would go directly from undergrad into grad school. It never was clear exactly what sort of graduate studies I would be doing, but I was certain that I would be going straight to grad school. Until senior year.
Over the summer between junior and senior years, I attended the LeaderShape conference with other young leaders at Auburn. The Vice President for Student Affairs at the time was a very big proponent of Teach For America, and he encouraged us all to give it some thought. I had always thought that teaching would be a cool experience, but did not want to make a career out of it (TFA is a 2-year commitment); and because most grad schools will allow you to defer while you serve with TFA, I thought I’d give it a shot. After thinking about that for a while, I became more and more convinced that TFA was what I would be doing after I graduated. And then on to grad school.
Well, the spring rolled around, and I found out that I did not get accepted to TFA. There I was, only a couple of months away, and with nothing to do after graduation. I scrambled to apply to various grad school programs, but as late as I started applying, I was rejected or wait-listed over and over. Through this experience, God opened a door and said, “I will bless you with what you ask, but it will be in my time.” By this time, I had graduated so I moved back to Tallahassee while I searched for a job. I had grown up in the Southeast, and gone to school in the Southeast, so I wanted to get out and do something different. Go somewhere new. I was searching for jobs on the west coast, or in New England. Then I got a call from a company in Texas with a job that sounded really interesting. The opportunity sounded great, and Texas was halfway to the west coast, right? So I went to Texas to get away from the Southeast.
Funny thing is, I was in East Texas, which is just as much Southeast as the rest of Dixie. Then, to complete the irony, after I had been out there for a year, the company that I was working for in East Texas was acquired by a larger company. Which moved me to Atlanta.
In other words, I had my 10 year plan mapped out, and God said “I have other plans.” Then I tried to regain control by insisting that “I’m getting out of the Southeast!” And He replied, “Oh you are, are you?” So through the past few years, I have come to realize that it is better to make my plans in pencil, and listen for God’s direction.
So when my friend suggested that I go on the World Race BEFORE grad school, I resisted. I said, “No, my plan is to go back to school first. Then I’ll do the Race, if I can fit it in.” But I felt God gently knocking at the door to my heart. He said, almost in a whisper, “My plans are to prosper you, not to harm you. Trust me.”
Which brings me to the present. Through praying and listening (mostly listening) I have determined that God is calling me to serve His children through the World Race for the next year. I am excited and terrified. I trust that God clothed the flowers and fed the birds, and over the next year I expect to learn what it means to rely solely on Him.
