We were asked to write a blog about how we were called to this mission trip. Here is my story…
As I was growing up, I always had lots of answers to the age old question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” One of my many ideas was to live the dream life of a missionary. You know how it is, living in a tree house in some tropical jungle with my pet monkey, having a waterfall in my backyard and the beach in my front yard, sleeping in a hammock every night with the ever present sweet smell of tropical flowers floating around me, living on bananas and coconuts that I just had to reach out my window to pick. Though I still think living in a tree house in the jungle would be the absolutely most amazing thing EVER, I have become more in touch with reality.
As you grow up, you inevitably get asked that dumb question more and more, and people expect a “real” answer. Like I have my whole life figured out at the ages of 16-18! Honestly. Talk about pressure! Though I seemed so sure of the answer when I was younger, I became very unsure as I got older. I still don’t have a definate answer.
I have always had a heart for broken and hurting people, and a strong desire to help them. While I don’t know the specifics of what my future looks like, I know that I want to learn skills that I can use to travel around the world and help hurting people while bringing them the joy of Jesus Christ.
Almost two years ago, my friends and I were having a time of sharing and praying for one another. Summer was almost over, and we were talking about our dreams and desires for the coming year, where we saw ourselves and what we wanted to do. I shared how I felt really restless. I wanted to travel and help people, yet I felt really confused about how to go about doing that. My sister got really excited and told me about a friend of hers was going on this thing called The World Race. She gave me the website, and I looked at it later that night. I was stunned. It seemed like exactly what I wanted to do right there in front of me. I got really excited about it, but almost immediately the doubts and fears started setting in. It was a nice idea, one of those things you always dream about doing but don’t actually believe you’ll ever do. I felt totally unworthy and unqualified. Still do, actually. But this has been a dream that has stuck with me for a long time now, and I feel God stirring something up inside of me. Though I still have doubts and fears about my abilities, I truly feel like signing up for The World Race is where God is leading me, that this is the next step He is asking me to take. I am scared to death, but at the same time I am OOBER EXCITED and am totally trusting God to be my strength where I am weak!
