Friends, family, and supporters,
I am so excited to finally share some details about what I will be doing, come October 2016. I will be going on The World Race!! No no, I am not going on the great CBS show, the Amazing Race (although that would be cool too), I am going on an even better adventure called the World Race.
WR (that’s what I will be abbreviating The World Race with from now on) is a program of the inter-denominational organization Adventures in Missions that has been around since 1989, sending people from different churches and backgrounds all over the world on mission trips.
I have the privilege to journey across 11 countries in 11 months (keep your eye out for that #11n11 hashtag in all of my social media posts) to experience not only community within my team, but also a community of Christians from all over the world. Starting this October, I will be traveling to:
Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Philippines, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Ukraine, Romania, Albania, and Greece.
So, what exactly will I be doing in all of these countries?
Well, every day on the World Race will look a little different. Some days will be packed full with construction and building new churches, teaching VBS or English to children, building relationships with orphans, or praying for the sick at a hospital, loving on women trapped in prostitution or abuse, or preaching at our local church. Some days could be slower — cooking for my team, spending time with my host family, or praying for the community I am walking through.
So why exactly am I going on this trip?
I have always had a heart for mission work. I have gone on numerous trips with my hometown church (shoutout to First Pres) and with ministries at UNC, and they have always been some of the most life changing weeks, and I have always felt some sort of pull to never leave those places when we were boarding our planes home.
But the ministry that really has my heart is Younglife. Way back when, I was a Wyldlife (the middle school version of Younglife) kid. And I started my relationship with the lord at summer camp in 8th grade. I learned that He died for me. ME. Haley. Because he wants to be with me. He loves me so incredibly much that he became man, suffered, and died, just so that I could be in a relationship with him. Now that is a TV-worthy love story (scoot over, Bachelorette).
He gave me shelter and rest through it all. No longer did I run away from my fears, but rather I ran to him with all of my failures. I started loving him, pursing him, thirsting for him, and in turn, finally started loving myself for who he created me to be. I started learning more and more about this great love story.
And I wanted others to know.
I wanted others to experience His grace and salvation just like I did, I wanted others to know how much they are loved by their creator, I really did want to shout it from the mountaintops. So I became a Wyldlife leader when I was in highschool and continued to lead at UNC (Shoutout to my Culbreth Cougars). I loved this ministry because it had one goal. We will love our kids hard, and we will pursue them and in turn, they will learn about Jesus. And I loved every second of teaching my girls about Him, taking them to camp so that they can hear His story in full, and even serving at camp for free as a laundry girl, or rock wall climbing instructor. I loved it so much that I never wanted that time to end, every experience seemed so short, and like not enough time to fully immerse myself in the Word, my community, or discipling the people around me. I felt like my passion to share and learn was always being stifled right when I was getting deep into it.
This is when I felt the Lord calling me to a new ministry. I would continually hear him saying “Go” over and over. I felt led to spending more time serving him. Mission trips and Younglife camps all lasted less than a month. The World Race is 11 months.
I mean, 11 months is a long time.
It’s a Christmas and Easter without my family.
It’s a year I‘ve lost of the cherished 20’s.
It’s saying goodbye to my best friends.
It’s giving up the dream of living in a big city like New York or Atlanta fresh out of college.
It’s giving up a steady income to be able to sustain me later in life.
It’s a football season and 2 dook games.
It’s eating a lot of American Pad Thai.
It’s a long time to be living out of 2 backpacks and a tent.
It’s living in places filled with crime, sadness, cruelty, and danger.
It’s giving up the church I know, the bible studies I attend, and the ministries I am a part of.
It’s talking about Jesus with people who have already heard of him.
I am going on this trip because 11 months is a long time.
It’s a Christmas and Easter with my new family of 50, celebrating Him while doing His work.
It’s a year I will cherish the most of my 20’s.
It’s saying hello to new best friends and (literally) the world’s greatest community.
It’s living the dream to travel all over the world fresh out of college.
It’s a soccer game in a muddy field in Zimbabwe, or hiking miles in Zambia to get to an internet café to stream an American basketball game.
It’s eating a lot of THAI Pad Thai (That one was easy)
It’s a time when I will realize that everything I will ever need will fit into 2 backpacks and a tent.
It’s living in places where I have to rely on Him to keep me safe.
It’s being a part of 11 new churches, attending and teaching new bible studies, and becoming a part of a world-wide ministry.
It’s a YEAR of sharing the story of Jesus with people who have never EVER heard the good news before.
I get to do that.
And I can not wait.
A great motto that goes around the Younglife community is:
“Every Kid, Everywhere, for Eternity.”
And this motto could not ring more true for the Journey I am about to embark on. I get to pursue thousands of kids, women and men, around the world, and tell them the story that will bring them home to Jesus for eternity. Take that, Amazing Race!!!
So where does that leave me now until my launch in October? Well, as you can see by the top of this page, I have to raise a lot of money to get me around the world. And my goal is to raise it all before I launch so that I can focus on the people of these 11 countries, and not myself. If you are called, you can donate by clicking the orange button at the top of the page. Every little bit is a huge blessing, and gets me one step closer to reaching my goal.
You can also donate spiritually by giving me, my community, and my travels your words and your prayers. There is no doubt that there will be difficult, dangerous, and dark times on the race, so an army of supporters who are praying over my time abroad will be needed to continue His work.
If you know me, you would know that I couldn’t let an opportunity go where I could design a t-shirt, so those are in the works and will go toward my goal as well.
I will also be posting blogs as frequently as possible, depending on the wifi situation in each country, so if you want to stay updated on my adventures, click the “subscribe for email updates” button at the top, and you will get an email every time I post a new blog. You will be able to comment on, or even share (thanks Mom) my posts on social media or with your friends.
I am so extremely grateful in advance for any way that you decide to support me through these next few months as I head out into the field.
As I was doing my devotion this morning, I ran across a verse that really hit me when I was on Summer Staff at a Younglife camp a few summers ago. This verse is marked up, circled, and starred in 3 different colors. I have been searching for a passage that will be “the passage” of my 11 months. And this might just be it. (that’s a big commitment, I’m not setting anything in stone yet).
John 12:24-25 (MSG) says:
“Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.”
Reckless. Reckless love. That is a power-packed adjective attached to a powerful word. The word reckless can be traded for uncontrolled, hasty, and wild. Two words that don’t normally go together but when they do, it’s explosive. It is such a visual picture. Be reckless in my love. I will love the people of these nations uncontrollably, hastily and wildly, no holding back, with everything I have.
That is the way Jesus loves us. Recklessly.
Next week I head off to training camp for 2 weeks in Georgia. Here I will meet my team and learn way more about what is yet to come. Stay tuned for a blog when I am back from camp, and the T-shirts.
I don’t want to hold on to my life just as it is anymore. I want to let it go for eternal life. I want to “be buried and reproduce and sprout” in these 11 nations, over and over. I am so thankful, excited, and nervous, that the Lord has called me on this Journey. And quite honestly, I have no idea what is in store for me.
With reckless love,
Haley
