Sometimes things don’t make sense. According to logic, I am about to make a very bad decision. Logic tells me to stay at my job, continue to proceed down the road of my chosen career path, buy a house, and amass as much stuff as I can. Logic tells me to stay with my family, watch my nephews and nieces grow bigger, and continue to live in the security of having a comfortable life. Logic also tells me to save money. Unfortunately, I have found that being comfortable and following Christ oftentimes are opposing ideas.
I felt a call to missions early on in my teens. Up until this time nothing has happened with this call. While I had looked into teaching abroad, and liked the idea of living in another country, it didn’t quite seem as though that was the way for me. Then I casually found out about the World Race during meet and greet time at church. Literally, our conversation lasted less than two minutes. While I am terrible with names, I never forgot Grace’s name and her telling me about the World Race. I decided to look her up and read her blog. I then forgot about it, and once again became caught up with life. For well over a year, it sat there in the back corner of my mind collecting dust, but I never forgot Grace, her name, or her story. This last year has brought me a restlessness that cannot be explained. I have continually been looking for what is the next thing I am supposed to do. In all of my searching and prayer I finally felt God telling me emphatically to “Go”! It was time. I knew what that meant. It was time to apply to the World Race, an organization that had to have been created with me in mind. It consists of people that just go and love people around the world in the name of Christ. It is a year filled with what I like to call “ugly Christianity”, which is just simply bringing love to the ugliest places on earth. When I found out that this organization consists of working with orphans, feeding the hungry, spending time with those that the world oftentimes forgets, helping to end sex slavery, working in slums, visiting the sick in hospitals, and just simply allowing my light to shine in darkness; I knew this was for me. While all of these ideas of helping people do sound glamorous, I must concede one day after applying for the race, I was driving home from work thinking, “God, me leaving for a year means that I will be losing a year of my life.” That is a year of being away from my family and friends, a year without pay, a year having to live off of the charity of others. These are the days I am supposed to be planning for my future and building a foundation for my career. All I could think is that I will be losing my life. Then I was reminded of the words of Christ, “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it”. God doesn’t make sense sometimes. Well, a lot of time just to be honest. What I do know is for some reason God has created me to feel more empty when I amass more stuff for myself, yet when I am loving others and giving my life away to those around me, I have fulfillment and joy that money cannot buy and stuff cannot replace.
The next 9 months are going to be quite an adventure for me. I have $16,254 to raise, and about a million other things to do to prepare for my yearlong adventure of serving the least of these in our world. If you have read this, I just ask two things of you. First and foremost, will you pray for me? I feel like the least qualified person to go around the world and share the good news of Gods love, but I am answering the call despite that. Also, pray that doors open financially for this trip to be made possible. Secondly, if you have read this and have been moved in anyway I ask that you would consider donating money to help make this possible. While I do realize that not everyone is called to go overseas, the people that make it happen financially are just as important as those that are going. Thank you for reading my ramblings and check in for more soon!
By the way the countries I will be going to are… Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Japan, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Swaziland, Zimbabwe/Botswana, and South Africa.
