How I was called to the mission field (pt 2)

When I returned home from Michigan, I did some research on Adventures in
Missions and on The World Race. I read about future Races, I read the
blogs of current Racers, and I subscribed to the newsletter. I also considered
other ways to spend a year of my life, such as entering the Peace Corps.
As I finished Shane’s book, and as I learned more about the Race, I
found myself talking with others about the opportunity. I shared with friends and
family, and I thought about leaving my job. I knew there was something
‘more’ for me at this stage in my life, a different way of living and of
learning, and I felt like I finally had a picture of what it was. Even
so, I liked my life of comfort; I found my work rewarding, and I very
much enjoyed the people I was spending forty-plus hours a week with. So,
I continued to read the AIM emails as they entered my inbox, and I kept The
World Race from the front of my mind.

As spring approached, I began to get excited for a full season of
my most dominant, selfish hobby: auto racing. I’ve always loved cars,
and since the time I turned sixteen, it’s often become a bit of an
obsession in my life. My passion has also served me well, though, as
when something has me worked up, I can spend hours wrenching away, finding
therapy in the simple beauty of a mechanical system coming together (or
coming apart). While I was in college, I found a new way to develop
my knowledge and spend time around other car junkies – Sports Car Club of
America’s local Solo 2 competitions. And as a result of the weak business environment in 2009, I finally found myself with the time to go
‘all out’ and make a genuine attempt to improve my driving skills. I drove to
events in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Des Moines, and Lincoln, finding great
company and meeting new friends everywhere I went. It was tough to
balance, though – working Monday through Friday and then driving five hours to an event and standing in the sun all weekend – and by the time
August arrived, I was pretty burned out. It was a unique opportunity,
having the resources and the time to thoroughly explore one of my
interests, but as they say, ‘if you want to go fast, go alone; if you
want to go far, go together’.

 

As summer came to a close, I spent some time reflecting on the events of the
busy past few months and years, and I started to see my life more clearly.
There are things I want – a home, a family, a community of friends and
neighbors, a healthy hobby, a means of earning a living – I’ve
experienced these things during certain periods of my life. But there is one thing I have not experienced for nearly enough time – a feeling of a central purpose to be
an umbrella over anything and everything I do. This is built from vision, commitment, knowledge,
and experience, which might allow me to serve God wherever He leads me.

 

With every
relationship comes responsibility. The most important relationship in my
life is the one I have with my God, and there is a cost to be close to
him. After doing some internal reflection after that summer, I believed I would apply for The World Race. I believed I would
travel across eleven countries, I would embrace the responsibility of
focusing on Him; of sharing with and learning from his children around
the world. Before taking on a mortgage or a entering a lifelong
partnership, before searching for my next job or deciding who my family
would be, I would take this journey. But when? And how would I get the
strength to leave my friends and family, my endearing coworkers who had
given me a life outside of my job? How would I make the jump? During the last week in August, I prayed intensely that God would
make His will clear to me. I knew that I wanted to go on The
World Race, that I expected it would be an extremely fruitful and
valuable experience, that I would certainly regret not going more than I
could ever regret going. I had considered the January Race, the April Race,
the June Race; I was ready to go. Now, I asked to be shown what He wanted
me to do.

 

The following week, my boss called me into his
office. I had been spending a lot of time on a New Product Development
project, and he informed me I would be taking on the responsibilities of
Program Manager. Wow, God, really? Huge resume booster, or off to the
missions field? I knew that to best serve in this new position, I would
need to commit to it for a couple of years. It had already been eight
months since I found out about the Race; could it wait a little longer?
I polled everyone – family, friends, coworkers – and although I was
ready to go, it was hard to deny this was a great
professional opportunity. Ultimately, I gave three months to the
project, and it gave back to me a
number of challenging and invaluable experiences. I am very grateful for
the fairness of the leaders at my former employer, who allowed me to stay on
for several weeks and wrap things up in an orderly way. I officially applied for
the The World Race in November, and my last day at work was the day
before Thanksgiving.