Not long after I started getting to know the Lord, I noticed a theme in His Word. He talked about orphans a lot, He was really concerned for the poor and the oppressed. He payed attention to them and cared for them and He waned his people to do the same. The Lord kept bringing me back to Isaiah 57 again and again. My senior year in college He called me to India, and I met some of these orphans that kept coming up in His Word. His heart of joy over them was overwhelming. I finished my final senior year and He called me back to India again. The orphans and lepers kidnapped my heart. After being home from India for a month, the Lord sent me to live in an orphanage in Nicaragua. The same joy that filled my heart when I was with the orphans in India flooded in again with the ninos in Nica.
I got back from Nicaragua in April, spent 6 weeks at home, and then moved to the Easley, SC area to work at a YMCA camp for the summer. When I came up in June I knew that come August the Lord had to show me the next step to take because I had no idea where to go and what to do. I’d been seeking the Lords direction on my next step for months and felt more confused that ever.I’ve felt called to foreign missions since my first trip to India, but what now? I’d graduated, gotten to spend 6 months on missions trips and wanted so badly to keep going, but didn’t know where or when. My trips to India were with Adventures n Missions so I’d heard of the Race, but didn’t think it was for me at all. Sometime over the course of the past year out of college the thought of it began to tug at my heart. All summer I kept looking at the WR web page, watching videos, reading blogs, finally I filled out an application. I emailed a friend who had been and asked her to tell me about her experience. She said she learned to live simply, to take God at His word, and to hear His voice. Her description was almost verbatim what I’d been praying for. I filled out an application. About two weeks before my job this past summer ended I kept going back and forth between going to Honduras to teach or really pursuing the World Race. I knew that if the Lord confirmed the World Race I would need to stay in the States to work and fundraise, and if He confirmed Honduras I would have to pack my things in a hurry once camp ended.
I interviewed for the Race at the beginning of August. The interviewer shared a little bit about what I could expect from the Race, she named even more of what I’d been praying and longing to experience more of. Soon after I found out I could continue working with the YMCA part time in the fall if I wanted to. A few nights later I told the Lord that I still couldn’t discern where He was leading me, I had no idea what to do, my last paycheck was two weeks away, could He please confirm a step for me? I told Him that if He was leading me towards the World Race, could He please provide another job and a place for me to live, preferably a free place to live 🙂 The next morning at summer camp a parent asked the camp director, who was also my roommate, if she knew anyone who needed a part time job and a free place to live that would be a nanny for her two children. I interviewed that night. A few days later she let me know that if I wanted the position it was mine.
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go, I will counsel you with my eye upon you.” psalm 32:8
