Why the WorldRace?
To tell you the truth, I did not have a reason until about half a year ago. Still, I realized throughout the whole process of discerning about the WorldRace, and why even go to the WorldRace that there are tons of reasons why God has called me to go.
Reasons for going on a mission trip
I believe in God. God is our life. Jesus died for our sins that we may have eternal life. 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake He made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we may become the righteousness of God.” Ultimately, I believe that our ultimate purpose is to glorify God. I hope to glorify God through this mission trip.
I believe in the power of God’s love. We may be God’s hands and feet, but we are merely vessels to tell the world about God’s power. God gave us different passions, strengths and weaknesses. He gave us different stories and circumstances. He made us to be exactly who we are to be the perfect messengers of His love to the world.
I am an adventurer. I believe that the greatest adventure happened when I started to believe that Jesus is our Lord and Savior. The rest of our lives is just part of that great adventure. Still, I hate the idea of just working from 9-5 in a cubicle/office (I applaud you if you do! But I just get turned off by that idea).
I am a child at heart. I probably take it way too literally but I believe that we are God’s children. I love working with kids because I am pretty much still one. This is why I love volunteering at Sandy Creek Bible Camp, as a counselor or staff. I love that mission trips are spirit led, so hopefully it will have opportunities to be able to work with kids.
I believe that God will teach me many things about life. I believe that the people I meet will have a bigger impact to me than I will have an impact to them. I think my experiences in a mission trip will help me better shape my future plans. It will further help shape my view of the world’s circumstances. It will help me better understand the kids that I feel passionate about, yet haven’t even met.
How I found the WorldRace
Every 3 years, InterVarsity has a conference called Urbana. I went on the most recent Urbana, which was on December 2012. It was a fun experience; we got to welcome the New Year.
Aside from all that craziness, my life will never be the same. One of the days, I was so tired that I was going to take a nap. My friends Julia and Devin, fortunately, brought me along with them at the booths to find an organization that works with education in Thailand. I got separated right away after getting sucked in to a conversation at one of the booths. I spent about 10 minutes there, nothing in mind but career and internship opportunities, hopefully with said organization. (To this day, I do not remember what organization it actually was). A few more minutes of walking around and I was ready to bail. I was looking for my friends. Then something caught my eye. “Adventures in Missions” as the big poster says (I am a huge sucker for the word “adventure”). This is where it gets interesting. First, they tell me about one of their trips called Passport. Then, asks my age (20 at the time), and tells me about another trip that I might be interested about called the WorldRace, which took quite awhile. After this conversation, my heart was pumping so hard! I was excited, to say the least. 11 countries! In 11 months!
Why I chose to do the WorldRace
Other than the obvious fact of being able to travel, I was excited because the night before I found Adventures in Missions, I made a commitment to do a short-term (< 1 year) and a long-term mission trip (3-5 years). The speaker and her testimony had a huge effect on me. I was moved, and wanted to commit to living my life in mission.
Time from Urbana and committing to do the World Race (2 months):
Because of the obvious fact of being able to travel, I did not want to do the World Race.
I did not want to do it for selfish reasons.
I did not want to do it because I am way too broken, and therefore, would have nothing to offer.
I did not want to do it because I am sinful, and I feel like I am disappointing God every day.
I did not want to do it because I was too scared to leave the comforts of home.
I did not want to do it because I wanted to have a stable job after.
The list of excuses goes on and on and on.
Then, on one weird night, I had enough from studying for an exam the next day, so I started watching videos of the World Race. One of them had a specifically huge impact on me. It was the video that I exactly needed. He was talking about being called to the World Race and just kept on remembering a verse. He pointed out the obvious fact of being able to go back to that 9-5 job, so as a challenge, we should do the World Race when we can. By the end of the video, I was ecstatic! I had a verse in my mind the whole time I have been discerning about the World Race: John 1: 6-9, which says “There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming to the World.” That night, I made the commitment to do the World Race in my heart.
Committing to do the World Race through Application (More or less 1 ½ year):
The time between that night and the day I applied is just a lot of prayer making sure that this is what God wanted me to do. There was a lot of World Race videos watched. Blogs read. Testimonies from the field read. A lot of data gathering. When I saw that the January routes are out, I quickly started my application. I had a hard time choosing a route though, so it took me about 2-3 weeks before I actually finished the whole application.
My future aspirations and how WorldRace is tied to it
With any plan that God has set before me, there will always be something that he will teach me. Whether I realize it while on the race, or whether I don’t figure it all out until the end. What I am hoping to get out of the WorldRace though is a drive to be more obedient to God’s calling on my life. A drive and a thirst for more adventures. A thirst to become God’s hands and feet in the world.
What I am hoping to figure out is my future plans. The race seems almost like a way for me to figure out my calling in life. Right now, I plan to build my own company that helps the children overseas to get education, as well as building sustainability projects for their families to get them out of their poverty. Still, this is my plan. I am going on the Race to figure out whether this is what God wanted me to do.
