I realized that I haven’t shared my story on my WR blog yet, but only on my personal one. So the next couple posts will be me sharing things here that I previously wrote and shared on my other blog. This is the story of my beginning of my WR journey.
wan·der·lust
noun : a strong desire to travel
The Gospel
The good news of Jesus Christ coming to live the perfect life that we cannot live for ourselves, and dying in our place for our sins, so that we may be reconciled to God the Father by grace alone through faith in Jesus. The gospel of Jesus is the most radically inclusive message in the world in that it calls every race, gender, nationality, and background to find life in Jesus. Everyone is invited to repent of sin, trust in Jesus, and find new life through the gospel.
As I sit here tonight, I don’t really know where to even start pulling my thoughts together. My mind is running about causing a wild rumpus within me. So I’ll just let my thoughts wander out onto this page and hope that somehow they eventually make sense.
I have a bad case of wanderlust that tends to be very quickly counteracted each time it surfaces by my love of familiarity and comfort. I’ve always wanted to travel the world. I’ve always loved the idea of doing missions overseas. “Where would I even start? or go to?” tend to be the questions that pop up first in my mind. A while back I was praying seriously about a particular mission trip that would have me out of the country for a while so I sent an email asking for someone to contact me with more information. When I sent it I asked God to make it very clear to me if this was something I should be pursuing. After not hearing back I took that as a door being closed for the time being, and I’m so thankful it was because I ended up being very much needed here during that season.
Well, about a week ago I got an email encouraging me to check out some new options with that organization and to apply for a trip and just see how the interview process would go. So I did. I spent some time praying about it then went to The World Race website and did a whole lot of reading (I’m pretty confident I’ve read every tab on the website now, haha) and then I filled out an application. The whole time I prayed that God would just not even let this be an option, that I wouldn’t get through the application/interviews if this wasn’t where I was supposed to be, that if I wasn’t supposed to go that the doors would be slammed shut.
Much to my surprise, just a day after I submitted my application I had a phone call from someone on staff saying that they were interested in me moving forward with the interview process and how to complete my first interview online. So I prayed some more, and then I answered some really hard, detailed questions about my life, my past, and where I feel God is calling me and completed my first interview. Then yesterday I got another phone call, this time it was for a phone interview, my second in the process of several I was told. I talked through a lot of things with Hailey from The World Race on the phone but wasn’t sure what to think about being potentially accepted when I got off the phone. I feel like sometimes I have a really hard time communication where my heart is, and I wasn’t sure how well I had conveyed that to her during our conversation.
Let me just pause here for a moment and attempt to share a bit of my heart in regards to missions and The World Race. I love people. I love Jesus. I love seeing other people come to love Jesus. I love being able to love people well because of how well Jesus has loved me. I feel like I currently live a very complacent life, and I’m not ok with that. I see people hurting and in need and it breaks my heart. I want to do whatever I can to physically help them, but even more than that I want to bring them the one thing that they need above all, the gospel. If I can share the gospel in words and in actions to people around the world, then that’s what I want to do. I can give up the comforts and luxuries in my life in order to love others well and tell them about Jesus. After all Jesus willingly gave up everything so that I might know him and make him known. Mark 16:15 says, “and He said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” Hear that? Go into ALL the world, not just that parts that are within my complacent comfort zone. Then in Romans 10:13-15, “For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”” How will they hear without someone preaching, and how will are they to preach unless they are sent, really stick with me.
I feel strongly that Jesus is calling me out of my complacency and comfort and into the water with him. So I’ve continued praying about this, asking for a clear and definitive answer of yes or no. I’ve asked several people who love Jesus and who love me to be praying for this whole thing as well. After my phone interview yesterday Hailey told me it would be around 5 days before I heard from them again to let me know if I made it to the next stage of interviews.
Then today my phone rang. It was The World Race missions office calling me less than 24 hours after only my second interview. They had prayed about me and for me and had an answer to share with me.
I’m accepted.
I’m still slightly unsure of how the next steps are going to play out. I’m done with the entire interview process now, although I was told it would take much longer than it did. What I was anticipating to occur over a several week period literally happened overnight and I’m just trying to get my thoughts together and my feet back under me. I’d really appreciate your prayers for me as I begin to explain to family and friends where I feel God is calling me, and as I pray about making my final (no going back) commitment to The World Race within the next week. The Route I’ve been tentatively placed on leaves in January for 11 months in 11 different countries across Asia, Africa, and Central and South America.
