Hey everybody! My name is Kourtney Peterson, and I will be leaving for the World Race in September of 2015 for nine months. I currently live in Charlotte, North Carolina but I grew up in Lenoir, NC. I have two older brothers, Devin and Chase. Our parents are Pamela and Richie Peterson, my two favorite people on the planet and my very best friends (if you were curious). We are a close family that has been centered in Christ since the beginning. Now that we are grown up and live somewhat distant, we cherish every second we get to be together. I grew up with two boys bossing me around, so it made for a good mix of girly and tomboy. I loved art and dance as a little girl, but it wouldn’t be surprising to find me playing video games or chasing them around outside trying to be included in their games. I’m blessed to have gotten a taste of both, I think its what has made me the confident, outgoing person I am.
I grew up in youth at Lower Creek Baptist Church and was pushing my youth pastor’s buttons to let me go on a mission trip before I was of age, so eager to get out there and tell people what I knew about Him. From Daytona, Florida, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to Atlanta, Georgia we would sleep in church fellowship halls on air mattresses setting up backyard bible clubs and block parties to bring people in. I was witnessing to people by age 15 and sharing prayers of salvation with complete strangers.
After graduating high school early I decided to look for some way that I could help people. I was volunteering at the local animal shelter which was great, but I needed something more. I wanted to get out and see the world before I went off to college to four more years of sitting in a classroom, going through the motions like everybody else. I wanted to help people. I found a program that sent volunteers to other countries to live with host families for extended periods of time to use their strengths to help others, whatever that may be. I’ve wanted to be a teacher since I could talk, and found an opporitunity to live in the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador for 8 weeks and teach English in a local elementary school. These weeks were life changing, and I learned more about myself and the world around me than a classroom has ever taught me. Beautiful people, sceneries, and scenarios found me every single day until I had to return to the states.
Exactly a year later, I found myself empty. Instead of feeling accomplished and content I felt nothing but starving and desiring. I was hungry for HIM. I knew I had to be proactive. Like I said, family is most important to me. I came to my parents and brother and his wife one night at dinner in tears, saying how useless I felt and how I needed to get out of the same boring routine that was bringing me no joy and no feeling of accomplishment, even though I was doing very much for myself. My sister-in-law then brought up the World Race, something her friend had just gotten back from. It sounded crazy and so out of my league, the devil made me feel less than enough and not worthy for something that big.
I am so glad our God is so much bigger than anything we can imagine. He put the World Race on my heart, strong and fast. I filled out an application and never thought I would be accepted to something so intense with so much responsibility at such a high price. “Impossible” I thought, with my tiny human brain, so I turned to the Word.
Crying and looking through my sticky notes, Luke 1:37 fell into my lap.
“For nothing will be impossible with God.”
…and, here I am. Completely excited, scared, nervous, and ready to be used by Him.
Proverbs 3:6 says “In all ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.” and this is the path He has made for me.
