“How was your month? What did you do this past month? What was your ministry? What has God been teaching you? How did you impact the kingdom? ”
These are just a few of the many many questions I receive as a World Racer. My answers are sometimes vague and always incomplete. It’s hard to answer in words what can only be felt by the heart. It’s hard to give outsiders looking in a glimpse of what life is really like on the race. Sure, you can browse through our highlight reel of pictures & albums on Facebook and Instagram and experience the magnificent views, crazy adventures, and faces of very adorable children, but what you dont see is our hearts. Our hearts that were once hardened by the expectations of this world, but God is continuing to soften as he intricately places them the way they were designed to be all along. You don’t see the hard days, when I just want a comfortable bed, some AC, and the familiar voices of my family. You don’t see the heartbreaking goodbyes we have to give each month knowing our paths may never cross again & hoping what we leave with them is Jesus, not ourselves, but a tangible expression of His love. You don’t see our day to day tasks and the many job descriptions God has given me a chance to experience:
- An artist drawing pictures with kids in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, & Thailand
- A teacher teaching English in Thailand, a kindergarten class in Guatemala, and most importantly His word to fellow teammates and friends in each country
- A preacher standing before prisoners for the first time telling them about God’s everlasting, unconditional, & constant love. (Blog coming soon)
- A janitor cleaning out closets in Honduras and bathrooms in Nicaragua
- A counselor sharing experiences with teammates & helping others to cope during the hard times.
- A photographer trying to capture 5 months of miracles, breathtaking horizons, & God’s overall goodness in ALL things in hopes of giving friends and family back at home a taste of our lives here.
- A chef cooking authentic meals with our contacts and friends we made along the way.
- A construction worker building a cement fence in Honduras that surrounded our ministry location.
- A singer giving praise to The Lord often & even performing on stage in countless churches.
- A nanny blessing our contacts so they can have some time to themselves without their kids around.
- A nurse aiding in the healthcare of teammates and contacts
- A safety coordinator as it is my role on the squad to ensure safety in every country and make sure everyone stays healthy and follows cultural norms
- A writer expressing my thoughts, feelings, & Things God is teaching me about Him & myself in blogs & journal entries.
- An MC (masters of ceremonies) this month in Thailand announcing for our English camp we put on for schools around the area.
- A maid making sure things are neat and tidy
While this list of 15 things I have done halfway through my World Race is great…it is also temporary. Sure, the cement wall I help to build by laborious hours of mixing cement with my bare hands…it may last a while, hundreds of years even…or the bible studies I have helped to lead with young kids…yes, they may have been life changing & extremely fulfilling, BUT the “job title”I want to stress to you is one of utmost importance that has become a daily routine for me:
- A PRAYER WARRIOR!!!! Prayer is something that lasts beyond a lifetime, IT IS ETERNAL. Prayer impacts lives the human eye cannot see and the human mind cannot even begin to fathom. Prayer has become an essential part of who I am, as I learn more of who He is. Prayer is giving thanks to God who deserves ALL the glory and fame. He is what makes this experience more than just an adventure around the world, more than just playing with kids and widows, more than just building fences and farming…it’s goes beyond the surface, piercing the hearts of individuals & entire countries, ultimately impacting the kingdom at large.
God revealed an amazing truth to me as I was sitting on top of a mountain in Costa Rica over looking the entire town of Los Guidos. That morning my team & I discussed Matthew 21:21 which reads:
“If you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go throw yourself into the sea’, and it will be done”
Personally, I struggled with this verse. I doubted God’s greatness and ability to actually move a mountain into the ocean. It seemed impossible, wayyyy to far fetched and downright crazy…and it is…
without GOD
But with GOD ALL things are possible. That is a sentence I have heard time and time again, but it is not until now that it actually resonates with every part of my being. Sitting on top the mountain, deep in prayer, God showed me
I was moving mountains, I am moving mountains, and I will continue moving mountains, in Jesus’ Name!
The mountains are not necessarily tangible parts of the earth, but they are all the struggles, trails, and heartaches of the people and countries I have prayed for. Those are the “mountains” that my prayers are moving into the ocean. The ocean symbolizing the living water, the water that sustains us, and the part of God that fills our void of spiritual thirst.
Moving mountains-whether metaphorical or literal- can only be accomplished by the spirit of God in the will of God. He showed me the type of faith needed for “mountain moving” is not a matter of summoning up, but instead it is more of a letting go. It is about believing and developing our faith to such a degree that even a “mustard seed” worth of faith is enough to do extraordinary things. Pray BOLDY, Pray BIG PRAYERS, pray for the IMPOSSIBLE…then EXPECT them to happen!!!
” IF YOU BELIEVE, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” ~ MAtthew 21:22
My prayer for you is to believe & pray in complete faith of God’s help & deliverance, no matter what the situation may look like from our limited earthly perspective. We all have mountains, obstacles in our path that are so large and daunting that overcoming them seems like an obvious impossibility. May you always remember how BIG your God is & that He has you by the hand every step of the way, that you won’t sink in the rising waters as long as you continue to fully TRUST Him.
So now when someone asks me, “what did you do this month?”
I will simply reply… I MOVED MOUNTAINS!
