“You just got home, Lauren! Why now?”
What a great question, my dear blog reader. I’m so glad you asked!
The World Race has been on my heart for a while now but at certain times when I started to pursue it, I felt the Lord saying, “Not yet.” I believe He has recently opened that door.
The Tuesday before I left for Honduras, I went to our college night service and our pastor was preaching from Luke 9, where Jesus fed the crowd with two fish and five loaves. He spoke about how it is recorded in scripture that there were 5,000 men but didn’t take into account the women and children, so it could have been up to 15,000 people. He went on to speak about how the Lord will equip and resource you for what He has called you to do and the “15,000” He is calling you to. I felt God speaking provision over me for the cost of the World Race, which is approximately $15,000.
While I was in Honduras, I was reading The Circle Maker. The scripture of the Israelite’s circling Jericho was used to illustrate how we should circle our prayers with details. This influenced the way I prayed very specifically about the World Race and I received complete peace about it.
During our team Bible study my last week in Honduras, both scriptures about Jesus feeding the crowd and the Israelite’s circling Jericho were used. We talked about how God gave the Israelites VERY specific instructions, they walked in faith, and victory ensued. And how God will provide the resources for what he is calling you to do.
As I began to think God was calling me to this trip before I left for the month of July, I decided not to pursue it because the deadline for the trip was July 15. I found out while in Honduras, that the deadline had been extended to August 2nd (3 days after I arrived home) and later found out that the application fee was waived. I was mind blown as I stared at the World Race sticker someone had put on the inside of my bunk bed.
One night, later in the week, a previous World Racer who was visiting the ministry site came up to me in the middle of worship and said she had just seen me running with Jesus and two verses came to her mind.
“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”
Colossians 3:23
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Matthew 28:19
She stopped right there and prayed for me. It was such a special moment with our Father.
Finally, there are 11 days between my return to the United States and training camp for this trip.The last week in Honduras during prayer, I expressed to the Lord my physical exhaustion and hesitation to moving forward. He highlighted the story of the Israelite’s wandering in the desert. In Deuteronomy 1:2, we are told that their 40 year journey was only supposed to take 11 days.
If that wasn’t enough convincing to step out in faith, then I don’t know what is.
I applied Monday night and I was accepted Wednesday morning to the October 2016 Route 4. I was still in shock. I went to breakfast with a friend and two people that I wasn’t planning on meeting were there. One friend said she wanted to drive me up to training camp (in Georgia) and the other said she wanted to help me fund raise. Two blessings, back to back, came right after I received my acceptance phone call! I felt like this was very much the hand of the Lord so I committed to the trip later that afternoon.
It has been incredible to take this step of faith for the next 11 months of my life. I am resting in thanksgiving as I move forward to fund raise for this journey. I have a lot to raise in a very short amount of time but I believe God has spoken provision over this trip and blessing over the generosity of the people who partner with me through this.
What will God do in these 11 days? What will God do in these 11 months?
Eagerly awaiting,
Lauren
