Sooooo, I’m sitting here exhausted after an extra-long, but as always extra-awesome, day of camp just checking my email and facebook for anything important before going to sleep when all of a sudden it hits me, this world race thing. This is real! This amazing mission endeavor that I have been contemplating for a while is happening! Not only that, but it is happening in 6 months! AAAHHHHH!!!! Not only is my mind completely blown, but I also feel completely and totally unprepared, although holding on to the assurance that this is indeed what God is calling me to. I still can’t grasp how my life is getting ready to change. Not only am I going on this trip, but I’m graduating stinking college (woah, has it really already been 3 ½ years? GWU must have acquired a time machine), and even coming to the realization, as I sit here after a beautiful day in the place which has been one of the biggest roles in my spiritual formation and who I am today, that next summer, I most definitely will not be at Camp Mundo Vista. I don’t even know how to process that information. I mean school is one thing (don’t get me wrong, GWU has been a HUGE part of my growth and who I am today), but CAMP??? However, while the realization that next year at this time I will be across the ocean is kind of a strange one, I am soo completely positive that it is right and I am so excited to continue on this next step of my journey as well as joining in God’s work in eleven different amazing places all over the world.
One thing that I know you’re thinking (if not, just pretend and go with me on this one) is why the World Race? Well, good question (wink wink). [also note, is no longer middle of night] I experienced an initial call to overseas missions when I was about 14 years old, a call which I struggled with and talked myself out of numerous times before finally surrendering to God’s will and taking the next step towards that calling. I mean, of all people, why would God call me to such a thing? God’s plans blow me away. Anyway, God has truly cultivated in me a passion for international missions. Not that there isn’t a great, humongous need here, but God simply has a different plan for me, at least in the present. When I first heard of the World Race, I thought it was crazy and simply an unattainable ideal. How could I ever raise all that support? But through reading the blogs of Racers, catching the vision and passion of this organization, and seeing how God was using this program and those crazy people who signed up to go almost a year living out of a backpack and in a different country every month, I caught that bug, felt that well known tug, and I knew this was something amazing. While I love the idea of travel and adventure, that is not my motive and reasoning for undertaking this endeavor. The main pull is that in this endeavor, I will truly be living a life of radical obedience involved in the Lord’s work in many different and impactful ways. Through this program, I know that God is going to work in many ways and is going to radically use us who have signed up for this ridiculous/fantastic journey in anything from ministering to orphans and ministering to women trapped in a life of prostitution as well as everything in between. I also recognize that this upcoming year, while also being one of the most rewarding and remarkable years of my life, will be one of the most challenging and will leave not only those I come into contact with but also myself transformed. A part of me is absolutely terrified while the other part cannot wait. For now, I know I have other God-given tasks to complete, you know like college as well as preparation for his huge journey, which seems almost impossible at times. But, like us all, I am truly a work in progress and I know both in the upcoming months as well as the upcoming year, God is going to be at work in and through me and I am stoked about the journey even though I may get a little uneasy concerning the mode of transportation.
Sooo, with camp still in full swing, naturally the first passage I thought of concerning this upcoming journey was our theme verse, or there roundabout, which I think is a fitting closing thought:
“Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I have also been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12
