The country of Romania intrigues me (this country is one of the main reasons I choose the route that I did)! Always has and always will! My whole life I have been a little obsessed with the concept of the life of the Gypsies. When I was young I used to read books about them all the time. Every little girl plays pretend. Usually they play house but me, I never really played house, I played Gypsy.They are a people who do not fit in to the culture around them. They are seen as outsiders. They are unique. They may not have much but they love to give and they live life to the fullest. In the days of old they moved from place to place not having anywhere to call their own home. They are an adventurous and mysterious people. Society around them saw they were different and they were seen as dangerous outcasts. And I love them soooo much!
I can easily relate to these people!
In my life I have never lived in the same place for more than three years. I grew up in a household where uprooting, moving, and change where the norm. I loved it. Always a new adventure! Always new people to meet! And usually when we moved it meant that my Mom was about to have another baby (no joke I’m the oldest of eight)!
Because we moved so often my parents decided to home school us. I loved it! We lived on a farm for about a year and for Science class we would go to our Amish neighbors house and learn "Earth Science" hands on or lay in an open field looking up at the stars figuring out constellations at night. Once we lived in a small little country town and for History my Mom would give me a specific time period and would have me ride my bike down the street to the tiny little library and I would read book after book about wars, culture, government, etc. For Math my Mom would have my brothers and I compete and play games using numbers or we would spend a day on the golf course and add the score of my Pawpaw’s golf game or I would keep the books for my dad’s business. Recess…..oh recess! My brothers and I would go explore and find every little adventure we could. We would go explore abandoned houses, ride our bikes to stores and talk to people, play pirates in our barns, go play basketball with the college kids when we lived in a college town. We lived outside the system. We were different. My childhood was full of adventure after adventure!
I never felt out of place or different until my parents decided to put me into school in Junior High. I was thrown right into a system I had never experienced and I hated it. I loved the social aspect of it. In fact, I thrived in the social aspect of the system. I quickly found out that in order to fit in and succeed all I had to do was conform to exactly what people wanted me to be and I was good to go. I began to talk like them, dress like them, walk like them, look like them, and even dream like them. And while on the outside it seemed like I had it all on the inside I was losing myself and it made me miserable. Finally I lashed out against the system and rebelled. I couldn’t take it anymore. I was done.
I felt rejected, frustrated, and ostracized by the culture around me. There was something missing in my life. I just couldn’t figure out what it was. I tried to fill that void with so many things but it always left me feeling empty. No one cared and I didn’t expect them to….except one woman. She was a teacher at my school and she saw me struggling. She made an effort to show me love and patience no matter what I did. I gave her no reason to trust me. No reason to love me. But she did. And she accepted me and constantly told me that she loved me and so did God and that she wasn’t going to let me leave that school without me knowing it. After a couple years of her persistent love, I broke. I realized that she accepted me for me and that she loved me in spite of my failure to be all that the system wanted me to be. And then I had the revelation that her love was strong but God’s love was so much stronger. And it overwhelmed me and I wanted nothing more than to know this God and be close to Him all the time. That teacher led me to the Lord and from that moment on it has been one heck of a journey, that is for sure!
At the beginning I tried organized religion but once again it left me feeling empty and shallow…so I began to read the Word of God for myself and I took God for what He said and crazy things began to happen! I realized that it was all real. His promises! His power! His authority! And His love! They were not just good Bible stories or pretty writings they really worked! I wanted (and still do) all that I could get of God! And as I drew near to Him I realized that I didn’t have to live in the system of this world…I was free to be me!
I know this sounds corny and cheesy but I really do believe that we are all Gypsies at heart. We are born into a world and into a system that we will never fit into! We all have that feeling, that desire deep within, that there is something more….because there is. We try so very hard to fit in and do the right thing (to dress right, to talk right, to look and act like a good citizen or Christian). But God has not called us to be good Christians that fit in…He has called us to be radical lovers of His presence and willing vessels to do whatever He has called us to do. There is no formula for that! Not because He is a tyrant but because He knows exactly why we were and what we were created for! And when we walk in the purpose we were created for we are fulfilled.
I know now that my life’s purpose is to love people unconditionally and to see them how God sees them: with an amazing purpose and to see them walk in the freedom and calling that God has for them. I won’t give up on people! I won’t let them give up on themselves! For I know the power of love and what it can do for a person! I will go wherever He calls me because, ultimately, He knows me! HE KNOWS ME!
What is the purpose of this blog? Well I have been praying for my fellow ouR Squadmates and I am so excited to see how unique and incredible each of you are! I can’t wait for this next year to see all of you function in the calling that you have been obedient to follow! All of us will be pulled out of the normal system that we are used to living in and will be eternally wrecked for this world. In this time you will be fulfilled and will have the opportunity to function fully in all the gifts He created in us! It’s going to be an epic time of growth and a great time of revelation of His power and authority in all of our lives!
As I have been conversing with God about all of you there is one thing that He keeps telling me and that is the fact that He does not want us to wait to use our gifts or to go deeper or to be free until we are on the Race! He wants us to begin functioning in His gifts right now as we go about our everyday lives! So first I challenge you to pray the prayer (and be prepared to have your world rocked if you do so), “God let your light expose the darkness within me so that I may be a light that exposes the darkness wherever I go (Ephesians 5).” Second, purpose in your hearts to press into the presence of God even harder than ever before! I know that each of us has a heart for the Lord but there is always a deeper level so dive on in. Third, I challenge you each to ask God for the gifts and then begin walking in them. Healing, teaching, exhorting, serving, prophecy, faith, giving, love…etc!
So let’s not wait! Let’s live radical lives…free to be who we really were created to be! I may not fit in on this earth but I know that until He calls me home I will do all that I can for His glory and I know that is how my fellow World Racers feel as well! For we are all Gypsies at heart 
I am praying for all of you! And believe in all of you!
For I am destined to roam in this place
Not my home
But I’ll fly, yes I’ll fly
To wherever the wind (His Spirit) may take me
