What’s next? The World Race!
The World Race is a non-denominational Christian missions-based trip where we’ll be traveling to 11 countries in 11 months. My squad of fifty-three people beautiful people will travel from country to country together. Once we arrive to the country, we split into teams of six to eight people to meet our month-long local contact. We will work with that contact in whatever way we can—the work in each country will look different from the last and ranges from working in orphanages to teaching English camps to evangelizing door-to-door to reaching out to people who have been sex-trafficked. A major reason I chose the World Race was because this system allows us to be the hands for our local contacts who are planted in the community and know the people, place, and problems better than we do.
So those are the technical details. But what it really comes down to is God calling me towards this next step. Y’know, I believe God opens doors to us and we either choose to walk through or ignore them. If this is true, our lives should be perfect because who would choose to not walk through the open door, right? But sometimes it’s really hard to walk through the door and laughably easy to ignore it. Take the World Race, for example. Most people’s reactions upon hearing about the race are “11 countries in 11 months? How fun!” And yeah, I’m sure there are a lot of times that will be fun. But I know it’ll also be difficult. It’s hard to leave family, friends, community, and home. It’s hard to know I’ll miss birthdays, graduations, engagements, and weddings. It’ll be hard learning how to live in close community with seven other people around 24/7. The list goes on and on. Ultimately though, this choice happened to be pretty easy: God called me to be a missionary on the World Race and has affirmed that calling again and again. I trust that God is good and His callings are true and right. So even though I know it’ll be hard, I also know it’ll be worthwhile.
But I can only do this with your support. I care about each of you, and I don’t want to disappear from your lives for eleven months! There are a few ways I hope to prevent this: 1) blogging, 2) email and facebook, and 3) prayer.
Although it still feels completely unnatural, I plan to regularly update this blog (marypham.thewordrace.org) whenever we have an internet connection. One of the best ways to keep you in the loop with what we’re doing is through stories and pictures! I want to bring you along with us to describe how God’s moving because He definitely is. If you want to get email notifications whenever a new blog is posted, you can subscribe by clicking “Follow this Blog” on the website. Not only would I love for you to read about the goings-on, I need encouragement and want to cater to you—please comment and let me know what you think!
Friendships are a two-way street, and I want to know what’s happening in your lives! I don’t want to come back to see everyone I care about and not understand anything anymore. Please do me a favor, and shoot me an email ([email protected]) or Facebook message to share what you’re doing, how you’re feeling, prayer requests, or just say “hey!” Good and bad news, I want it all.
Last, but certainly not least, I need prayer. A lot of prayer. Tons of prayer. I believe prayer has the power to dramatically change situations, and I would so appreciate your taking just a few moments to pray over my squad mates, teammates, and me. If you’re anything like me and prefer specific prayer requests, here are some to start with:
- Pray that all my squad mates meet the financial deadline in order to Launch July 4th
- Pray that we (T-Squad) Launch from Atlanta, Georgia to Romania safely
- Pray that we stay healthy
- Pray that we have the wisdom and discernment to follow and seek Jesus
- Pray that God prepares the way before us
- Pray that we bring joy and truth to our contacts and the people we meet
I have support cards that can serve as reminders so when you see it, quickly pray for us (if you want one, just let me know)! Remember, I can only do this with you behind me.
Emotional and spiritual support is my biggest request, but I still need financial support to make this race happen. To cover the cost of transportation, food, and accommodations over the 11 months, I must raise $15,500 by December 2013 of which I currently have about $11,300 raised. It’s a big number, but I firmly believe that if God wants me to go, the money will come. In fact, financial support has been one of the biggest ways I’ve seen God move, and one of the biggest affirmations that God is calling me toward the race. I’ve been completely blown away by the generosity shown to me by the community God’s placed around me. God is good! In order to meet the full amount needed to complete the race, I must raise about $4,200 further. If you feel led to donate towards my race, I would greatly appreciate it! The easiest way for you to donate is by going to my blog site (again: marypham.theworldrace.org), and clicking “Please Support Me!”
I cannot tell you how blessed I am to have each of you in my life. If you have any questions at all about any of this, please feel free to shoot me an email; I’d love to talk with you! I’ll be flying to Atlanta, GA for Launch on July 3rd and am beyond excited to start this adventure and see what God has in store! I love y’all. Let’s go!
