How I was Called to the World Race

After graduating from Malone University, a place where I had experienced such growth, I found myself fearing that I would become stagnant in my faith. I was concerned that I might begin to settle for how society defines success, rather than how God defines it. I might begin chasing the American dream, rather than being open to all the things that God has dreamed for me.
 
With that in mind, I decided to volunteer with two friends at the World Race training at the end of May. I went to training camp to serve, spend the week surrounded by people who have a passion for traveling and mission work, and hopefully learn a little bit about God. Oh, and the thought of road tripping to Georgia was more than appealing. In the end, my reasons for going were kind of selfish. I didn’t go with the intent of signing up for the World Race, but as God revealed himself to me in new ways that week, I knew that there was no other journey that would be a better fit for me right now in this season of my life.

At camp, I quickly realized that the World Race is about so much more than traveling. It is about experiencing God in new ways and witnessing what the Holy Spirit is doing all over the world. I had put God in a box, limiting Him simply by not choosing to live my life like the disciples did in the book of Acts.

At camp we heard a story of World Racers being held at gunpoint in Africa who walked away unharmed with really no explanation other than God showed up (I began to hear this quite a bit at camp) and protected them. There was a team who spent a month in Australia in a tick-infested shack and not one of them got bitten. They trusted that if God could keep the lion’s mouths shut when Daniel was in the lion’s den, He could certainly shut the mouths of the ticks. We heard stories of the Holy Spirit revealing the love of Christ so profoundly that people came running to receive Jesus. We heard about demons being cast out, and people being healed.

Initially, I was skeptical. I’m a Christian, but I had never seen these things happen…so was it all true? How could I be sure? I began reading scripture with a new lens, especially Jesus’ ministry and the ministry of the disciples in the book of Acts. As scripture came alive in a whole new way, I knew that for me to continue growing and take that next step in my faith, I had to do the World Race. It didn’t matter that this stuff was new and uncomfortable. I wasn’t going to let my comfort zone dictate my discernment. Basically, I wasn’t going to determine that something wasn’t real just because it was new and uncomfortable to me.

So I signed up for the Race and returned to training camp in October, not as a volunteer, but as a Racer. This time I tried to push away my doubt and have an all-in mentality. And on the morning of day 3, I witnessed something miraculous. Due to a knee injury, a girl on my team had been favoring one of her legs for quite a while and over time they had become uneven. I had intended on watching while someone else prayed for her, but our leader looked at me and said I was going to do it (I thought she was crazy, but I kept my thoughts to myself). As I held my hands under her ankles, I prayed that the Holy Spirit would straighten her leg, and I watched as it grew an inch in a split second. To read more about this miracle, click here. 

Last week my pastor talked about the Holy Spirit and the power that we have as Christians. I realized at camp that I have not actually been living my life as though the God of the universe, who’s raised the dead and healed the sick, actually lives inside of me.

For me, the World Race is about obeying our Father and doing what He desires…one of those being to serve. We were created to bring life to people… especially “the least of these.” To the poor, the homeless, the widows, the orphans, and those that society sees as unworthy or “untouchable.”

And just recently, I’ve realized that if I’m to become a better servant for Jesus, I need to start becoming like a child. We serve best when the condition of our hearts becomes like that of a child.

Children give freely, without expecting anything in return. They don’t worry about how someone looks or acts. They don’t judge. They don’t spend time with you based on your performance or what you can do for them. A child’s faith doesn’t involve skepticism, or doubt. They trust and believe, not because of what makes sense in their heads, but because of what they know to be true in their hearts.

So in an attempt to remain Kingdom minded, learn to serve like a child, and be obedient to the call in Matthew to “serve the least of these.” I will be leaving in 17 days to serve on the World Race spending one month in each of the following countries…

Central America: Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras

Southeast Asia: Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia 

East Africa: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda

Central Asia: Nepal & India

Ministry will look different in each country. Some months, we’ll be working in orphanages and looking after children, other months we may be teaming up with churches in prayer, teaching, and evangelizing. In Thailand, we might spend the evenings in bars, befriending prostitutes or working with ministries to get women out of the sex trade. In other countries, we may teach English, help with building projects, lead a VBS, or go door to door praying for people.

It’s going to be a very challenging journey, and some days I find myself doubting if I can really do it…really leave everything behind for 11 months.

But when I think about it, I remember the prayers I've been praying since I was young. Prayers where I begged God for more of Himself in my life and in my heart…

As scary as it may be to say "yes" to the World Race, I find it even scarier to say "no" and possibly miss one of the ways He wants to answer that prayer.

For that reason alone, I can’t see myself spending the year 2013 doing anything else.