On Sunday, August 4th, I had the opportunity to put together a worship service and speak at my church about the World Race. It was a lovely service and thank you to everyone that helped to make it possible and came out to worship! Some of this post says some of the same things as older posts, but I wanted to post the story that I told for those that would like to read it or hear it again. It's a little long- sorry! 🙂
So how did I get here? I always knew I wanted to be a teacher. I studied music. I had a steady job. And now I’m dropping everything and going around the world to be a missionary. There has to be a story here, right?
I had a pretty normal upbringing- I went to church here almost every Sunday since I can remember and started singing in the choir when I was about 5 years old. I grew up knowing Jesus but I didn’t quite understand how awesome Jesus is until later on in life.
I went away to college not even understanding that there were people that didn’t believe in anything spiritually. I knew there were people that believed in things that were different than my beliefs, but when I was first exposed to people my age that said they didn’t believe in anything, it scared me. I didn’t know what to think or how to handle it. My mind started asking a lot of questions…
But God always reeled me back in. God was always there and always had my back. He put people in my life, like the awesome people that are here helping today, that showed me faith and showered me with love. He knows how I work and just kept placing these people in my life and started slowly distancing me from the people that stirred my questioning. He is good.
My junior year in college, I went on a study abroad trip to Argentina. I didn’t speak any Spanish at all when I went and those first few days were super hard. (In fact, the entire trip was hard, but it was the best decision I could have ever made to go.) I think I talked to God more during that trip than I had ever talked to him in my life. My head hurt. I didn’t understand anything going on around me. I only knew 2 people in that whole country! But those three weeks changed my life. They sparked a love of culture and love of people that I didn’t consciously have before. I caught the travel bug and was bound and determined to see more of the world.
While I was in Argentina, I saw a lot of poverty. Something started stirring in my heart- I wanted to help people. We drove through the poorest areas of Rosario and Buenos Aires. We visited an elementary school that was barely being held together by the mismatched bricks the parents were laying on the weekends. We drove through towns that had their trash piled in vacant lots. We saw children living in the streets with the dogs being shunned away by the locals. My heart broke.
After I graduated college, I took a job working at Shenandoah University in the Admissions department. My job had a lot of travel to some awesome places and some not so awesome places. I visited a lot of cities and grew up a lot with that job, but it made me long for something more meaningful and fulfilling. Volunteer work and teaching abroad became more and more strong on my heart, so I started exploring opportunities but nothing seemed exactly right.
Last year, I had the opportunity to help lead a trip to Serbia through Shenandoah’s Global Citizenship Project. This trip abroad changed my life again. I loved every minute of that trip. It was a huge lesson in grace and community for me, as we were traveling with a group of 12 people in constant close quarters. Serbia was awesome, but we didn’t really see the poor parts. We didn’t see a lot of poverty. We didn’t talk about the genocide that happened there fairly recently. We saw a very nationalistic, hearty, beautiful culture and people, but you could tell there was another side to the story. Again, I felt the travel bug welling up in me and I knew that this time, I probably wouldn’t be able to easily tune it out. I felt this urge to help the people that I could sense were there and needed help.
Mission work still wasn’t high on my list of things to do with my life at that point. I kept telling myself and other people things like, “I’m not ready to be a preacher,” or “Well, I don’t really have mission experience…” I found the World Race in December of last year and I thought about it constantly from the minute I first started researching it. The World Race visits 11 countries in 11 months of short term mission work partnering with ministries and non profits already established in those countries- I kept thinking- it would be so hard but so amazing.
Not long after I discovered the World Race, I ended up in Chicago for work. I was reading a book while I was there about this man and his charge in life to live like Jesus, pouring out love and selfless grace on those around him. He had lived in Chicago for a while and really opened my eyes to the things that were happening behind the bright lights that usually jaded my view of Chicago- my favorite city.
As I walked through the city on my last morning there, I started noticing things that I did not usually notice like people on the streets begging, mind you- it was 19 degrees that morning… I went into a store to grab some last minute Christmas presents and then headed to meet up with a coworker for lunch before our plane left. As I walked to the restaurant, I saw a man about my age sitting outside without a jacket, short sleeves, and missing a shoe. Like I said, it was 19 degrees! My heart sank. I started walking toward him. My hand was already in my bag pulling out anything warm I had purchased to give him. Before I got to him, another man stopped next to him and said, “Young man, where is your jacket and where is your shoe?” The young man barely looked up at him. The older man reached down for his hand and said, “Come on, get up. We’re going to get you a jacket.”
I almost started crying. I don’t know why I was so moved or why I was so impacted by that moment, but I was. That was absolutely Jesus at work in the streets of Chicago. So effortless. My heart was so full but so broken at the same time. I don’t think I will ever forget that moment. It moved something in me all the way to my core. I realized that I want to have that level of love for the people around me and have God working effortlessly through me to help those that He leads into my life or leads me into theirs. I don’t want to think twice about doing the right thing. Everything started pointing fully to mission work. Like big huge light up arrows everywhere I looked. I remember thinking a few times, “Ok, God… I get it…” as the signs became more and more prominent and obvious. But I kept hesitating. I kept thinking that this World Race thing was a passing yearning and it would go away just like all of the other opportunities that had once been on my heart. It didn’t.
Finally, I started the application but I was still wrestling with it. What will my parents think? How can I quit my job for this? It’s a LOT of money…. I had some incredible people supporting me through that time though. After I applied, interviewed, and was accepted, I came home for a weekend to sing at church. I still hadn’t made my final decision about whether or not I was going to take the step and do the trip. I was still scared. Still unsure. God started nudging me. He had people asking me about “my trip” that would have never known I was going. He started showing me that I had the means to fundraise and people willing to support. He started softening my heart to things that I was originally thinking would be the hardest adjustments. He showed me that my parents will love me no matter where I am in the world. God was moving through me and through all of the people around me. Since the moment I said yes to my acceptance, I have not regretted or second-guessed it.
God has been doing amazing things in the months since I was accepted to the World Race. He has showered me with His love as well as the love and support of family, friends, and strangers alike. He has blessed every one of my fundraising efforts. I have raised close to $11,000 (as soon as I send in my next few checks), leaving me only about $4,500 from my fundraising goal to be fully funded for the trip- something that seemed impossible when I first started out. He has opened up new doors and carefully shut old ones. It definitely has not been all easy, but He has been so faithful and I am so thankful.
About two weeks ago, I was able to spend a week of worship, fellowship, and community with the people that I will be spending the next year traveling along side and I could not ask for a better group of people. They have so much faith, so much love, and the most incredible hearts for missions and the world. I am so blessed to share in this journey with them. On September 10, we will leave the states to embark on a journey to Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Nepal, India, Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Puerto Rico.
I am blessed to share in this experience with you as well. I hope you will follow my journey to share love with the world and bring light to those that need it the most -this journey to be the hands and feet of Jesus in places that are desperate for hope.
Thank you for letting me share my story.
