He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20. This verse has been constantly on my mind every since I knew for sure I was doing the World Race, and that has been a huge comfort to me. There are so many things with this mission trip that require you to have faith and trust in the Lord and I am going to share a few of those that I have been thinking about lately.
The first one is simply writing this blog! As you can probably tell I struggle with spelling and grammar. I grew up with a learning disability, similar to dyslexia that makes it very hard for me to get what I’m thinking about writing from my head to the paper in a way that other people understand. Thankfully God gave be gifts in math and science and I have learned to do my best when I do have to write. This has made me somewhat unwilling to share things that I write over the years. So needless to say I am trusting in God that He will help me write what needs to be said in a way that all of you can understand. So please bear with me if my blogs are a little rough. This also means once I get out in the field I will be using a lot of pictures and as little words as possible.
Secondly and I think all my fellow racers can attest to this, is having faith that God will provide the financial support needed to do the race. For those of you reading that haven’t looked further into the information about the World Race I’ll give you a quick overview. Like most other missions organizations, World Race participants are required to fundraise support. In order to leave fully funded in January me and all my fellow racers have to raise $15,500 each. This money will cover all of my field expenses for the 11 months of the trip. The way I was told to look at it is we’re not raising money for our individual flights, meals and things like that, were getting people to donate to Adventures in Missions. Once we meet our goal were allowed to do the trip. Obviously this is a lot of money and the only way we will be able to raise that money is if God wants it to happen, so faith is a must! The first step in my fundraising effort is sending out support letters to friends and family. These letters should be going out any day now, so most of you can look forward to getting those. If you don’t get one or if you don’t think I would know to send you one and you would like one. Go to the “contact me” tab on my blog home page and send me your information (email or home address) and I’ll get one out to you.
I already have reason to praise God and testify that faith is the only way to go. One of my Dads friends and work customers Jeff, that I have only had the privilege to hang out with once, donated $1,000 to me. He did this after just hearing about me going on the Race from my Dad. So I just wanted to give him a quick shout out for being so generous, Thanks again Jeff.
The last thing that I have been thinking about is having faith that I can finish the Race. Let me explain, from my experience being way from home extended periods of time and from talking to people that have finished the Race there comes a point for everyone where you want to quit and go home. We will all be away from home in strange places with strange people in very uncomfortable living conditions. I think it is inevitable that we will want to quit at some point. The thing that will get us through this is faith that God and faith that our Godly teammates (that will become our family) will have each other’s backs and will help us through that low point.
Thanks to everyone for your support on Facebook and please continue to keep my journey in your prayers.
