One of the first things I'm supposed to blog about is why I decided to go on this crazy adventure, and since I'm finally done with school for the semester I think I can adequately explain.
I am in my senior year at Southern Miss, so naturally I was freaking out about what to do next. At the time I was really wanting to go into graduate school in marine biology. I found some really great graduate programs, but just couldn't seem to find that I liked. None of them seemed right. I've forced myself into experiences that I thought looked cool on paper before, and it was no fun. So I decided to trust my instincts, take a step back, and see what all my options were. Around this time I learned that one of my friends was doing this insane thing called the World Race ( his name is Paul Stafiej and he's leaving in January! Check out his blog here: paulstafiej.theworldrace.org ). After hearing about what it was and what you do I checked out the website. Cut to a week later and I must've watched 50 videos and read countless blogs. I knew I was hooked. My parents encouraged me to look around and make sure I wasn't just jumping into the first attractive program I could find (good advice). I looked around, I prayed, I tried to keep an open mind, but I kept coming back to the World Race website. That's when I decided that I wanted to do it.
My parents, brother, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, almost everyone in my family has been on missions of some type. It kind of runs in our blood, I think. With two pastors and a few worship leaders in my family I would say that I was raised in an environment that encouraged spiritual growth. So after praying and talking at length with my parents I decided I was going to apply for the January 2014 routes whenever they came out. My reasoning was simple: I was going to have plenty of time to raise money, graduate from Southern Miss, and get a job to help offset all of my costs. I was going to go on the Race in January and do all the missionary stuff (at this point I wasn't thinking about what would actually happen on the Race), and then I would come back and go to graduate school in the Spring or following fall semester. Boom, life planned. Easy. Well…. Of course I was being a moron. And it took God speaking to me through my good friend Paul Stafiej to let me know that.
Paul and I met to talk about the Race for lunch one day, he had just gotten back from Training Camp and I wanted to hear a little bit about what that was like, and I told him my master plan for the next 2-3 years. I could tell something about my plan didn't really sound right to him. Then he said something to the effect of "You may not want to hear this, but do you think that it's time to get even further out of your comfort zone and go sooner? It may be time to just jump in." He was right. That freaked me out to no end, but after thinking and praying about it I knew he was 100% correct. If you'll notice I'm signed up for the September 2013 route instead of the January 2014 route, so obviously I decided to follow his advice.
At that point I knew this was God's will. The September route had one country inparticular that excited me, South Sudan. I grew up hearing about how terrifying and dangerous the Sudan is for Christians. It was always like "If you're a Christian and go to the Sudan you're insane" or "You never want to go the Sudan." I had no idea that South Sudan had become its own country recently, so after researching it I made up my mind. To me there is no greater opportunity than to go to a country that is so new and wants to start over so badly. Many of them have never heard the Gospel, or even had anything good happen to them at all. That jacked me up. So that's how I chose this route (the rest of the countries are cool too, though. Don't get me wrong).
I am crazy excited about this. And crazy nervous. God's gonna use us Racers for some amazing things, and I'm ready to go! I hope you'll come along on this insane ride with me, so keep checking my blog! Or if you wanna give financially just click that "Support Me" tab on the left of your screen!
Until next post!
