Many people have asked me, "why are you doing the World Race?"
Often, I want my immediate answer to be a quick, confident response clarifying that it was certainly God's will. And though I believe it is – the feeling is different than any other I have had before regarding a life decision. It hasn't come easy.
As a freshman in college, God began to stir a curiosity within me for issues of justice around the world. I went on my first 'missions trip', to share the message of Jesus with the Muslim communities of Northeast London. It was a trip! Throughout college, I created and lead a nonprofit ministry called "Mission Commission" that allowed students to connect with their passions and giftings through my working as an intermediary between them and the organization or cause that ignited them. It opened up so many doors to God's work throughout the greater midwest. Through this ministry, I lead an awesome team of 33 college students and adults to Biloxi, MS, immediately following Hurricane Katrina for relief work.
But the Lord's prompting for missions began even before this…
I was in high school, a typical teenage girl – more interested in the boy sitting next to me than the sermon being preached. After the church service, a woman came straight to me and said, "I know we have never met before, but I felt God prompting me to tell you that you will make a big impact on the world someday – and I mean, not just America, but the world." I brushed off her words, embarrassed by the awkward moment – but they played over in my mind countless times. The world. The world. What is God doing in the world? I believe that through prayer and God's prompting, a seed was planted that day.
So now, here I am, a 26-year-old girl, completely loving life and satisfied with the adventure He has led me on to Seattle. It was back in senior year of college that my wonderful college pastor, Keith Carpenter, asked me to join him in planting a new church in Seattle, WA, and I said yes. I have been living in Seattle four years ministering, co-leading Incarnational Ministries, sharing the amazing love of God, and caring for the broken, homeless, prostitutes, and those whom I call family. This has been the most exciting journey, and I would not trade it for anything.
Though I call Seattle home, it has often been a quiet, distant, (maybe romantic) prayer that someday, somehow, God might allow me to go global – to experience missions, to abandon all, to sell my possessions, and go. That prayer began to get louder, as heartbreak, hope, and the Gospel continued to pull me closer to God. And then all of a sudden, all my 'maybe someday' thoughts came to a screeching halt when my boss told me that due to budget cuts, our national office would be cutting my position of over three years. Out of a job… Normally, I would be frantic, giving in to anxiety, but even as I received the news, I heard the beckoning… It is time, Shelli. It is time. Let's go, now. You have waited long enough, it is time.
And so, I go.
There are many, many reasons that I go – but the main one is, the simplest mandate: Love. To be shared, to be received, to be taught, to be learned. One of my favorite moments of Jesus' life was when he gently reminded His disciples, "You didn't choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that will last. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you. But remember the first command: Love one another." (MSG)
I wish I could explain to you in person how much I have learned about myself and God through taking things less seriously and realizing that God is good – He is in control – He actually cares and has a plan, even for a broken humanity. I want to be amazed by God – to see His light across the water in a distant part of the world, to see His beauty in the eyes of a child, to hold the worn hands of the sick, to share His love, His justice, His perfect peace.
Everything, eventually, goes away. With one short life, the only thing that lasts is what we invest in for eternity. So here you go, this is my investment. And I know, in God's economy, $15,000 is a drop in a bucket. If one person, one heart – can be changed by the precious Power of God, then I will have done well. World Race, I am ready. And so I go.
