When I tell people about my participation in The World Race (WR), I typically get one of three responses: “Wow, I could never do something like that!” and “Wow, what a cool opportunity!” are common, but most often I hear, “You’re doing WHAT?”
You see, I guess I don’t fit the profile of a “typical” racer. At 30, I am one of the “older” ones, relatively speaking. I have been through college and grad school. I have the husband, the house, the car, the pets, and about ten years invested in my career. So what I’m about to do in giving up almost every aspect of stability and comfort that I’ve grown accustomed to is in stark contrast to what most people at my stage of life are doing. The next expected step in the “to do list of being a successful American” should be to start a family. Don’t get me wrong, I want children and have actually had to come to terms myself with postponing that desire. But right now, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the WR is something I must do. So, Mom and Dad, I’m sorry, but you’re just going to have to wait a little bit longer for the grandkids.
So why the WR? Why at this point in my life?
Well, when my husband and I got married two years ago, we knew that missions would be a part of our future, but we didn’t know exactly how it would look. So, we prayed about it, enlisted the help of my good friend Google, and began exploring our options. The number of opportunities available was somewhat overwhelming, so we continued to pray that the doors would be opened and closed as necessary. Long story short, we now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the WR is the next step in life’s journey for us.
On a surface level, I can give you several reasons why:
- The more I learn about the vision of the parent organization of the WR, Adventures in Missions (AIM), and about the vision of the WR itself, the more I grow to love what they are all about.
- I highly respect the AIM leadership and staff. They do not pretend to have it all together nor claim to know all the answers. Their transparency and realness is simply refreshing. They embrace folks from varying backgrounds and spectrums of the Christian faith, encouraging finding core commonalities rather than forcing legalistic practices (yes, I have issues with organized religion which I will address in a future blog).
- There is no one specific country to which I’ve felt a strong connection, so the opportunity to help others and share love with people form many nations and walks of life excites me…I love travel and other cultures.
- Living in true community with my backpack and tent as my only material possessions is an experience that I don’t think I could have in many other settings.
- This year will stretch and break me like nothing else ever could, and it is my hope that the opportunity to share my heart as this transformation takes place will challenge and impact others.
- To experience all of this with my husband by my side is an absolute blessing, and I can only expect that the impacts of this journey on our lives will be a invaluable benefit to our children and our family’s generations to come.
From a deeper, more personal heart level, the answer to the why question is that I am tired of doing and am ready to just “be.” A lot of things in life have come really easy to me and I have always been encouraged to pursue my passions to the best of my ability. At an early age I began to identify myself through my accomplishments and a life of perfectionism quickly ensued (yes, a blog on this topic soon to come as well). Well, let me tell you friends, living life that way gets tiring. A few years ago I began to reframe the way I viewed myself and am finally embracing who I was created to be. There is just so much more to life than the perspective of success that is pushed in our culture. I want to be a human BEing, not a human DOer, and I cannot think of a better place to live that out than the WR.
