My name is Stefanie Pray and I am 27 years old from Virginia. I graduated from Liberty University with a bachelors degree in Psychology. I had the amazing opportunity to intern at the American Psychological Association in Washington DC for about 8 months with the Washington Fellowship Program. During my time at the APA I thought alot about my life and what I wanted to do with my degree after my internship ended. That is when I started realizing I was living a complacent life. A life that was chasing after the typical " American Dream". I slowly became frustrated, lost, confused, and sad. I started using excuses such as " I have all these loans I cannot go out and serve long term", "I want to get married now, buy a brand new car, and a big house", and "I am not sure where God REALLY wants me so I will just wait until I know for absolute certain." These excuses took me further away from God. While these things are not bad, I knew God was leading me to other things. I fought it for some time.
During my internship I moved into a community house in Silver Spring Maryland with some World Race Alumni. During my time there God broke me and told me that I need Him more then ever and needed to learn to trust in Him fully. Through my time there, I realized how much I had been wanting to go out and serve, but my excuses kept me in a holding pattern. After about 8 months of using excuses, God woke me up one day and said " GO" and I literally hopped on the computer and without question I applied to the World Race.
Something I wrote a month ago that I think can apply to everyone and anyone in the same position as me:
"Whoever you are…. wherever you are…… know that God wants your heart…. and I know its hard to trust… so many have burned you. Many have persecuted you like Jesus was, but even then nothing can compare to His death. It is easy to give into the flesh and fall into worldly temptations and so much of you wants to love and serve him but you let how people have treated you define how you feel about Christ… I AM THAT GIRL… or WAS ….. so you… whoever you are…. I am praying for you….. to find astounding joy in GOD not man… and to just take a leap of faith in a direction… and run the race….. cause it is much more scary to not be in Gods will…… amen?"
When I wrote this I realized that I needed to be obedient to Gods calling on my life. This means giving up my selfish desires, giving up my excuses, and obidiently move in a direction. My fear of not raising enough money, or having too many student loans subsided, and I boldly took a step in a direction. No looking back. I know that God will provide and that He is faithful to His promise, If I am obedient to His will. 🙂 Such an awesome Father!
I am I am very excited to be traveling with the Septemeber 2012 Squad on route 1!! I cannot wait to see how God uses all of our stories to further his Kingdom while on the World Race!!.
11 months. 11 countries…. Pressing forward in His name!!
" I am strong in His might power (Eph 6:10)."
Places I will be going : Zimbabwe Africa, Botswana Africa, Swaziland Africa, South Africa, China, India, Philippines, Moldova, Ukraine, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras.
