We were asked to write a blog about how we were called to this mission trip. Here is my story…
My calling to the mission field came up on me really fast (for me at least, not for God…I think He’s know for a while). I always heard about missionaries going around the world and serving in various capacities and I always thought “Great for them, but it’s not for me.” Don’t get me wrong, I love going around the world, but for vacation and fun. It wasn’t until about November of last year (2009) that I had ever even considered going on a mission trip. Our athletics chaplain, Wes, had told me about a sports ministry team going over to Kenya to put on sports clinics and serve with orphanages for two weeks. The church I go to had gone to this same place in Kenya several times and I had even met some of the pastors from the Nairobi area. I signed up for the interest meeting, but never thought I would actually go. We had several meetings with our team of student-athletes from Baylor and I started getting really excited about the possibility of going, but still never thought it would happen. We raised our support and got our shots and made all our plans and I still never thought I would go through with it…until I got on the plane. And the story begins…We landed in Nairobi after about two days of travel but that didn’t bother any of us because we were so pumped to be there and didn’t have a clue what to expect. 
The first three days we were there we put on soccer clinics for area schools and soccer teams (we threw in a little bit of American football and basketball with these clinics, too). Seeing the joy in the kids eyes when they saw a soccer ball just blew my mind. The had so much excitement about a little piece of sports equipment that we use all the time…it was crazy to see how much these kids LOVED to play soccer. 
Ok, I’m going to get off track if I start thinking about all those cute little kids…I’ll try to stay focused. 🙂 We helped with a street ministry where we fed street children, went to orphanages and played with the kids, met with area coaches to hear their stories, played against the Kenya National Team (twice)…
it was an amazing, packed trip. My heart was all over the place – I was so happy, sad, broken, inspired, mad at myself for being so selfish, upset with my culture because I had taken everything for granted, open to hear God’s voice. And boy did God speak to me!!! I got back and told so many people about our trip and how much I had learned from the people of Kenya and how much God had revealed to my heart about faith, joy and trusting Him. The more I talked, the more it became clear that God was placing it on my h
eart to go back into the mission field. That’s when I found The World Race…I literally stared at my computer screen for about 15 minutes in shock thinking “God, is this for real? Is there really something like this out there? Would you really let me do this?” I prayed about it for a couple of days and decided I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t at least turn in my application so I did…and then got accepted. God spoke to my heart so clearly that I was supposed to trust Him because He is in control, not me. I’ve never been one to understand what people were talking about when they said God spoke to them or prompted them to do something…not until June 17 when God overwhelmed my spirit and prompted me to resign from my career of strength and conditioning (a career I’ve been in for over 10 years) to prepare to go on The World Race. It was a terrifying and liberating experience because I had just realized how much I need to trust God and now I was really going to depend on Him for everything! So far I have no regrets because I know with all my heart that this is exactly where God wants me to be, doing exactly what He is calling me to do. I put all my preparations in His hands and can honestly trust that He will take care of me because I’m no longer trying to control my life. Now I absolutely can’t wait to meet the rest of the World Racers so we can go spread the word and serve our God in a radical and phenomenal way!!!
The first three days we were there we put on soccer clinics for area schools and soccer teams (we threw in a little bit of American football and basketball with these clinics, too). Seeing the joy in the kids eyes when they saw a soccer ball just blew my mind. The had so much excitement about a little piece of sports equipment that we use all the time…it was crazy to see how much these kids LOVED to play soccer. Ok, I’m going to get off track if I start thinking about all those cute little kids…I’ll try to stay focused. 🙂 We helped with a street ministry where we fed street children, went to orphanages and played with the kids, met with area coaches to hear their stories, played against the Kenya National Team (twice)…it was an amazing, packed trip. My heart was all over the place – I was so happy, sad, broken, inspired, mad at myself for being so selfish, upset with my culture because I had taken everything for granted, open to hear God’s voice. And boy did God speak to me!!! I got back and told so many people about our trip and how much I had learned from the people of Kenya and how much God had revealed to my heart about faith, joy and trusting Him. The more I talked, the more it became clear that God was placing it on my heart to go back into the mission field. That’s when I found The World Race…I literally stared at my computer screen for about 15 minutes in shock thinking “God, is this for real? Is there really something like this out there? Would you really let me do this?” I prayed about it for a couple of days and decided I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t at least turn in my application so I did…and then got accepted. God spoke to my heart so clearly that I was supposed to trust Him because He is in control, not me. I’ve never been one to understand what people were talking about when they said God spoke to them or prompted them to do something…not until June 17 when God overwhelmed my spirit and prompted me to resign from my career of strength and conditioning (a career I’ve been in for over 10 years) to prepare to go on The World Race. It was a terrifying and liberating experience because I had just realized how much I need to trust God and now I was really going to depend on Him for everything! So far I have no regrets because I know with all my heart that this is exactly where God wants me to be, doing exactly what He is calling me to do. I put all my preparations in His hands and can honestly trust that He will take care of me because I’m no longer trying to control my life. Now I absolutely can’t wait to meet the rest of the World Racers so we can go spread the word and serve our God in a radical and phenomenal way!!!
