One of the questions I’ve been asked a lot in this past year, is “How did you hear about the World Race?” The answer to this question is a story I’ve wanted to tell for a long time now. Perhaps I’ve put it off for so long because it’s a hard one to tell. It is hard to find words that do justice to the stories that God writes. This one has so many connecting elements of the time, grief, beauty, and surprise that are characteristic of a life covered in grace and love. Even though I’ve remained silent for a long time about this story, my heart bursts to tell it because of my awe in the Author who is behind it all, and my desire to lift up His name. And I promise that if you have the heart to listen to praise, you will see the glory of God in and through it all.
The story begins more than five years ago in the summer of 2009, when I went to my freshman orientation at UCLA and met Rachelle Wong. Neither of us were Christians at the time, but we found each other pretty amusing. So naturally, we became friends. As we walked through our freshman year, Christ walked into our lives and changed us forever. Rachelle plugged into Intervarsity, while I plugged into a small Christian fellowship. Despite the fact that our paths were separate in our walk with the Lord that year (we never actually met up while the whole “Jesus capturing our heart and soul thing went down”), we were running a race together headed for the same destination. We met up again our sophomore year, this time excited to exchange testimonies of how Jesus had completely rocked our lives in the previous year. From then until the summer before our senior year, we would run into each other and I would see a living testimony in her. In our dialogue, there was always a semblance of worship drenched in passion.
In August 2012, Rachelle went on a mission trip to Honduras. Soon after she returned, she took her own life. Grieving, I went to her blog looking for a piece of her that would somehow help me process the million pieces that made up who she was to me. In her last post, she wrote about her friend Tiffany Chen, and how her journey on the World Race was inspiring her to go on missions. She linked Tiffany’s World Race blog (http://tiffanychen.theworldrace.org/) to her page, and I soon found myself devouring her entries. The raw vulnerability in her writing drew me into her experiences and encounters with the Lord as she traveled to eleven countries in eleven months. Rachelle always had good taste not only for good writing, but also for beautiful friends.
As I went through my last year at UCLA, I was still figuring out what I wanted to do post-grad. I knew I couldn’t see myself doing anything that didn’t involve me actively teaching and living out the Gospel. After being introduced to the World Race from Tiffany’s blog, it was always on my mind. When people asked me what I was going to do after graduation, I began to say, “I think I’ll go on the World Race.” The summer after graduation, I applied for the World Race, and in January 2014, I launched. I’ve been on the Race for a long time now, and my journey is nearing the end.
Even though Tiffany and I have never met, I like to believe that I’m living in a generational blessing that began when she courageously decided to embark on a journey with her Beloved. I’ve chosen to use the term “generational blessing” for these reasons. We both have the last name Chen. We both went to UCLA. We’re both Chinese American. Last but not least, we’re both from Z squad; Tiffany from the first generation, and me from the second. Her teammate Bea actually had a role in that since she was the alumnus who called me when I started looking into the Race, convincing me to prayerfully switch squads (I originally did not want to be on a route with China on the itinerary, because I had already been there for missions). Most importantly, Tiffany’s honest writing mentored me in so many ways leading up to the Race and even during it now. Her topics ranged from love to life to community to womanhood to racial conflict, and all of them ministered to me more than she could have ever imagined. The race she started and finished a few years ago left a legacy that still runs on in me, and hopefully will continue onward.
Needless to say, Tiffany’s life and mine had been divinely connected through our name, our school, our heritage, our squad, and last but not least, Rachelle – the amazing woman God placed in our path. Knowing that Rachelle would have wanted to go on the World Race after graduation, I’m glad I got to walk the steps I’ve walked this year while carrying a piece of her heart for Jesus in mine. I think at the end of all this, I’m thankful. I’m thankful that I got to know Rachelle in the whirlwind of the three-year period where she encountered the Lord, fell deeply in love, and was gathered up in His arms. I’m thankful that Tiffany said yes to the World Race a generation of alphabet letters before I did, and allowed God to use her even through her echoes. I’m thankful that somewhere down the line out of Rachelle’s passion and Tiffany’s vulnerability, I heard and began to follow, joining in the choir of voices that sing to one another “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”
“But as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.’” 1 Corinthians 2:9
I contacted Tiffany for the first time in the final months of the Race, telling her this story. She graciously replied with some advice on how to finish the Race. These are her words of wisdom, from Z to Z.
– Continue to document everything as you did in your first months
– Strengthen your relationships now, while you still can
– Always be seeking more
– Never stay silent: use your voice
– Cling to Him with your life
– Don’t live in your past or your circumstances — walk forward, and live forward
