As many of you may have already heard, a week from today I will begin my next journey of returning to the nations for 5 months as an Alumni Squad Leader for The World Race. In just a couple of weeks I will have the honor of launching from Atlanta, Georgia, with W Squad 3rd Generation to go to countries of Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Kosovo and Mozambique.
Now a question you may be wondering is “Why Am I Doing This Again?” and I would be lying to you if I told you that I haven’t had many times of asking myself that very question. I mean you are only supposed to do The World Race once right? That’s what I thought at first too, but God had other plans. Making the decision to Squad Lead for The World Race was not an easy decision for me and honestly it scared me a little. Not long after returning home at the end of May from my own 11 month World Race, I realized that making the transition back to living at home in America was not going to be an easy one. Returning home after the race was like having two completely different worlds collide and one of the hardest things I have ever done was trying to find a way to bring the two worlds together into one. Three weeks after my squad returned in May, we had an opportunity to reunite for a time of debrief at the AIM headquarters in Gainesville, Georgia at an event called Project Searchlight. It was during that week of being reunited with my squad, being spoken into by incredible and God fearing speakers, worshiping multiple times a day and going directly the Lord in prayer that I began to accept that God wasn’t calling me to stay in America for very long. I had a few days of resisting and trying to convince God that maybe it would be better if I waited till later on to go back out instead of leaving again so soon, but it didn’t take long before I accepted and embraced that the calling He was putting on my life was for September. God gave me peace.
I wish I could say that since making that decision two months ago that it has been a smooth ride without any doubts or fears of the future. But the truth is, nearly every day I have to fight the worries and doubts that the enemy throws my way. But God has shown me that He is faithful and, when I am obedient to His calling, He will make a way no matter what. I have learned to wake up each day and choose the truths of God over the lies of Satan. And God has reminded me of the joy, peace, and wonder that I feel when I am living in mission for Him.
In a lot of ways, going on The World Race made me come alive. There were very few days on my race that I didn’t pause for a moment to experience in amazement that God has blessed me with the opportunity to be where I was and being doing what I was doing. I can count on one hand the number of ministry days that I missed because of sickness or other reasons. Because ministry was always my favorite part of the day. Whether it was making bricks by hand to build a church, preaching for a church service, playing with children, encouraging widows, going for prayer walks, or etc, I loved it. Now don’t get me wrong, ministry wasn’t always easy or full of excitement, but no matter what it was that we were doing that day I found such an overwhelming peace and joy knowing that I was serving the Lord. My World Race experience and everything that the Lord did during those 11 months changed my life and my perspective forever. I could write a book about everything that He did and the things that I learned (but I am not that much of a writer, so you’ll have to ask me yourself if you are interested in knowing more details 🙂 ).
But what I have found to be true through it all is that whenever I am living in God’s Will, whatever that may be, that is the safest and best place that I can ever be. Many years ago, I said a prayer telling God that He could send me and that I would go and trust wherever He would lead me. Last July He sent me, this September He is sending me again, and, as long as He continues to send me, I will continue to go.
I can’t wait to see what God will do in this next season in my life!
I still need to raise around $2,000 in order to be fully funded. If you would like to help support me financially you can click on the “Support Me” link above. If you would like to donate to my PayPal account used for extra expenses, you can use my email at [email protected] to donate there. Thank you for your prayers and support, they mean the world to me (literally)!
