After months of preparation, planning, and praying, it is finally here. We arrived in Atlanta this morning for a couple of days of training, and we are on to Cambodia a few days after that. We have felt some sadness this week in leaving friends, family, and cat, but mostly we feel excited. We’re excited to see what the Holy Spirit is going to do in our lives and the lives around us the next 11 months. We’re excited to do life with our team, Boldly Present. Bekah, BJ, Diane, Anna, and Nick – I hope we can grow to be lifelong friends with all of you.
One of the things that gives us great excitement and confidence is looking at what God has already done in leading us to this point of starting The World Race. Last summer I (Brady) took a day to myself while Marin was away one weekend. I went to a park and walked around the trails for a long time. I thought, I prayed, I debated, I searched for clarity. A few days after this time I felt confident that we should do The World Race (Marin and I had both researched it online before this). I didn’t know when exactly, but I knew it was going to be in our plans, and based on previous talks with Marin, I thought that she would be on board. After she was back home I talked to Marin and we started to map out a very general plan. We looked at all the obstacles in our way such as: what to do with our house, what to do with our cat, how to fund-raise for not just one person but two, how to end our jobs, what to do about jobs when we returned, what to do about debt and student loans, what we would do with all of our stuff ect. It was an interesting talk but we both felt a great peace about it and left it feeling excited about how God would work out the details and work out the details he has. Two weeks after this time, when we had yet to tell anybody about our plans, I (Brady) was laid off from my job with in Mortgage. I remember sitting there during the meeting where they told everybody and just thinking, “God, what do you have in store for us here?”. A few weeks later I was able to get a temporary position with Wells Fargo equipment finance in which I could work through June of 2014 but would still get my severance for a few months after that from being laid off (perfect right). In the coming months we had a few different people talk to us about missions in various forms, and about how they were praying for us (and this was without them knowing our plan).
Once we were officially accepted to The World Race in the Spring, God started to take care of all the items we were still unsure about. We were able to put our house up for rent and get a renter quickly. We both left our jobs on good terms. Brooke and Andy Stewart agreed to take our cat, Jasper, for the year (and they are very excited about it). My mom’s company, which is a moving company, let us store our belongings there for free. And the fundraising, wow, we were blown away by all the generosity that was shown, and is still being shown towards us. It has been a truly humbling experience because there is literally no way this mission trip would be possible without financial support from friends. It is honestly a scary and unnatural thing for us to ask for money from people but God helped us through those initial fears and we have received such wonderful responses from so many of you that it has been one of the most encouraging parts of the preparation process. To top everything off, we were even able to attend weddings the past 2 weekends which gave us a chance to see almost all of our family before leaving.
I’ve just been amazed at God’s faithfulness throughout this preparation process. While we have needed to do our part, its just been amazing to see how God has worked everything out when it doesn’t seem like there is a solution. This gives me so much confidence going forward. I know this will be one of the hardest years of our lives, but I also expect it to be one of the most rewarding. I am 100% sure that this is what God wants us to be doing this year and my sole goal is to be faithful to him and simply be open to partnering with The Holy Spirit in every country we go to and joining in on the work God is already doing there.
At the airport
