As I've started my fundraising process for this amazing thing called the World Race, one of the most frequent questions I get is, "How did you decide to do this sort of thing?" While the question seems simple in my heart, there is so much that has lead up to this point.
I didn't grow up in the church so when I got saved, I was radically removed from a lifestyle of darkness. I started to fall in love with an amazing God. I started to realize how deep his love must be if he could love me right where I was, not requiring anything from me. I started to grow. I started to learn. I kept falling. The next year, I packed up and moved to Georgia to attend the Bethel Atlanta School of Supernatural Ministry (BASSM). Here I learned even more about the love and the goodness of God. I learned (am learning) what it really means to live as a daughter of the most high God. I learned (am learning) what it looks like to spread his love. I went on my first international mission trip during my first year of BASSM. I traveled, along with my team, to Buea Town, Cameroon. It was not at all how I pictured Africa to be. I met many amazing people, and I had the amazing opportunity to minister to and speak life to these wonderful people. It was an amazing trip. It was life changing, but not in the way I expected it to be. You see, I have known since the first year after I got saved that mission work is something that I wanted to do. This being said, I expected Africa to break my heart into a million pieces that would only be able to be mended by packing my bags and moving there to continue ministry. It just wasn't so. Don't get me wrong; I did love it there. I fell in love with the people there, and my heart did ache for their situation. What happened though, was that I was changed, I came back with much to process. I came back with stories to tell, and transformation to steward.
The next year, I went on my second international ministry trip. This time we went to Nicaragua. We ministered with some of the most amazing people I know, Harry and Heylin Rios. They pastor a church in Dario called Reyes de Reyes (King of Kings). This trip was unlike anything I had ever experienced. The only way I can describe it would be to say that God let me experience some of my destiny early. Let me explain: There were moments each day of the ten day trip where I found myself looking around wondering if it was real life. There I was in different ministry settings with the overwhelming sensation that I was living my destiny. Then it happened. The moment I knew for sure. About halfway through the week, my team was split up into two groups. One group would go to the hospitals and pray for healings. The other group would be taking food/water up to this mountain village that had no access to water or electricity. I choose to be on the mountain team. We took an hour-long ride squeezed in the back of a pickup truck up the side of this mountain. Dust was flying everywhere, and we were bouncing so much we thought we'd fall out at times. During points, the mountain was so steep that the truck couldn't drive up with the weight of us in the back, so we got out and climbed until it had leveled out. The view from the mountain was incredible as we drove up the side. When we got to the top, kids started chasing our truck. We told them to go get their parents and to come back with something to carry the rice home in. As soon as I stepped off the truck, my eyes threatened to overflow. There was a whole village up here with no food, no running water, and no electricity yet these kids were beaming from ear to ear. People started to come out! There were probably 25 kids and even more adults that started swarming the truck. The adults were given food and water. We prayed over them and saw several healed of various pains and/or diseases! We went with the children over towards the other side and started playing games with them. We played red rover, and random other games. These kids were having a fantastic time. We brought cookies and candy for them. It was like a treasure. They didn't know that it wasn't normal to be dirty from head to toe. They didn't know that it wasn't normal not to have running water. They didn't know that it wasn't normal to live without electricity. They didn't know that it wasn't normal because it was normal. It was very normal to them. We stopped at houses along the path as we drove back down the mountain to give out food, water, and candy.
I was so affected by what had happened on that mountaintop that I was a wreck. I sat in the front of the bus with my earbuds in and cried the entire way back to the hotel that night. I was truly wrecked. My heart was broken. My heart was broken for these people. The next day as we were preparing to leave Nicaragua, I sat again with my earbuds in on the bus. I could not stop crying. I was literally weeping on the bus to the airport. Then the song "Healing Oil" by Kim Walker came through my ears. The words go something like this: "I can feel your healing oil running down my brow. I wouldn't trade another lifetime for how I feel right now." Each time she said that my weeping increased because I those words were absolutely true of what was happening in my heart. I was no longer weeping because my heart was broken. He was at that moment, healing the broken parts with love. I had fallen so in love with those people that I seriously couldn't contain it. I really wouldn't have traded another lifetime for how I felt in that moment. That is the moment that I realized that this was the rest of my life. For the rest of my life, I would be someone who goes to those "mountain top" places. I want to go, not heartbroken for the people, but with a full heart of love. My heart had been for missions before, but this was the last piece. I was officially ruined for anything else. No other calling would do. That is my destiny.
These are just a few of the many experiences that have brought me to this place. I long to travel the world empowering people to walk fully in their identity in Christ. I long to release them to walk in freedom and healing. I long to watch people experience the real God. This is my heart. This is my passion. This is the reason for which I am alive: to his name glorified on this Earth. In my eyes, this trip is just the beginning. God put it on my heart to do this trip last December. After much dialogue with him, I know that this is the right season for this. I am very confident that he will not only provide the finances, but that he is already going ahead to prepare the hearts of those we will meet. I have no idea where my ministry will be started in the future. I have no idea, yet, what that will look like. I do know, however, that I have been called to do the World Race. This is step one. Time will only tell what step two will be. Please help me support me as I walk in obedience to my calling. Prayer and financial support is greatly needed in this process! If you would like to be made aware of up-to date prayer requests for my team and me as we go on this journey, subscribe or click the Let's Get In Touch link at the top left-hand corner of this page to ask to receive prayer requests! If you would like to support me financially, find out how by visiting the "Help Send Me Packing" blog post or give online via the Support Me tab in the top left-hand corner! Thank you so much for your support as I embark on this new journey.
Cheering wildly in your corner,
Shelby Weier
