Coaching at RashidatO.com | Social Activism at Whereveryougolove.com
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10 days of training camp in Gainesville, Georgia… 6 weeks of waiting… And then we were off! Month 1 in Cambodia, month 2 in Thailand, month 3 in Malaysia, month 4 in the Philippines, month 5 in Zimbabwe, month 6 in Zambia, month 7 in Malawi, month 8 in Ukraine, month 9 in Romania, month 10 in Albania, month 11 in Spain.
11 months have passed and now I am living my month 12. Before I left for the World Race I knew that I wan’t to come back changed. I didn’t want to come back to America and assimilate to the life I had left behind. So I prayed about purpose, passion, and my life’s calling asking God “What’s next?!?”
I asked God to help me dream again.
Living a life trying to achieve the American dream had squeezed out all the adventure and risk taking in my life. I had accomplished the American Dream and to be honest… it was boring.
My life was secure. I had a steady pay check. I had owned a house and a car. I had traveled to at least half of the United States and had vacationed in exotic places. I wasn’t rich, but I was far from poor. But all that was meaningless to me without purpose, passion, and a plan to do something for more than just myself.
So as I began the World Race I began to dream, to see the things that broke my heart about the world, and I paid attention to the things that created deep emotional responses in my soul. My first team was a team of dreamers and crazy antics. With their help we would have conversations about things that we thought would be amazing to spend our life doing.
IT. WAS. AWESOME!
So this passed January I started a dream journal. I saved this journal specifically for my dreams; for all those amazing things that I thought would be cool to do in my lifetime. And as I have transitioned in the last season of the Race I have spent a lot of time rereading these dreams and figuring out that I want to do next. There are 6 values that I strongly believe and want to make sure I do as I move into the rest of my life…
Mobilizing – I see a lot of needs in the world, but there is no way I can do all this on my own. So, I want to know, inspire, and launch other people who see these needs in the world have passion to address them. I want to help others live this adventurous life Papa.
Discipleship – I want to be healthy and healed so that I spread health and healing to all who need it and usher baby Christians into a mature Christian walk. I don’t want them to have to learn the hard way as I did.
A Witness – I want to be a person who openly talks about what God is doing in my life, the revelations He gives me, and the feel of His overwhelming Presence in my life. I want people to know it is still possible to go deeper with Christ. I want them to feel supported when it gets hard. I want them to know that when it is hard the harship does not signify that they are on the wrong path. More than likely they are definitely on the right path and its time to lean into Him.
Travel – I want to experience the world. I want to continually see its issues and continually mobilize people and support their efforts to change the world, to fix that world need.
Adventure – I never want to be locked down or unable to take risks. I want to go big or go home. I want to live a story that blows the top off of the boxes that we put around God. I want to experience just how big God is!
Unified Body of Christ Around the World – I want to see a shift in Christianity that focuses less on doctrine and denomination and more on living a life of a disciple. I want to see a shift from division to unification. I want to see the real church stand out from the false prophets by how well we love each other and work together to love the world as Jesus loved.
So what does all this look like?
The beauty of this for me is knowing there are so many ways to achieve this goal. My life will never be boring!
So in this immediate season it looks like pursing a position with the organization that sends out the World Race teams, Adventures in Missions in addition to leading a team on a mission trip to India.
I arrived in the United States of America on August 21st in Miami, Florida at 2:30 pm. As I got off that plane I had some ideas of what I thought God had for me in this next season, but nothing in motion. I spent about 1 1/2 weeks, processing all that had happened in the last year, creating a vision board for my life, tons of prayer, and some time pursuing the options that were available in front of me.
On Thursday, August 30th, I spent the day at AIM headquarters having informational interviews with the amazing leadership of the organization. I let them know that I wanted to pursue a position with the organization, but they spoke life into me and felt there were other ways they could leverage my experience. It was so awesome to hear their candid opinions and for them to speak truth. I appreciate that they saw me. I am excited for the development of our conversations to figure out how we can mutually help each other achieve our Kingdom dreams.
That same I mentioned that India was a beautiful place and would love to go there. On Friday, I received a message asking if I would be leading a team to India for the next 3 months. “Sure, as long as it doesn’t interfere with my candidacy for the position in the office.” “Confirmed, that it will not interfere.” So I said yes! That night as I packed my bag I watched videos from Caleb Pauls and passport participants. The next day at noon Hunter picked me up to take me to training camp before we left for the trip.
The next couple days were a whirlwind as I got to know the team, my leadership partner, the other leaders, and connected with God corporately with everyone who launched. It was such a blessing.
On September 5, our teams and packed up and headed to the airport. After 3 days of travel we arrived our ministry site in beautiful Sielmat, India.
If that is not adventure, I don’t know what is!
I was on American soil for exactly 2 weeks almost down to the hour. I arrived home with a general plan and a Big God. And while plans are great, the only part that matters is my Big God!
So what’s next… Continuing to rely on my Big God. And in this season I am leading an amazing team of young people to serve the India people in the North East States of India. I hope that you will stay along for the ride as you have before.
With love from India!
-R
