I am going on the World Race. In January of 2017. To Asia and Africa and Europe. I will be leaving my friends and family for almost a whole year to travel around the world and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. These are the things that I have to continually tell myself, because right now, less than 4 months out, IT STILL DOESN’T SEEM REAL. But before we can talk about that, we need to go back. You see, any good story needs a good backstory.
This path to the world race started over 2 years ago for me. I was a brand new believer, about six months after the Lord stepped in to the mess I was calling life and saved me. I had been a “good Southern Christian boy” all of my life, but it was never real. The faith, the relationship, was never mine until that night in January. But that is a different story, for a different time. As soon as this heart change happened, I got plugged into a church doing youth ministry and working with late elementary kids. It was summertime, and that meant it was time to go to camp. Right before we left for camp I felt the Lord calling me to spend that week in prayer and fasting. I had never fasted before, and I didn’t know why God was calling me to this, but no one really likes camp food so I didn’t fight Him on it. My prayer that week was for God to show me what he wanted for my life. I was about to start a new job, but I wanted direction for my life. Like, my whole life. I came out of that week with one word, MISSIONS. I had never thought about being a missionary before, but God really sparked something in my heart that week. I began asking around about mission trips, and I was confident the Lord would provide something if this is what he truly wanted from me and for me. In one of these conversations, I was talking to a young man whose brother had literally just gotten back home from his Race. I knew the guys brother Andrew from high school, and got in touch with him and decided to go get dinner and talk about the World Race. That conversation changed my life. I was told stories about healings and conversions and I was enamored. I knew then, I had to do this “World Race”. The World Race is unique in the fact that you can go to so many different contexts and spend your time in so many different missional disciplines and ministry opportunities. It was the “sampler platter” of world missions, and if you know me, you know I love a good sampler platter.
The next step was simply figuring out how and when I could go. I have 3 younger siblings and we are a tight knit family, so of course I didn’t want to miss any major life events if I could help it. My sister Mary Kate would be graduating high school in the spring of 2015, then my brother Ethan the following year. Rebekah wouldn’t be out of school until the spring of 2018, so I saw that year gap between as my window. How was less of an issue. I have never wavered on the idea that if God calls you to something he will empower and equip you to make it. I knew He would provide a way, and I am still learning that truth. However, that still left me with 2 years before I could go, and the Lord has been continually equipping me for this trip since that time. I had an opportunity to go on short term mission trips to the Dominican Republic in the May of 2015 and Nepal in February of 2016. Those trips have been crucial in my understanding of foreign missions, as well as being confirmation of my call to missions. I have felt so at home being away, and people that I have known for only 2 weeks are like family to me now.
So with a sure plan to go, and a timeline of when, the only question now was which route? I prayed over the routes and over the countries individually, and prayed and prayed and prayed some more. And the answer I was given, was not the one I had hoped for. South America Expedition, August 2016. I had told God that I wanted more than 1 continent, that I wanted more people groups and religions and demographics than just Spanish-speaking Roman Catholic Latin Americans. (Not to generalize everyone in South America into this one category, I realize there is a ton of diversity to South America, but this was how I felt at the time.) I felt like I was getting less than what I had signed up for, like I was settling. But all in all, I was still very excited. I still wanted to submit to God’s will and not my own plan. And to be totally fair, going to every country in South America still sounded awesome. So I began my application.
For me the application process was just that: a process. A long, laborious process. The good people at AIM ask a lot of really hard questions. Questions that make you go to the places that you have hidden stuff from God for a long time and turn all the lights in the house on get out the heavy equipment and deal with your dirt. This was a process that I embraced at times and shied away from far more times. I had to ask myself questions that I didn’t always like the answers to, and then write those answers down on an online form so that someone I didn’t know could review my ENTIRE life in this nice little packet I created for them and judge whether or not I was going to get to go on this trip that I had been dreaming about for a year and a half. But I am so grateful for this long, laborious process. It humbled me, and made me realize things about myself that I had not, and probably would not have otherwise. When I finally finished the application, I told one of my close friends who had been encouraging me to finish, that even if I never go on a trip with AIM there was purpose in the process, and I am thankful to God for that. So my application and online interview had been sent in, and now it was time for an over the phone follow up.
As it seemed to happen through this whole ordeal, the phone interview was not what I expected. It went really well, but towards the end of the conversation I was given some very disheartening news. “Everything on your application looks good” I was told. “But”- but… why but?!?!?!? “Since you have started the application process we have changed the minimum age from 21 to 23. I’m not saying this means you can’t go, but it’s not as likely” I was told. The trip was launching in August of 2016, and I wouldn’t turn 23 until January of the following year. I was confused and scared that I wouldn’t get to go. I tried to plead my case, saying I had life experience beyond my years and had been out of the college space and in the real world for two years now, and a lot of 23 year-olds are just graduating. This was a lot of me trusting my own merits instead of leaning on the Lord to do what He would and trusting Him. My AIM contact assured me that all of that would be taken into consideration, and not to count it out yet. We hung up, and I felt more confused and unsure about the race than I had since I started this journey. And then began the wait.
Not dissing on anybody at AIM, but it took them forever to get back to me (or at least it seemed that way). I say forever, but it was probably closer to 3 weeks. This is still a long time to be stuck in the “will-I-or-wont-I” limbo that was going on in my brain and in my heart. I prayed a lot about what was the right path and towards the end of this time I felt no peace about South America anymore. None. I knew I wasn’t ready and wouldn’t be by August. Everything that had seemed so concrete months ago, was now the consistency of Jello. I shot my contact an email explaining my feelings and said that I was sorry, but I would have to remove my application from consideration from this route. His response was so unexpected I cried like a daggum baby. He told me that I had actually been accepted and that I would easily be able to move to another launch date and route if that was where God lead. I told Him I would take the weekend and pray it over, but the 10/40 window was already in my heart and on my mind. It was a really easy transition, and I am so thankful for the extra time to prepare and raise support. God showed me sometimes, He needs to get us to one place, only to let us see another from that new perspective. He showed me that submitting to His will is SOOOOO much greater than trying to do our own thing. He showed me that remaining faithful is all that I am in charge of, and as long as I walk out what he is calling me to, He will provide. He is so good, and I am so blessed.
That’s how I got here.
I am going on the World Race. In January of 2017. To Asia and Africa and Europe. I will be leaving my friends and family for almost a whole year to travel around the world and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. AND I AM EXCITED.
