My name is Rachel and I am a 21 year old soon to be graduate with a degree in Sociology and Human Services. I’ve spent the last four years at St. Norbert College in DePere, just 10 minutes outside of my hometown Green Bay, Wisconsin! I’ve spent my summers working for a summer camp in Northeast Wisconsin and love spending all of my time telling stories, sitting by campfires and sharing God’s love with children in the midst of His beautiful creation. I am a huge Packers fan but don’t find football to be too entertaining which is kind of conflicting. I love to read, write, draw, camp, hike and spend time with the people I love most.
My Jesus journey?
Well, God continuously reminds me of my struggle with control. I want to know everything, have everything planned out and organized how I want it and when I want it. I want to be looking at God’s itinerary for every day of my life and I want to know the finished product. Reality? Life isn’t that clear cut and I find that I am lacking in trust, obedience and complete surrender in my idea that God will just hand me everything I want. Ultimately, this struggle with control was brought me closer to the Lord.
In my Junior year of college I hit rock bottom of self-esteem and self-worth and I felt entirely unloved and unwanted by the world. God had been pursuing me for years at this point and I ignored all of his whispers and even His biggest attempts at grasping my attention were rejected. I wanted to take the credit for fixing everything in my life because it was MY life, wasn’t it? However, in the midst of having nothing, nowhere to go, no clear purpose or direction and seemingly no control over my life’s journey, God presented me with an individual whose heart for Christ was no secret. I didn’t know what it was about her but I wanted to know more. The Lord brought into my life my first real sense of community, fellowship and Christ-like love. God brought two incredibly broken people together but for what purpose? Well, God somehow shines a light through the brokenness, through the cracks in our foundation, and despite her brokenness the Lord’s light in her filled the cracks in me.
That spring I surrendered. Matthew 5:6 couldn’t have been more real. ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.’ I wanted to know everything about Jesus and I ran at Him so fast I no longer recognized myself. God was completely transforming my life. I started to find the joy in the small things in life, my relationships got easier and I found ways to love people I had previously hated. I felt like a new person and I never wanted to look back.
Having been recently saved and being asked the same question over and over again, what are you going to do when you graduate? Things changed from spending months worrying about where I was going to graduate school, what program I wanted to do, how I was going to get there and if I was even ready for that commitment. God wasn’t calling me to go to school. It just didn’t feel right.
As I continued to pursue Christ, the topic of missions continuously came up in conversation, on Facebook and everywhere I turned. When I discussed the idea of volunteer programs to a friend of mine, she asked me if I had ever heard of the World Race and I had but never considered it. I did more research and read dozens of blogs and I couldn’t get it out of my head for any amount of time before it somehow appeared on my Facebook page or was brought up in a conversation. I tried continuously to put it on the back burner; that I would simply just apply after I had pursued all the things that I found to be more comforting. Why would God be asking me to do something like this? I knew plenty of Christians in my life who would be totally fit for this type of kingdom work but not me. I was relatively new to this style of Christian living and I felt unworthy of serving His Kingdom. UNQUALIFIED. This same feeling arose every time I thought about missions. I simply wasn’t qualified.
At the end of 2016 I went to a conference to ring in the New Year and we spent hours talking about missions and answering God’s call in our lives and the World Race was brought up again and became an overwhelming thought that just wouldn’t leave. So, when I got home, I applied.
Overwhelmed. It’s the first word that comes to my mind every time I recall the idea that God has me placed in this season. I am overwhelmed by the vastness of the Lord and how big He truly is. I am in awe of His love, His power and His constant presence and hand in my life. I am bewildered by the amount of joy I feel at the opportunity to further His kingdom but also at the work He has already done in my life and the work He will continue to do.
I started passionately following Jesus less than a year ago and here I am in 2017 preparing to spend 11 months of my life devoted to becoming more like Him.I may continue to feel as though I am unqualified to do big things for His kingdom, but God qualifies the unqualified and who am I to say that I am not fit or useful?
How can you help?
I have already felt unbelievable amounts of support from so many people through this process and I am so grateful. However, this is just the beginning. I would love your support through prayer as I spend the next 8 months preparing for this incredible journey.
If you feel called to donate towards this mission, that would also be greatly appreciated! My goal is $18,017 and I have faith that if this is where the Lord needs me, that the Lord will provide!
