Welcome to my blog, y’all!! (That is so weird to say)
I just signed up to embark on a very long, very out-of-the-ordinary (some might even say “extraordinary”) journey. I am going on the World Race. Even when I say it/type it/scribe it, it does not seem real. Even blogging doesn’t seem real. But it is. This is so real and I am so [not] ready [yet]. So how the heck did I get here??
In November 2016, someone joined my eGroup (like a small bible study group, but with a super cool, modern name) and God used him to impact my life in a way I never imagined. He introduced himself and in his intro said, “Hi? I’m Paris. I just got back from the World Race.” Oh. Oh ok. Well what the heck is that? Are you a super athlete? Ha! I mean, he could be if he wanted to. He explained what it was and something struck me to the core. It sounded like the most fascinating, terrifying, exhilarating experience I have ever heard of. And it sounded like he was speaking directly to me. So, naturally, I unqualified myself and tried to stop thinking about. I kept convincing myself that I just need to go on a short-term missions trip to get the missions bug out of my system. Because an 11-month missions trip is just not practical….right?
*Y’ALL WHEN YOU ARE CALLED TO SOMETHING, GOD WILL SHOW UP IN MIRACULOUS WAYS TO GET YOU WHERE YOU NEED TO GO*
There was this one night in January 2017 in my eGroup when someone asked “What is God speaking to you right now?” As everyone was talking about how God was speaking something requiring action or a motion (step up, surrender, take a leap of faith) all I could think was that God wasn’t asking anything of me right then. I said to the group, “Well, I just feel like God has me in a place of waiting right now. Every time I pray asking if I should be doing something more, serving more, communicating more, I just feel God telling me to be still. I don’t know what it means, but I think He is preparing me for something and I am to just be patient right now.” I had no idea that He was preparing me for something this incredible.
So, in January I signed up for a short-term missions trip. I went to Haiti with three of my best friends in May 2017. During the preparation period I had a reoccurring thought that I just couldn’t shake. “This is just the beginning. This is a test run. I have so much more in store for you.” A few days before leaving I met up with a friend who had items to donate to the trip. Along with items, he also gifted me with a hand-carved wooden cross that would mean so much more to me than he could ever understand. On one side it read “Haiti 2017” and the other side read “Joshua 1:9”. That verse is so significant for me. It came to me at a pivotal point in my life when I decided to follow Christ and leave my old life behind. It reads, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; Do not be discouraged, For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” It gave me goosebumps. Also, I did not almost cry, but my eyes started raining ever so slightly.
Skipping ahead to the last night in Haiti we were asked to pray that God would reveal to us a verse that someone in our group needed to hear and write it down, then our leader would take the papers and randomly pass them out (without reading them). I prayed. I listened. While writing I thought to myself “Wow, this is so timely for me. Even if it is for someone else, I am going to remember these words for myself, too.” The moment I thought that, someone asked “what if we get our own paper” the leader said, “Well then, I guess it’s for you.” Head-to-toe goosebumps, instantly. I was like “yep. this is mine.” Then guess what happened?! He collected the papers, shuffled them and passed them out. GUESS WHOSE PAPER I GOT?!?! MINE. God. Is. Good. Faithful. and FUNNY. After months of wrestling with the urge to apply for the world race, God confirmed it in one verse. Isaiah 43:19 “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” I was shaking and started sweating as I realized the direction my life was heading in. I did not plan for this.
In the past 9 months I have felt such a restlessness accompanied by an overwhelming peace that it was my ‘season’ to be still and just embrace what is happening around me. I have seen tremendous growth in my friends’ and family’s faith. I have witnessed God molding friends into the leaders and faithful warriors of Christ that they are today. Being still does not come naturally to me. Patience is something I have always struggled with. But it is also something that I have prayed diligently about. God has taught me so much about His character and His people and the world around me in these past 9 months and I am still just barely scratching the surface. Things I could have never learned if He had answered my prayers the way I had wanted Him to. You know, pray for patience, go to sleep, wake up and suddenly BOOM! I am the most patient person in the Continental U.S. Oddly enough, it just never works out like that…
Thank you, God, for knowing what I need better than I do. There is just no way I could be here today, writing this blog, wrapped up in my new world race blanket (Which will probably be exchanged for a sleeping bag, but that’s for a later blog), if it weren’t for His unfailing faithfulness and tireless pursuit for our hearts. And if He has done all this just to get me to believe that I am good enough to apply for a missions trip, then what in the world is He going to do to show the people we encounter on the trip and leading up to it how deep His love runs for them?
All I know in this moment is that I just signed up for the biggest adventure of my life. And I am not nearly equipped to handle it on my own. So, I hope that you will join me as I clumsily stumble through this crazy, incredible journey. You can join me through prayer, loving support, financial support, and subscribing to this blog. Because as Hebrews 10:24-25 puts it, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Thank you SO much for taking the time to read the first blog I have ever written in my life. They will probably never be this long again so don’t let this scare you.
