Hey y’all, my name is Alyssa Boss. I’m 22, just graduated a discipleship program in July, and moved back to Michigan with my family after spending 3.5 years in Charlotte, NC!
While I was in Charlotte, I worked with a ministry called End Slavery in Charlotte. It’s an anti-trafficking agency that I absolutely LOVED working with, and it was a huge struggle to leave. My heart is to keep working with ministries like that and to see EVERY captive set free.
I know it seems like I’m choosing to do something really big and irrational to follow Jesus, but it’s not just the “big stuff” that has called out to me about this journey. Some of the biggest moments in my walk with Christ haven’t been the mission trips or the ministry events, or worshiping on stage- it’s been getting on a plane that I’m terrified to board, or saying yes to what He’s asking of me when I’m all alone, and it’s just me and the Holy Spirit having a conversation. I know I’m going to find God in the smaller things this next year. I will find Him in stepping on that first plane, in teaching English for the thousandth time and wishing it wasn’t so hot in the classroom, in shaking the hands of a beggar that I may never see again, in bartering with locals, in eating things I don’t like to honor the people I’m with, in choosing joy when all I want to do is complain, in wearing the same shirt for half of the year, in every small moment.
I struggle with trusting God to take care of my family when I’m not around. I have irrational fear that something will happen and I won’t be able to get to them in time. So letting go of the control I try to have over that has been a struggle for me. I need to get past that. I need to be able to have that vulnerability and willingness to put my heart out there with God and trust that He can take better care of those I love than I ever could.
I heard about the World Race when I was 13. I had just started looking for mission trips to go on, and I found the Adventures In Missions website. It still took a few years to convince my parents to allow me to go on a mission trip, but I didn’t relent on how passionate I felt about going. The second trip that I had stumbled across on the website was the World Race, and my heart started pounding. I could hear every word running through my mind, as clear as day: “You were made for this.” Not just the World Race, but missions. Going into ALL the world. That’s why the World Race is so profound to me, it’s not just a go mission to a random spot. It’s a go mission, into all world. I’ve not felt led to stay in one country that I’ve been to, I haven’t felt like there was one country for me for the rest of my life. I’ve always had the urge, the drive to keep going, in every corner of the world, not just one place. This journey would challenge more than I’ve ever been, push me harder than anyone has, and draw me closer to God’s heart than ever before. God’s heart is us, is His people, and I want to know His heart more, and to be the hands and feet for them. I know that this journey would be the next step in knowing Holy Spirit more intimately, and following His leading in total obedience and surrender. That whole letting go of control thing is big for me. I don’t always trust people to help me, so really let Christ in to change that and trusting teammates so much will be a big thing for me.
That’s a little bit about me! So excited for this journey.
