For those that don’t know, my World Race Gap Year experience has come to an end. Right after the Race I went to surprise my youth group at student life camp and be a life group leader. The first night of camp was very emotional for me as I was still coming to grips with the reality that I was no longer on the Race with the people I had come to love so deeply over those nine months. Saying goodbye to them was very hard and still didn’t feel real, but was beginning to sink in. I was torn by the fact that they had become like family, but we would no longer be in each other’s lives daily. I don’t plan to make them forever goodbyes though and hope that we can stay connected in life. I also have a heart for my youth group and want to see them grow in their spiritual walks with the Lord as well.
Over the week of camp both the students and the parents had several questions for me. Most of them were just goofy questions like “what did you eat” and the oh so dreaded “did you enjoy your trip”, but there were some moments where they did ask deep questions. I don’t know how well I was really able to answer most of the questions as I was still processing what happened and will be for some time. After all it’s hard to sum up nine months of your life with a question like “how was your trip”.
The main thing that God was teaching me that week was that even though it was going to be a tough transition being back home, I needed to stay present and seek the opportunities in front of me during camp and move forward rather than being stuck in the past. My trip was great and will forever be a part of me and the growth that I have experienced, but it wasn’t the end. I have to keep living in the present and see how God wants to continue using me. This meant that even though I have felt like in a lot of ways people can’t even begin to understand what it was like unless they walked in my shoes, I can’t neglect sharing what I have learned. Even if a lot of it doesn’t seem to make since to them, or that they aren’t ready for certain things; I have to remember that I was once there too at the beginning of my Race.
Before the Race I was still very insecure and not that confident in how to even step further into the dreams God has given me. When I discovered the Race I felt as if it was an answered prayer to the constant seeking I had been doing to finding the path God wanted me on. Prior to that, I had many restless nights wondering what bigger plans God had for me and trying to make things work in my own strength. I had little pieces of the puzzle, but not the full picture and so I was trying to discover what the bigger picture was. Now I am at the point that even though I still don’t have the full picture, I can faithfully take the pieces God gives me in each season and be able to leave all that I don’t know about my future yet in God’s hands.
As I mentioned earlier, I have to keep my mind open to opportunities God is putting in front of me. My friend and teammate Landon has parents who work with Adventures In Missions in Swaziland. Early on they got the inside scoop about AIM doing World Race America before it was ever even officially a thing. I was very intrigued by this and considered it a possibility after Gap Year. Once they got up and running though I hit a point where I was very frustrated about some things and was taking my frustration out on AIM. I had concluded that when my trip was over that I would be done with AIM and completely ruled out World Race America. I have since learned that every organization is going to have their flaws and rules that I might not always feel as deeply about, but at the end of the day my frustration wasn’t at AIM, but rather at the things I couldn’t do. I eventually had to switch my perspective to not look at what I couldn’t do, but what I was able to do. When I started focusing on how God could use me with what I had, I actually found so much more peace and discovered that I had a lot more opportunity to bring Kingdom than I thought.
Before I ever decided to join World Race Gap Year, God had put evangelism in the United States on my heart. I felt that going on Gap Year was something necessary for me before stepping into something like this. I equated it to having to go into the wilderness to prepare me for what ministry lies ahead. I still don’t know exactly long term what that will look like, but I found that I had a possible opportunity to join World Race America and do the very thing God had put on my heart a long time ago. My friend Ben Taylor had joined in the middle of their route, which sparked my interest that maybe it could be possible for me as well. I spent a lot of time talking with him and getting details and praying about if I should apply. One day I was listening to a podcast and the speaker was saying that sometimes we use prayer or the thought of prayer as an excuse to ignore or delay a calling God has already given us. In that moment God just spoke to me so clearly saying that He had already been calling me to this for a long time and I just didn’t realize it yet. I realized that I needed to stop waiting, but accept the calling. With that I began to reach out and through what seemed like forever with much anticipation, I got accepted. For me Gap Year may be over, but our race in life is never finished until God calls us home, and so I am starting the next chapter of mine.
I discovered this right before my Race finished and so with coming home, I had to explain to everyone that I would not be home for long. I actually leave out July 1st to join the squad in Bend, Oregon and plan to finish out the Race with them in November. With that said, that means that I have a lot to be preparing for during this short season before launching out again. During this transition period, I want to be able to pour into my home community as much as I can, but also need to start focusing on preparation for World Race America. At the end of the day I know that God is going to take care of it all because He is always faithful and I have seen Him provide time and time again in tremendous ways. I do ask that you would consider taking part in supporting me along this journey as I do have to raise $3600. I know that not everyone can give and I don’t ask that one person fully fund me, but that each of you would just be open to the Spirit and give what you feel led to give. If you don’t feel that you can give right now, I ask that you would be fighting for me and for this country through your prayers. This is a great opportunity for you to be able to not just bless me, but take part in bringing Kingdom across America and see hearts change in our country. This is something very important to me and I hope that you will also see the need for reaching this broken land. Let us together take part in seeing this nation find hope in Jesus once again.
