HELLO ALL! This is a long overdue blog post…BUT there’s no time to talk about how much I should’ve posted sooner because here I am and I’m posting now!!
Training camp was absolutely amazing and I’ve been so blessed with a very supportive and loving squad. Even on day one it was made evident to me that the Lord had hand picked every single person on that squad. Over the next ten days me and almost 300 other racers would go about different training sessions teaching us about cultures of different countries, evangelism, discipleship and how to survive in the field. All of training camp was a crazy growth experience for me physically, mentally and especially in my faith.
Since arriving back home, I started trying to habitually get into the Word more often and also reading a few books. (If you know me at all you know that I hate reading – ahaha!) I have finished “Love Does” and “Everybody Always” by Bob Goff and I’m currently reading “Radical” by David Platt. These books have been super encouraging because they all have the common theme of dying to yourself, picking up your cross daily, and living out the great commission. These themes go along with what we were really challenged to do at training camp and how I responded to that challenge by putting it into practice with how I am trying to live.
Through my training camp experience, reading these books and studying more scripture, I feel confirmed and called to do this gap year. My heart is fully open to serving in these other countries and sharing Christ to those who may have never heard. I do not feel that there is anything special about me by deciding to go, but I feel like I am being obedient to what God has called me and every other believer to do.
This excerpt from David Platt’s book, “Radical”, perfectly sums up what I have been learning about myself and missions:
I find it interesting that one of the most common questions asked today among Christians is “What is God’s will for my life?” or “How do I find God’s will for my life?” Many Christians have almost assumed the attitude that they would obey God if he would just show them what he wanted them to do.
In the middle of a Christian culture asking, “How do I find God’s will for my life?” I bring good news. His will is not lost. With 1.4 million Bedouins in Algeria who have never even heard the gospel, it makes little sense for us to sit over here asking, “What do you want me to do, God?” The answer is clear. The will of God is for you and me to give our lives urgently and recklessly to making the gospel and the glory of God known among the all peoples, particularly those who have never even heard of Jesus.
The question, therefore, is not “Can we find God’s will?” The question is “Will we obey God’s will?”
Will we refuse to sit back and wait for some tingly feeling to go down our spines before we rise up and do what we have already been commanded to do?
Will we risk everything–our comfort, our possessions, our safety, our security, our very lives–to make the gospel known among unreached peoples?
Such rising up and such risk are the unavoidable, urgent results of a life that is radically abandoned to Jesus.
THIS is where my heart is right now and I am so excited to go out to the nations and spread the love of the Jesus. I can’t thank you enough for joining me in this journey.
