Ever since I can remember, I have always been fascinated by the world and everything in it. I always knew that I wanted to travel, but simply did not know how it would happen. I would have been okay with traveling for vacation, for work, or for any other reason under the sun; as long as I was able to travel, I didn’t care.
At 9 years young I made the conscious decision to be publicly baptized in water; knowing full well what I was declaring over myself and what I was making known to everyone around me. Even at such a young age, I had no problem recognizing and fully understanding that I was making an outward expression of my inward decision to surrender my life to the Lord and to be made new and washed clean.
After that day, I clearly remember a shift in my worldview. My eyes were suddenly open to the hurt and suffering in the world and I was extremely sensitive to it. At the age of 10, I was watching a video about some children and their families that lived in a third world country who were struggling to live. My heart ached so much that I began to uncontrollably cry. Over time I learned to control those emotions but I still felt them so deeply that it physically hurt. I couldn’t explain to anyone around me why I felt so strongly other than the fact that I simply did. And thus, began the journey to discover my calling.
Fast forward a few years to the age of 13. I was sitting in a special church service that was held specifically for some missionaries that attended our church that had moved to Tanzania, Africa. As I was listening to them speak and preach about global missions, those intense and deep feelings began to surface again and I couldn’t explain why. That night, through a series of events and prayers I was confident that the Lord had told me that I was called to global missions; and to be honest, I was absolutely terrified. Over the next few months, I wrestled with this new found calling a lot. There was a point where I had convinced myself that it was all in my head and I was not actually called to mission work. However, I knew deep down that that was not the case. So naturally, I made a deal with the Lord. I told him that if I were truly called to missions then he would need to send me on a different mission trip for every year of college and if he did that I would make myself available to anything he would call me to. The Lord came through on His side of the deal and then some. Between the years 2015 and 2019 I will have been on 5 different short-term mission trips. One before I left for college and one during every year. Because of this and the calling that was placed on me as a young girl, I know that I now needed to make myself available to anything and everything that the Lord has for me.
Rewind a bit to junior year of high school. One day I was browsing the internet looking for different opportunities for short-term missions. I came across a program, through Adventure in Missions, called the World Race. I looked into it a bit and thought that it was an incredible program but I quickly realized that there was an age limit of 21-35 and I was 16 so I didn’t give it a second thought and continued my search. Now fast forward to the summer before my senior year of college. I just turned 21 and I was getting ready for the home stretch of school. One day I was speaking with a friend and he was telling me about a program that he wanted to do that was a mission trip to 11 different countries in 11 months called The World Race and I knew exactly what he was talking about. After a little bit of talking with him, I began to research the program more. I felt a stirring in my spirit and I had a feeling that I was supposed to go. In my mind, short-term missions were the only options for me. Don’t get me wrong, I was fully aware that people devoted their lives to long-term missions in the mission field, but I simply never considered that for myself.
As I was researching The World Race I began to feel a lot of anxiety about it. I began to doubt my ability to take on such a huge feat. I was doubting the authority I have in Christ. I was doubting the giftings that had been placed on me. I was doubting my leadership and I was doubting the pioneering spirit I have always had. But at the same time, everything inside of me wanted to do it. After a lot of prayer and counsel, I made the decision that I was going to take the necessary steps to begin the journey of The World Race. I was still anxious and still doubtful but I knew that that was just the enemy trying to keep me from doing God’s work and spreading his name to all the nations.
From this point on, I knew that I was going to be under attack and I had to keep it on the forefront of my mind that the enemy was going to try anything and everything to keep me from going through with this trip. From the time that I had decided that I wanted to do this program to the time that I was actually able to apply was a few months. I had decided at the beginning of June but applications were not available until mid-August. That gave me a lot of time to wrestle with my thoughts and my doubts. In spite of the doubting, there is one thing I knew for certain and that is that God is in control. Despite what may happen along the way I have no fear that everything will work out exactly the way that it is supposed to.
It is now September 2018. I have been accepted into The World Race program and have begun the 2-year journey of faith. I am more than confident that the Lord will see me through this and will guide my every step along the way. I invite you to join with me in prayer and petition for this season that I have just stepped into! None of this would be possible without the power of prayer.
