FUNDRAISING UPDATE: On January 15th, I officially hit my first thousand dollars! I obviously have a long way to go, but I stand forever grateful for this first milestone. To everyone who has contributed so far, THANK YOU.
At the outset of this process, I shared in my support letters a little of the journey that led me to the World Race, but here at the 1,000 mark, I want to tell you a little bit more about how the World Race works and why I chose this particular missions program. Adventures in Missions, the parent organization of the World Race, is partnered with local churches, ministries, and organizations all over the world–in Peruvian jungles, Philippine megacities, Nepalese mountain villages, etc. After the team at Adventures has prayerfully and thoughtfully chosen a team of young missionaries (oh hey that’s me) and an 11 country route for us to travel, they contact their partners local to those 11 countries and ask about their needs. Then, while we, the team, have boots on the ground in each country, we are sent to the ministries that have the most need and are best suited to our combined skill sets. We might be sent to serve in an orphanage or a prison or a school or even on a farm. After a month serving in that country, we move on. This system has two key benefits:
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For us, the Racers, we are constantly challenged. Not allowed to settle in or make ourselves at home for too long, we get a taste of the itinerant lifestyle of Christ and the early apostles. “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). This kind of ministry requires and teaches an intense dependency on the comfort and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
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For the communities we serve, this partnership with local ministries ensures that someone is always caring for the community. Before we ever get there, and long after we leave, dedicated Christians are making their homes and lives on that mission field, getting to know the spiritual and physical needs of the community and learning how to meet those needs.
It is for those two reasons that I chose this specific mission trip. I wanted a ministry with a long-term team that I could partner with for a season and know when I left that discipleship, development, and care were continuing on. The idea of living like a nomad, however, definitely scared me. Why not spend the whole year in one place, settling in and seeing long-term change with my own eyes? I know still that there is so much good in that, but this time, God showed me a different way. I found it in this passage, from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, talking about himself and the other apostles. “To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things. I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children . . . I urge you, then, be imitators of me” (1 Cor 4:11-14,16). While long-term living in the field may yet be in my future, I am content for those coming 11 months, to be buffeted and homeless. And I’ll do it while following the Father who provides, the Christ who is the way, and the Spirit who guides.
