hello family, friends, anyone who has stumbled across my blog!! i am so glad that you are here, reading my very first post!! i hope to answer a lot of questions about the world race, what i will be doing, why I’m going to be doing it, etc… so lets get started, this is my story!!
i had my first mission experience after my freshman year of highschool. through my church i went to aguascalientes, mexico for a week and this was really the start of my own personal relationship with our Savior. before this i had been raised in a christian household and believed, but my faith was never my own, until this first mission. two years went by and highschool took my one huge step forward, a couple back. my relationship with Jesus suffered from it. i was living for myself, and thought i was doing just fine on my own, until God came and proved me wrong. this past summer when my church went back to aguascalientes i was awakened to how much i needed my God (on the short end of things). again my faith soared. coming back i was on a spiritual high. then high school started. my senior year has been the hardest year of my life. take my word when i tell you i was a mess. it seemed like all people could do was just keep on hurting me. but this challenge was different than in the past. instead of dealing with it on my own terms, i think for the first time in my life, i gave it all to God. and man have we grow close. in november i got baptized and started to really live for him. now i see all the things i had been missing out on before.
not long after my baptism, i had my first aha moment. i was sitting at youth group one wednesday night and we were watching this video, but since i was sitting towards the back of the room i couldn’t quite see the words on the screen. so there i was just looking around when this voice popped into my head and said “ana why are you even going to college? you have no idea what you want to do.” now do i think that this was God? maybe. but i definitely know this was the start of him leading me somewhere. the whole way home from church i just had started to pray. with tears rolling down my cheeks i asked the Lord to just give me a sign what to do, to lead me somewhere. and boy did He.
i’ve never been the best at listening (sorry mom and dad), but i tried to limit the distractions and just really try to figure out what God was going to tell me. the same night I heard the voice in the back of my head, i flipped open my Bible, and said “God show me where you want me.” the page i opened up to had a devotional in it saying that God had a big purpose for my life and to keep praying and he would make it clear. easy enough right? not quite, but that’s what i did. i prayed. i prayed. i prayed. then one night about a week later i was sitting on my phone, scrolling through instagram, and i saw a post by a girl that is on the world race right now. she posted a picture with children wrapped around her leg and in her caption wrote about her life as a missionary on the race. it definitely sparked some interest, and i found myself on the world race website reading, and re-reading everything there was about it. at that point i honestly became obsessed. i watched youtube videos, read other racers blogs, and I knew deep down that this is exactly where God wanted me next year. no, i didn’t downright hear His voice saying, “ana go on the world race. i think this would be good for us.” but the peaceful feeling I got when I found it, was proof for me, that this was God’s big crazy plan.
so i applied. i was interviewed. i was accepted. which again was just validation that i was heading the right direction. i finally let my heart feel excitement. three whole months in each guatemala, ethiopia, and thailand, all spreading God’s love and furthering His kingdom? wow. maybe i should just trust God more often.
now i am going on the world race because i am certain this is the plan God has for me. so far the question i always seem to get is “what will you be doing?” and honestly i can’t tell you. it will be different each day, each place we are. but my team and i will be serving, teaching, loving. being the literal hands and feet of Jesus. and i am so ready for this new beginning.
well i hope this wasn’t too overwhelming for my first blog. don’t be afraid to reach out and ask me any further questions, or just if you would like to talk about this HUGE journey. prayers, donations, and encouragement are so welcomed and so appreciated. if you made it this far, below i linked one of the videos i found while i was researching. it really touched me and i hope it does the same for you.
thanks again for reading.
with love, ana
