How did I find out about the World Race, and why am I going?
I’ve always wanted to be a missionary. At age 4, I declared to my parents that I wanted to be a missionary. At twelve years old, I joined a missionary trip to Nicaragua with my dad. I was able to go to Haiti for missionary work when I was 14 and 16 as well. After my last trip, once I got home, I declared once again, after twelve years, that I will be a missionary.
But what does being a missionary entail? I have never worked well with nebulous concepts. If an assignment is due whenever, I will procrastinate on it. If I don’t have guidelines on how to do something, I’ll ignore it. I can’t learn new languages, but I love English.
Just ministering in a foreign country, without any guidelines and a non-existent grasp of the language, wasn’t going to work for me. So I looked for the specific jobs within missionary work, and decided that I wanted to be a TESOL teacher.
TESOL, or Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, combines two of my favorite things: I would be helping people, and teach my favorite language of English. But was this truly what God wanted for me? Or was it just what I wanted for me?
My mother and I figured that I should take a gap year to figure that question out, but didn’t know what I should do during that time. Then, over spring break, we visited one of the two colleges that offered TESOL as a major, Moody Bible Institute. And God took care of the rest.
During our visit, the counselor who was meeting with us mentioned a “World Race”. Neither my mother or I had heard of this, and our interest was piqued. We immediately started looking up information. A nine month missionary trip in three continents, spreading the Word of God, meeting new people, trying new food, and going through new experiences? Sign me up!
So why am I going? I need to know if being a TESOL teacher is truly what God wants for me, or if He has another plan in mind. I need to know if I have what it takes to be a missionary. And I need to live, to expand past my sheltered life in Westfield, Indiana and see the rest of the multifaceted world that God has created.
Until next time!
A dangerous ray of sunshine signing off.
“For the Spirit God Gave us does not make us timid,
but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:7)
