How God led me to the World Race
It wasn’t overnight, well actually it was, but there is more. When I look back, I can see that my whole life, God was actually preparing me for this race. I mean He included every single detail in my upbringing. I used to think I had a terrible life as a child, but to see God use it for a purpose, makes it all worth it. On the race, I will be away from my family for 11 months straight. I will be living out of one backpack for the time being and moving from place to place each month with a team of people. When I was younger my mother moved us every other year it seemed, so I was used to moving around. My mother and I also didn’t have the best relationship, so I was used to always having one backpack full of necessities just in case I got kicked out or decided I wanted to run away. I disconnected from my family for a few reasons, mostly I was just misunderstood and felt like I didn’t belong, so I felt like I needed to figure life out on my own. While I stumbled quite a few times, eventually I bumped into God and He put me on the right path.
As my relationship with God began to grow, unknowingly He began to prepare me even further. He asked me to move eight hours away to Saint Louis, MO for college. At this point, I still didn’t know my purpose, but I learned to trust God. For three years, I lived eight hours from home and was able to visit every other month or so. Also, during college, I began to play sports and learned how to be a part of a team even more than the jobs I was working.
While I was in Saint Louis, the Lord led me to Joyce Meyer’s church, The Dream Center. This church fed me and helped me to blossom in my relationship with the Lord. This was when God slowly began to reveal things to me and further prepare me for the race.
It was during August 2017, that God first mentioned something big to me that He wanted me to do, which I will not share at the moment, because it is not complete. However, because of this, I expressed to the Lord that I no longer wanted to be a bartender. Instead, I wanted to do what He was calling me to do. You have to love when you ask God to use you because He sure will. His response was for me to quit my job and do what He asked of me, so for a moment, I wondered if God was serious or if I heard Him correctly and indeed it was true. So, I obeyed Him and trusted that He would make a way. For seven months I had no job because the Lord told me the jobs He would give me I would not have to apply for. While I was without a job, God made sure all of my bills were paid, I was able to eat, and I had all I needed to survive. All He asked of me was to double my tithe. Mind you I thought He was crazy. He had me quit my job and give Him more money, but He showed me the power of faith, trust, and tithing during that season.
I didn’t have to ask anyone for anything, many people had no clue what I was going through because God was making things happen for me supernaturally. This time with God taught me so much about Him, His power, and His faithfulness. It was so necessary for me to see because it grew my faith in ways I previously didn’t know were possible. When He had me in this season, He began to ask me to give up my things and follow Him. So, of course, my reply was yes, I didn’t think it would have been the way it was, but regardless I was going to do what He was asking of me. Nearly a year and a half ago, is when God began to reveal to me that I would give up everything and follow Him and my first destination would be California.
Time passed, and I asked questions like, when, where, and even how. He told me to leave St. Louis, MO on December 24, 2018, and arrive in San Diego, CA, specifically Mission Valley on January 1, 2019. For a while, He told me not to worry about how, He would reveal that when it was time, in the meantime He just wanted me to focus on getting ready by pressing into Him and getting rid of my belongings. I was only allowed to take my car full of important possessions, which I have found through the past three months, aren’t really important at all.
When He revealed how all He said was I am going to do this in a way that everyone will know that it was only me. No one else will be able to get credit for what I am about to do, so I was excited. I thought it was going to be daisy’s and roses when I arrived in California. It had been a lifelong dream to live here anyhow, so I was ready! I was also, nervous because two days before I left, I had seven dollars to my name. You may be wondering why I didn’t save, but trust me I tried, but when I had something God gave me a reason to give it up, whether it was providing for someone else, something popping up I had to take care of immediately, or Him asking me to tithe hundreds of dollars at a time. He wanted to show me His power, He wanted me to rely on Him alone, so that’s what I learned to do.
As time passed and things occurred, I really started saying okay God, you haven’t shown me my part in how. He said to look up a route, there were two ways I could go, but He showed me which one to take. Then He told me to book three rooms on the way, but I said God I don’t have the money, but He said trust me, book them. So, I obeyed.
I knew I was on a mission; however, I didn’t know the significance of the Valley until I arrived. He sent me to Mission Valley on a mission in the valley. I was expecting Him to bring me up, but He sent me down instead. There were things I had to learn in the valley that the mountain top was incapable of teaching me. Two weeks after arriving, for the past three months, I was homeless until this past Saturday. At first, I was devastated, I didn’t understand why God would bring me even further from home and 30 hours from Saint Louis, just to be homeless. I knew immediately that He was testing me, I didn’t know He was also preparing me.
He was trying to see if I would trust Him at all times, no matter where the journey led me. Trust me there were seconds (and I say seconds because they were short-lived) where I thought that giving up would be much easier, but that’s the thing. God never said it would be easy, He only said it would be worth it. I realized again and again that my journey isn’t just about me, so I needed to get out of the way.
This journey humbled me more than I thought I previously was, and it helped me reach and relate to people even more than I thought I could before. It also taught me how much lighter life was without a bunch of possessions, I learned to live out of one bag, and I got used to moving more frequently. In the shelter, we had to change churches every two weeks. I even learned how to live closer to people that I was not familiar with and learn how to become a family of sorts.
God had already told me not to get comfortable in the states prior to me moving here, so I asked him to show me how long I should be here, through a lease when I got here. Well about a month of me being homeless, I found a place, which I thought was amazing, it was just missing one thing I had been praying for, which I was willing to sacrifice. A week before I found the place, I was scrolling one night and seen an ad about The World Race, I thought eh it’s just an ad and kept going. The next night, I saw the same ad, so I clicked on it and see what it was, and I thought WOW!
I have learned to not make decisions without first doing research and more importantly consulting the Lord. So, I prayed and prayed and asked the Lord if this is where He was leading me. Time and time again He confirmed it, but as usual, I ask until I know it is Him and not me, a pattern I need to break. We should be able to trust that it is Him in a split second when He reveals Himself. This was in February, the route He led me to leaves in October, the place I found wanted a six-month lease commitment. My answers had arrived, or so I thought, after three weeks of communicating about the place and having it confirmed that it would be mine, the lady changed her mind three days before my move-in date.
I was upset because at the time I hadn’t understood why everything was happening. I didn’t realize until after this happened that He was, in fact, preparing me for the race, He only used that situation to tell me how long I would be there and to show me that my expectations are small compared to what He has in store for me. I had to wait slightly longer, but the church I was staying at put me in their prayer group and things began to come my way. One of the ladies at the church had a room she wanted to rent out. I talked to her for weeks but had never met her or seen what she had to offer, but the spirit was in our conversations, so I knew God was leading me in her direction. She lived in the area of the churches I was staying in, she was a believer, and the place wasn’t missing anything I was praying for. In fact, when I arrived to move in, I had no clue what to expect, because Suzie would always downplay everything. I was going to stay regardless though because I knew God wanted me there. When I arrived, I was blown away from the end of the driveway, to my room that was fully furnished, bright and beautiful, all the way to the backyard where the plant is amazing and there is an area to sit with the Lord. What really took the cake for me is that, at my entrance to the house, there is a beautiful wreath and at the top of it lives a dove!
I said all that not only to help you understand more about me and my journey but also to show you that even when things don’t look like they are going well, it is true when God says He uses all things (Romans 8:28). They may not be easy, but they will be worth it and what you have in mind for your life or your next step, is nowhere near what God has in mind. Don’t allow your expectations hold you back from Gods revelations. I know God has a plan and a purpose for us all, I pray that if you don’t know yours yet, you chase after God until He shows you all of it. As for myself, now that I know the Lord and His love, I am going to go to the ends of the earth and share it until the rest of the World knows it too.
I know this post is rather lengthy, but usually, when God is doing something, it is a process, He doesn’t do many things overnight. I just happened to find out about the race at night. I hope that this inspires you to seek the Lord and to hold on when things get tough.
If you would like to be a part of this journey with me and to help spread God’s love and word around the world. I would love it if you kept me in your prayers as I prepare, subscribe to stay updated and if it is on your heart, donate to the cause. I pray that God will multiply your blessings for your obedience and for sowing into His kingdom. Be blessed and encouraged!
Tatted Testimony
