Sitting alone in my room one night, I cried out in silence, “Lord, would you speak to me clearly now?” As promised in Scripture, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8). Surely enough, I was not forsaken in that time. As I continued to pray, the Lord brought an image to my mind consisting of certain shapes/regions on a map. Immediately, I looked up a map on my phone and wrote in my journal every country that fit the description of what I saw. I closed my journal and went to bed without thinking twice. Early the very next morning, an ad popped up on my Instagram feed for The World Race. Out of curiosity, I clicked on it, and I instantly recognized the first route displayed. I jumped out of bed, flipped to the page in my journal from the night before, and realized that almost every country I had written down matched Route 1 for October 2019. The deadline for the application fell on the day I was supposed to start nursing school.
So many questions ran through my mind in that moment. I knew this was a calling too specific to be ignored, yet I didn’t see how it was possible. After all, I was supposed to move to a new city and start nursing school in two weeks. Raising support in that amount of time and surrendering my agenda for an entire year seemed impossible. I told myself that it would be easier to ignore and pretend like none of it had ever happened. “Some things are better kept to yourself,” I thought.
Over the next week, I received confirmation after confirmation that The World Race was where I needed to be. Finally, I confided in a couple friends, family members, and mentors, and each one encouraged me to step out in faith and obedience to God’s plans and purposes for my life. I became aware of the fact that He was fulfilling promises He had made to me as a little girl, and I was not going to give up my dream of international missions just because the timing seemed hard. The cost was well worth it. That same week, I called my nursing school to tell them I was withdrawing my enrollment (before I had even begun my application for The World Race). The process has been one of excitement and grief, but above all, a sense of unexplainable peace. In no way do I have all the answers or have everything “figured out,” but I am trusting God to lead me and guide me in new territory.
In preparation for the launch date, I continue to surrender my own plans to God each day and live in awe of who He is. He is so much bigger than I thought He was.
“To humans belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue. All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord. Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.” (Proverbs 16:2-3)
