Coming back from summer camp it hit me that I had 6 weeks to training camp and I thought, “What the heck?! Time has flown since I committed to the World Race.” Well, time continues to fly and now I am a month away from meeting my squad in person.
Questions and plans for preparation are swirling in my head. What is it going to be like to meet everyone in person? Will conversation flow in person as easily as it does on our “GroupME” messaging app? Am I going to be able to complete the 2 mile hiking course under the time limit? Will new foods sit well in my stomach? Am I going to be able to establish a good sleep routine at training camp and on the race? How am I going to finish fundraising? What will transitioning out of teaching for the next year look like? Am I going to discover a new vocational passion?
The good thing is, I don’t need to know the answers to all the questions. The better thing is, over the course of the Fall of 2018-now God has been teaching me what it looks like to live out Philippians 4:6-7. 9 (“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”)
Already in the fundraising process God has answered some BIG prayers. For starters, before leaving NC for summer camp I not only met my first financial goal (raising $5,000 before training camp) I exceeded it! There have been a number of instances where I was really unexpectedly blessed by the generosity of others. Here is a short story of one of those instances:
I was visiting a friends parents in Eastern NC with her four kids. While we were there, I got to talking to her Dad about the World Race — specifically talking about the various countries I will be going to during the next 11 months. He shared that he had previously been to Zambia himself and had many hurdles to get over in order to get there; however on his own journey he felt called to be a part of the missions trip his church was taking and the hurdles were knocked over one at a time. Not only did he encourage me with his words, his commitment to pray for me on my journey, he also blessed me with a donation towards my fundraising — something I totally wasn’t expecting! Earlier that day I had prayed for another donation to come in; neither he nor I knew that our conversation would lead to a prayer being answered directly.
So while there are a lot of questions swirling around in my head, I am sitting in the peace of Christ. I know this next year will be filled with a great deal of challenges, but I also know that I will not be facing them alone.
