I’ve learned how to dream
There were years of my life I refused to dream. Somewhere around the middle school years I came to the conclusion that my life was just going to go downhill forever. I honestly didn’t see the point. But along the way I was filled with hope by the Giver of Life. I’ve seen my Maker and been transformed. On the race, my hope only grew. The World Race has been something I’ve dreamed of ever since the summer of my sophomore year of high school. Just under 2 years ago I signed up the very first day the applications opened before the countries were even released. I had hope and excitement in what the Lord was going to do. I signed up for my route during my anatomy class the minute the email was sent. I was filled with hope! Romania, India, Costa Rica. Yes. Then, the Lord fully funded me with $16,000 in just 6 months. I was filled with hope. About mid March, a global pandemic hit. I was unsure what the heck was gonna happen with World Race, let alone life . But I remained steadfast in hoping because I know who my God is and that He never fails. Then, World Race told us WE WERE STILL GOING, just we were going to live in tents for four months in the middle of nowhere Georgia and they had no idea what they were going to do after that. But I had hope. And I moved to Gainesville, Georgia ready to see the Lord move, and He did. I had a team leader that was an answered prayer (shoutout Samantha Putnam now Mrs. MANCHE as of May 29). I was placed on a team with women who lead me deeper with the Lord. I learned about the Bible, culture, colonialism in Christianity, other belief systems and World views. I worked with a sex trafficking ministry and got to pour out the hope of Christ into neighborhoods. The Lord met me in incredible ways. I wasn’t in Romania but I knew I wasn’t supposed to be because what He had for me in Georgia was better than anything I could of hoped for. I went to Louisiana and saw peoples lives be completely destroyed. I saw just how fragile our lives are, how fleeting, but how eternal Christ is. I grew close with a homeowner Ms. Penny who had lost so much, yet clung to the hope we have in Jesus. (Hi Ms. Penny if you’re reading this <3). I moved to Costa Rica and experienced people leaving New Age beliefs and being radically transformed by Christ. I watched people ask hard questions in the streets and saw other Christians encouraged by the fellow Church. Oh, man. I am filled with hope. Then I came to the Dominican Republic. I had to cling to the hope I had been given. I watched as men treated women like objects for sale, and people turn to harmful substances to subdue their thoughts. But as I watched faces light up at the blessing of groceries, or my team fight in prayer as we walked down the road, or the conversation we got to have on the street of Sosua with two pregnant young girls about Jesus, or how the girl I mentored desired to know more of Christ, or how my squad grew in reverence for the Lord, or running into another 11n11 squad and hearing their testimony of witnessing to a club owner, I am reminded that nothing can stop the Lord. The hope we have in him roars in me because I know “the Lord is good to those whose hope is in him; to the one who seeks him” Lamentations 3:25 NIV. Now I am sitting at my gate about to board for my flight home and I am filled with hope. I am sad to leave this season, but I’m not scared. I have let the Lord fill me with dreams, college, being the next one. In just four years, the Lord has brought me from despair to so much hope I need to write down all my dreams so I don’t forget them. I have watched basically every plan I had, the countries I was going to, my major, the college I planned to go to after the race, change and be replaced with something better. I’m not scared of the future but filled with eternal hope. Thanks God. “He satisfies your desires with good things” Psalm 103:5 NIV. So, Word Race, thanks for being a platform that pushed me deeper with Jesus and a place that cultivated hope in me. Gap F, thanks for dreaming alongside me. See y’all soon?
Signing off,
Mary
