Hey friends! First blog post of my whole life- whhaaaattt??? Let me start by saying thank you (that I do know to say first) for reading this. And for caring. And for being here. And for listening. And for prayer. And for lots of other things.
Now, really, what do I say? The Race has been a big dream for a really long time. I remember sitting in my hammock in my back yard at my hometown in Virginia probably three years ago looking through the website and blog posts and dreaming of having my own URL- ‘Emma Kate’s World Race Blog’. It’s got a nice ring to it!!! Now it’s here. And it definitely has a nice ring to it. I’m Emma Kate, writing my own blog post because I joined a super cool organization that I get to go to the Philippines with for a month and spread the love that Jesus has given me to others. I get to help others with my own hands and experience the love that Jesus has given them as well. To that, I simply say… wow. I say thank you, Lord, for giving me hands that are capable of building, cleaning, writing, holding. I say I’m pretty lucky to have this wish of mine come true. I say this is an opportunity for me to HELP. Love. Take care of. Learn.
To learn. I have a lot a lot a lot to learn. I have a lot to learn about myself as well as a lot to learn about the Lord. We spend our entire lives learning. Life isn’t easy and life with Jesus sure isn’t easy either. He gives us free will and it is up to us to choose Him every single day. I hope this blog helps me choose Him and I hope it encourages you to choose Him as well.
And I’m also really scared. I’m scared that I am this extremely fortunate human writing blog posts about helping less fortunate humans. I feel weird for it. I feel like others are staring at me, judging me for it. I feel like I am glorifying it- how extra lucky I am. I never want to make it seem like those I want to help are in any way less than me. I have learned more from people living in poverty than I have learned from any wealthy person. I feel that those less fortunate people go through fire, so much fire (the Lord puts us through this) and it is because of that fire He puts them through they are able to love others so tenderly. They are able to shout His name from the mountain tops and love Him more than anyone else.
The Lord tells us (Matthew 6) to help others quietly and not to expect anything from it. Don’t expect fame, Jesus doesn’t want you to be famous simply for helping others. I want that to be known here. I don’t want this blog to ever be about me glorifying what I am doing so that I become known- I want the people in Manila to be known. I want you to see how they live, how they love, so that maybe you learn better ways to love. I want these people to be known so they are helped by the nations- by prayer, by ministry, by whatever it is that you want to do.
The Lord himself fights for us (Exodus 14:14) and He calls us to do some pretty amazing things. He humbles us and makes us missionaries. He created us to help others and to make Him known. Those are my goals all the way leading up to May and my goals while I am there as well. If you made it to the bottom of this, thank you. Thank you for reading and letting me be vulnerable right here. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I know thats really all I ever need to say.
