I love adventure, travelling, sleeping on the ground, camp fires. I hold the opinion that camp fire should be a perfume/cologne smell. So, you would think I would’ve jumped at the idea of travelling to 11 countries in 11 months carrying nothing more than a backpack with clothes, tent and sleeping bag. But, instead I hesitated. I was in my apartment spending time with the Lord. I felt Him say he wanted to speak to me, so I sat and waited. The words “The World Race” popped into my mind. The World Race? I had heard of it before, I had known of two or three people who had done it. I knew it was some sort of missions thing that went all over the world. But, this was not what I was expecting to hear.
I graduated high school in 2010, and had a similar experience. Sitting in my tree house, I asked God, “What do you want me to do now?” I was immediately reminded of a mission’s conference I had attended two years previous. ‘World Mandate’ put on by Antioch Community Church in Waco, TX. At that conference my view of God was demolished and reconstructed to a hundred times the size. I heard missionaries talk of the sick being healed, people being saved, God speaking to people in dreams, visions, and even of people being raised from the dead. And all this was happening now! There was something else too. As I listened to them talk and pray I knew that they loved and knew Jesus in a way I didn’t and… I wanted it.
As I listened to the birds sing up above me, the thought came, “I wonder if they have some type of training school.” I hopped onto my computer and googled, “World Mandate” “Training School?” I couldn’t even remember the name of the church. Sure enough, it popped up. They had a nine month discipleship school; Antioch Discipleship School. (At the time it was called Elevate)
In their own words, “It is a place to experience radical transformation and find clarity for a lifetime of following Jesus. To that end, we teach people to love God, love others and love those who do not know Jesus. We focus on the word of God, applying the word and teachings to our daily lives and developing character and integrity.”
I signed up and moved to Waco, TX. My life was rocked. I shared the Gospel for the first time with strangers. I saw people instantly healed before my eyes and not in even in some other country, but in the US. I experienced the presence of God and healing of God in my own life like never before as I let go of old mindsets and accepted His truths about myself. At the end of the year we all went on a three week outreach. Mine was to a country in North Africa. I experienced telling people the Good News who had never heard it before. Every time it was mind-blowing when they would say, “I’ve never heard that before.” These people had never heard before! They lived in shame and bondage not knowing what would happen to them after eternity…and just never had anyone tell them the Answer.
I returned home. But, almost every night I dreamt about those people. One night I dreamt I was sobbing as I read a letter from girl who told me that she now believed. It was so real. I asked God that question again, what should I do now? And felt led to stay in Waco and stay in the community I had become a part of. I began a job working at clothes store and started looking into colleges to apply to or do school online. But, I very clearly heard the Lord tell me to wait on school and to spend all my extra time with Him. This did not seem logical. The ‘right’ ‘responsible’ thing to do was to get an education. This was not what normal people did and like normal people, I like to fit in. But, he reminded me that I wanted my life to be fully about Him, so why not be fully surrender with no exceptions? My motto became, “Waste it all”, inspired by Mary who broke her alabaster jar and “wasted” it all on Jesus.
Again, I asked what now? This then led me to go back to North Africa for 15 months to live life and share the gospel with those who had never heard.
At this point, I thought it was time for a longer-term answer. Maybe something like, “Commit to living in this country for 2-3 years.” Or “Now go get an education.” Every year had been a surprise, a turn, a transition. And I heard, “World Race”. Honestly, it didn’t sound appealing, especially, the word, “race”. “Sit” or “stay” were nicer words…what about The World Stay? But, I knew I was going to do it. I knew by now to trust what the Lord was speaking. I told the Lord I of course would do it, but also told him my feelings. I felt like I no longer had a home. That as soon as I made roots I was being uprooted again. In North Africa I didn’t fully belong, I always stood out as a foreigner. Now back in the States I knew I was just passing through, and I had changed, things and people had changed in my absence.
Matthew 8:19-20, “Then one of the teachers of religious law said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”
I felt Him speaking to me, “Relate with me. Be as I was. Let your security not be in where you live, but in that I am with you.”
I have found my home. He is my home. Where he goes I will go and as long as I am following Him I am always at home.
I am excited for this new adventure and to get my campfire perfume on in:
Costa Rica. Nicaragua. Honduras. Turkey. Albania. Botswana. Swaziland. South Africa. Cambodia. Thailand. Vietnam.
Hebrews 11:13-18,” … They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. 14 Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. 15 If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. 16 But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”
