Led to Race

I‘ve never dreamed of doing anything like the World Race before. I thought it might be fun to be on the “Amazing Race” TV show but have never thought I would actually go to several different countries in my lifetime. If anything, I wanted to experience the culture of Japan. I didn’t have much of a dream to go around the world, but that’s before all of this happened…

In the month of May, Water’s Edge, the college ministry I’m a part of started a month-long journey to getting closer in our personal relationships with God. It was amazing. Hundreds of college students committed themselves to praying for an hour each day and a lot of them fasted as well. We were committed to praying until God did something new. I took part of the prayer part every day, and that’s when I really got into tune with what God was saying.

Let’s back up. A few months earlier, I had been asked to apply for a team going to Liberia for two weeks at the end of the year, but honestly I didn’t think it was for me, because I was very involved with our New Orleans Missions and had school, and just a bunch of other stuff going on.

Now in the month of prayer, God started to really bug me about my decision to not apply for the Liberia team. I didn’t understand why. I kept wondering, “Am I suppose to go?“. A lot of my closest friends are a part of that team and the idea really appealed to me. However, the team was picked, and closed off, so it was too late to get onto it. So i kept praying about why God was bothering about going on a mission trip to Liberia. I had my Dad pray too. We prayed for clarity in the situation and for God to reveal doors he wanted me to walk through.

This is when I found out about the race. Hanging out with some friends one night around a campfire, I met Talia Barnes, daughter of Seth Barnes. I was curious about AIM, because our mutual friend, Nicole, is going on a FYM trip with AIM. She told me a little about her World Race last year and the web address for the WR.

That’s when my full investigation started of the race. I started reading tons of blogs, watching videos, and asking questions. After I thought this might be an option, I started praying. I got my parents to pray, and asked mentors what they thought. God kept getting me excited about the idea of going.