I was accepted to the World Race in November and it still doesn’t seem real. I can’t believe that I’m actually writing a blog, raising support, and preparing to go. I keep thinking about where I’ll be a year from now and what I’ll be doing. It’s exciting, it’s scary, and it’s slightly overwhelming but I’m so ready to see what God has in store.
So how did I get here, to a place of completely surrendering an entire year of my life and ministering to God’s people on the other side of the world? A year ago, I never would have imagined myself as a missionary. The World Race came into the picture 3 years ago when I was a freshman in college and a racer was preparing to leave. I remember thinking she was crazy, that spending a year as a missionary was too risky, and raising that much money? Nuts. But the following year, a guy from my religious life community left for the race, and the year after that another girl was starting her adventure. The race kept popping up, but I was not ready to surrender my plans for my life. I’ll admit I thought about going on the race, but quickly dismissed the idea out of fear and feelings of inadequacy.
Fast forward to this past summer, with graduation coming up in December and no prospective job offers, I decided to start looking for short-term missions or internship opportunities. Again, the race kept popping up in all my searches and again, I dismissed it. Slowly however, I began to open up to the idea. I began to read blogs, lots and lots of blogs, and I realized that I could do this and that these racers weren’t some super-Christians but regular, screwed up people like me. So I said yes. I told God that if He wanted to open the door, then I would walk through it.
Sometimes I still don’t feel like I can do it, but God has been constantly showing me that He has great things planned for me on this journey. He’s given me peace about fund raising and has already used the most unlikely people to encourage me. I feel blessed for this opportunity to go and serve God in the nations and I am so excited to see where He takes me and how He uses me. May this be all for God’s glory and not mine!
