When I tell people that I will be spending 11 months in 11 countries, living out of a backpack, they have questions. Shocking, eh?
Below are some answers to your questions. If you want to know more, subscribe to my blog updates and send me a message! I would love to get together with you to share more about where God is leading me!
Where:
Albania, Romania, Turkey, Bulgaria, South Africa, Swaziland, Botswana, India, Nepal, China, and Mongolia.
When:
July 2014 – May 2015
Who:
I will be traveling with a team organized by Adventures in Missions. My trip is called the World Race, and I am now what is called a Racer.
Why:
After a short time in the Middle East in 2012, I returned to America frustrated. My desire to preach truth and love in the open was at the center of this frustration. Right after I returned, I read Revolution in World Missions which led me to pray a lot about a life of overseas ministry and what God’s will is for my life. It was through this prayer and time in the Word that I started to receive direction and dreams for the future.
The first thing I felt God calling me to was a life of simplicity. To have a heart free from worry and distractions, relationships that are authentic, and possessions that are few. With this, I feel a more specific call to live out of a backpack. I want my heart and treasure to be in God’s kingdom, not in this world (Matthew 6:21).
Next was the call to discipleship. We are all called to it, and it is something I am very passionate about. As I read Paul’s letters, I realized that Paul’s ministry is very similar to what our Father has given me a heart for:
Pioneering unreached people groups, proclaiming the Gospel, and planting churches.
Discipling brothers and sisters who will stay. They will disciple natives who will lead the church, and they will ensure that nothing is preached but Truth (as Paul instructs Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:3).
As I prayed for direction and received these as answers, my prayers turned into something along the lines of “God, those are nice ideas, but you must be insane.” As a young woman, I feel so unprepared and inadequate for this calling. I told God that He needed to provide a way for me to be discipled into this type of ministry, and that’s when I found the World Race.
Initially it was just intriguing. It combined missions, intense/authentic community, and living out of a backpack. Wondering if Adventures cares much about discipleship, I went to their About page and found this:
“We want to mobilize people to missions as a means of discipleship, and we’ve been at it for over twenty years. We want to help you mobilize and disciple others.”
That’s when I was sure the World Race was the answer to my prayers, and I knew I would be going.
