Eleven countries in eleven months, far away from everything familiar, leaving all comfort behind…
Why the World Race?
When I was a little girl, I remember sitting in Awanas one Wednesday night, listening to a missionary from China tell us that there were millions of children and people there that didn’t know the name of Jesus. I will never remember the name of that missionary, but since hearing him that night, I decided that I wanted to be a missionary at the young age of ten.
The desire to be a missionary and my great burden for the lost was something I had began to push into the back of my mind as I became so focused on friends, school, and things of the world. The Lord, however, remembered the seed in my heart.
I rededicated my life to the Lord when I was fifteen. One church service when I was sixteen, the pastor kept repeating, “There is someone in this congregation that God is calling to foreign missions.” I began seeing children from all over the world in my mind’s eyes, I could almost audibly here God saying, “Go, Amy. This is what I want you to do with your life.” I couldn’t control my tears as I was so burdened for the lost of the world.
Since that day, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that God had called me to be a missionary. The burden He has placed in my heart for unreached peoples is so great.
I began praying fervently, “Where God, would you have me go?” At a woman’s prayer meeting at church one night, I got completely filled with the Holy Spirit, and a woman who was praying over me said, “God wants me to tell you that you are to go to many Nations for His name. Many are called, but few are chosen. God has chosen you for the Nations.”
I was so overwhelmed with peace, love, and joy that night that only Jesus can give. He had chosen me to go to many nations for Him!! Surely my soul was dancing, as I bowed at His feet.
As the years have passed since that night, I began to have greater specific burdens for many Asian countries, as God laid on my heart the people of India, China, Japan, Laos, Nepal, and southeast Asia. I have always silently pondered in my heart, “How will I end up going to many nations like God told me?”
This January, I went on a 21 day fast, seeking the Lord’s will for my life this year, and that’s when I found the world race, with a specific Asia route, which included India, Nepal, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Japan, China, and Mongolia. I heard Him nudge me, “Go Amy.”
I knew right away that God was leading me in this direction. He has prepared my heart for these people and these lands. He has called me to sell my possessions, to give up my life for Him, and follow Him wherever He would have me to go. God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called. I am forever grateful that I can do even this much for the Lord, who is worthy of praise, forever and ever.
