Missions has touched my life in some way or another since I was about 13. The summer after my sixth grade year my church went on a missions trip to Barbados to teach VBS to kids down there. My parents thought it was important for my siblings and I to have this experience and they sacrificed other things so that we could all go as a family. I am so grateful to them for doing that. We spent a week there and I helped to teach crafts and it was a very eye opening experience for a young kid who had never really been exposed to much outside of her small town. Beside the church where we worked there was a slum these lean tos build of scrap metal and whatever else they could find. It blew my mind that someone could live like that. I loved working with the kids as well. Then a close family friend of ours was called to the mission field shortly after that and having that connections hearing about her life in Bolivia and how God was using her made a print on my life too.
Fast forward a few years to International Youth Convention in Orland, FL. The speaker talked about how some of us are called to be ministers, missionaries and things like that and others of us are called to serve in the places we are already at. He asked at the end that if we felt that God might be calling us to serve in the ministry on the mission field to come up front so that they could pray for us. I went up. I remember standing there with a friend and thinking, “Wow, is this really what God wants me to do?” I just felt He was calling me up to that stage. I didn’t know how all of that would play out for sure, but I knew I was supposed to go. So I did.
Life continued on, I went to college, found friends, worked on my degree and then I learned of an opportunity to do half of my student teaching overseas. I thought it sounded cool, but I wasn’t sure if it was something I could do. Two months far away from anyone I knew all by myself in some other country. I put the thought on the backburner for about a year, but then one day during a department chapel things changed. The education majors were listening to people who had done overseas student teaching and asking questions. At the end of this time one girl who although she had had a tough transition said, “If this is something you’ve ever considered, go for it. It may be tough at times, but it is so worth it. You will have amazing experiences and it teaches you to lean on God, because when everyone else you depend on is gone, you will always have Him.” That was it for me; I decided I was going to do it. I came home told my roommates, let my family know and started the process.
I was excited when I was placed in a school in my first choice country of Australia and as the time grew closer I was excited to hear form my cooperating teacher and the couple who I’d be staying with for the two months. Finally, the time arrived and I took off for the land down under. It was a great experience and I grew in many ways. Though it had its hard times I would not have traded it for two months spent here. I learned so much from the kids and the people I came in contact with. I made some good friends who I still keep in touch with to this day. This is when the desire to travel really set in. I came home and I was excited to see family and friends, but there was something inside of me that felt that I was going to go back to Australia one day and to other places. I just had this feeling that God had plans to take me places. I wasn’t sure what or where or when at this point, but I knew it was something that would be in my future.
I came home and found a job teaching Preschool back in my hometown through the program at my church. It has been a rewarding and challenging 3 years, but I know this is where God wanted me to be. I got involved with our Sr. High youth group and I’ve enjoyed building relationships with the kids there and watching them grow. Still, I had my eyes and ears open for an opportunity that might come along to go overseas, in case that was what God was leading me to. A few things came across my path, but nothing really fit or felt right. Then, one day totally by accident I found the World Race site. I was browsing a college friend’s blog and I saw something about World Race because another friends she has is currently out on her own race. I clicked on the link and found her blog. I started to check out the page, and it hit me then. I felt that this might be the thing God was calling me to. I was also pretty excited when I saw that the January 2010 race would go through Australia. It seemed this was my chance to go back! I spent some time in prayer and asked a few close friends to pray with me as well. In early January I knew I needed to apply. So I did, and told God if He wanted me on this trip to make a way. He did make a way because here I am excited about what is to come and where God is leading. And that is how I was called to the mission field.
