Maybe you were like me and one day sat down and did an internet search of the words “foreign/domestic missionary organizations”, and some where among the results Adventures in Missions caught your eye. Maybe you were like me and were a smidge (three years) young and couldn’t apply until you were 21, maybe you had prayed about it on and off every once in a while, but as 21 approched you spent more time in prayer about it. Maybe you were like me and prayed that God give you something/ take you completely outside of your comfort zone in order to fully understand what it means to be a true disciple of Christ’s. Maybe you are like me and committed your life and said “whatever you want Lord, do it”.
Maybe how you and I got here are completely different, but nonetheless, we are now racers. You and I are leaving “home” with a backpack and a bible and are heading for the nations. For those who don’t really have a clear picture, The World Race is an 11 month mission trip that will take squads (shout out to U-Squad) of 40-50 21-35 year olds to 11 different countries. I get asked pretty often what will ministry look like, and I was answered that it will be different from month to month, country to country. That we will be the hands and feet of Christ, doing whatever it takes to be the light of the world. Kind of paints a clearer image of what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:19/22,” For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.””…I have become all things to all people, by all means I might save some.”
And here we are.
Chances are we are probably sharing some very similar emotions. For me, I forgot how painful and uncomfortable it is when one gives God permission to mold them and stretch them. I think that we all have this idea that we are the ones doing the “preparing” in the months leading up to launch, when in reality, only God can fully prepare us for this next step. I know that a common struggle for myself and my squad was spiritual attacks. It honestly felt like satan gave me from the day of my acceptance to the day that I put my deposit in and fully committed to going, did he lay the attacks on thick. Isn’t that what it always is though?? Once we decide and commit something to the Lord, does the tempter move in. Gosh, he sucks, but its all good, because our Savior is victorious.
So, keeping in theme of preparations, I can’t really offer you much on gear, only because I am a procrastinator down to my very core and have yet to buy any of it for myself. But I do have some pearls of advice (wisdom if you will) for you.¿Esta bien? Ok.
• Fundraising. Maybe you’re like me and you are prideful. You don’t like to admit you need help until you really need help. Or maybe you’re stubborn or embarrassed to ask for money, both of which I am. iEsúcheme! You (we) can not do this on your (our) own. And were aren’t suppose to. One of my favorite images in the bible is found in Acts 4:32-37, the early church had eveything in common. They didn’t count anything as their own, but joined it all together and where ever there was a need, there was provision. Send out letters, do fundraisers, don’t stop talking about it. Don’t forget no matter how hard it is, God is still God, He is still good and faithful. “Nothing produces faith like trusting God with money”. #sotrue 🙂
• Desperately seek after your quiet times. I think it’s really easy to go on mission trips and experience the “mission high”; you read your bible every day and are on prayer overload. But then you return home, and you settle in, readapt to life here. God has really been ministering to me in my quiet times, and I realized that while we will be in a different country, eventually that will become our “normal”. It won’t be any easier here than it will be in South Africa or Nepal or Mars (you get the idea). Seek after His word, it’s said that it is “as sweet as honey” Ezekiel 3:3. It really is.
• Pray for a mission set mind. I am totally guilty of this, but it’s really easy to read all the blogs of current racers, look up the #11in11 on instragram, and watch the videos over and over, and get beyond stoked for all the awesome rad things we will do on the race, more so than the actual purpose why we are going. Don’t get me wrong, I really want to snuggle up with a tiger (my favorite animal) in Thailand and do floating lanterns, and see waterfalls, and blah blah blah. I do. I have things that I want to do while abroad, who doesn’t?? But God has shifted my set of mind recently. I really want to see God change the lives of the people that we will come into contact with. I really want the people to have true joy and to receive salvation. I want to laugh, cry, struggle, love, with the people. God is Lord of this world, and he earnestly desires the heart of every one of his children.
There are literally a million of things I could write, but in all of this, God is the most important. We can not do this with out Him.
“Be with us God, be near, keep us, O Lord. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen”.
