I know what I am doing after the Race!
But……
…… I need to start with some background story first to make my tale complete. 🙂
Back in UGANDA, Clark- one of our amazing alumni squad leaders- was with my team Burning Joy. Clark was going to preach one day, so he ran a little of the intro by us. He was going to talk a little bit about the 42nd generation. He opened up to Matthew 1 and started talking to us about the genealogy. In the chapter, it talks about there being 14 and 14 and 14 generations between people but, when you count them up, there are only 41 and then Christ as the 42nd generation.
G42.
We are the forty second generation.
We are G42!!
MIND. BLOWN.
I turned to my team and told them that I am going to start praying about G42. This is something that excited me and maybe God was calling me to something like that after the race.
Then in RWANDA, I talked to my team again. I told them that I believed that God was calling me to G42. I was planning on going to G42 when I finish the Race.
Near the end of ETHIOPIA, I was telling someone that I was being called to G42 after the Race. They looked at me and said, “Ashley, you know that G42 is only for people planning to start businesses after the Race, right?”
I stopped planning on going to G42 right then.
Maybe I was wrong and I wasn’t hearing God. I didn’t talk about G42 anymore. I didn’t look into G42 to see if what I was told was true. I just didn’t do anything.
Thus my TWO month slump started.
For the past two months, I have not been growing in Christ. I have reached a plateau. I have been stagnant when it comes to Christ. I was fine just doing our ministry and coming home and not searching for more. I was content just coming home and going into the kitchen (I cooked for us last month). I was fine not looking for more to do. On the WR website, you will see/read/hear often that this generation of people that go on the World Race hear the call and need for ‘more’. That is why I am here on the Race. That is why people go on the Race.
That is exactly what I was fine in not searching for.
*On a side note, my awesome friend Sadie went on the Race two months before me. She found out and told me when I was in Montenegro that she got accepted and is going to G42 in January 2016! I was and am super excited for her… but, she is starting a cosmetics line after the Race. “Dang. G42 is a business thing”*
I was not myself these past two months. We all know that I am an example person so, I have two for you:
I am a person that loves to blog. Just check out my blog site 🙂 I tend to average 6 or 7 blogs per month. The last two months, I only blogged three blogs. Both months, all three of those blogs were written on the same day. I had no desire to blog: it was weird.
I am also a person that is super concerned with communion. I made sure that my team had it every month. When my team led worship for the squad, we had communion because of Ashley. I didn’t even think about having communion this past month. That was also strange.
On the way to LDW (Leadership Developement Weekend) before we left Albania, I was praying the whole drive out there. I asked God why I hadn’t grown, where my desires, passions, and love had gone, and why I wasn’t hearing him. What had caused me to be in this ‘slump’?
Well, the first night of LDW, Daniel Thornhill rolled in. He is a part of G42 in Spain and he came to talk to our squad about it. The next morning, he talked to us about himself. There was a little bit about G42 in the talk, but it was mostly about him.
My heart was lit on fire again! It was crazy. I decided business people or not, I’m going to look into G42.
The next morning, I had a one on one with Daniel. I told him some of my life story– it took a while, so I didn’t quite get it all in. But, right before we were done, I asked him if I could ask one question about G42… are there any spots still open in January? (that is when Sadie is going) He said that there were! “Awesome!! I’m going to G42 still! Who cares about the two month slump, God still has me!”But then Daniel said that there are also still open spots in October. Dang. Right when he said that, I felt being pulled to apply for then. I felt God wanted me to apply then. So, right after we had the one on one, he talked to the whole group. He quickly dispelled the ‘business only’ myth because I had told him my G42 story. During his Q&A abot G42 I started crying. G42 sounds amazing! I am so excited to go! But applying in October like I think God wants me to do is going to be hard. It’ll mean that I miss Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. It’ll mean that I’ll have to fund raise again right away. It’ll mean that I am away from my family again. It’ll mean that I will go that much longer away from Sadie. That much longer away from Lynda.
I am happy to announce that I applied to G42 that afternoon and I am waiting to hear back.
I have applied to go to G42 in October of 2015!
<3 Ash
