To answer the question “Why the World Race?”, I’d like to answer the question “Why missions?”. I accepted Christ into my heart at the age of seven, and shortly after that God placed a passion for missions in my heart. At that time, He had placed me and my family in a church that was really involved in missions. Our church held annual missions conferences where some of the missionaries we supported would come and share about what God was doing in their ministry. My family even got the opportunity to host missionary families in our home. God really used this church, and this experience, to grow my passion for missions. He also used my time being homeschooled (from 3rd-8th grade) to grow me as well—I got to read tons of missionary books as part of the English and Bible curriculum we used!
9th grade. Right before my freshman year of HS started, my family moved back to North Carolina after living in Indiana for 10 years. My main focus became myself—making friends, no matter what the cost—and I pushed God away for the next 3 years to do just that. When I did, I lost sight of my passion for missions.
Fast forward to my senior year of HS. My family moved again—this time to a small town 35 miles north of where we were—and I transferred to the local Christian Academy, where God really used the Bible teacher to open my eyes about Who I belonged to, who I was, how loved I was, and to bring me back to Himself.
When I graduated HS, I was encouraged by many to pursue a degree in nursing from the local community college. I got accepted to the program straight out of HS, so of course I agreed to try it! Well, it didn’t work out…not in the way I wanted it. But, it DID work out the way it was supposed to! See, school was the one place left that I never relied on God. I’m not a genius by any means, but I was smart enough to make really good grades without putting much effort into it…up until nursing. God used this time to show me that I need Him in EVERYTHING, even in the things I considered to be no big deal. The other awesome thing that came out of this was that I was able to go on a mission trip to Bogota, Colombia with a group from our YFC-Roxboro chapter! This was the time that God rekindled my passion for missions. Man, did he rekindle it! ♥
Missions became my main focus…for a while.
I’d love to tell you that I went off to a missions college or something dealing with missions, but I can’t. Being the typical, stubborn human being I am, who does what she thinks is best… I found myself back in nursing school 1 ½ years later.
This time, my grades were good!
This time, all student loans were cancelled which meant I had no money to pay for school.
This time, I had to drop.
That was in December, 2013.
January 2014. I realized it was time to quit focusing on nursing, and to start focusing on the call that God had given me: missions. But again, I’m stubborn, and I just needed to do something NOW—I’ve got this, after all. Right? WRONG!… Instead of letting Him show me what comes next when He decided to show me, I tried to find a way. School, Frontiers, school, AIM… You name it, I probably looked at it, but NOTHING was working! The crazy thing is at the time I looked at AIM in January, I didn’t see anything about the World Race..
Anyway, fast forward to April.
I’m frustrated.
No leads on school OR a job.
I have no idea how to answer people when they ask that dreadful question “So, what are you up to these days?”.
God stopped me in my tracks one day. “Pray, wait, and listen.” That’s all I heard. So, I did just that for many weeks (young people and patience don’t always go together). One night I was just talking with God and asking Him what was up. I had gotten really down on myself for where I was at. I wasn’t where I should be or wanted to be at this point in my life, or so I thought, but I was EXACTLY where God wanted me. I was broken again, fully relying on Him for the next step. That same night I was talking with God, I got online to do some random, or not-so-random searching (depends on how you look at it! Nothing with God is random, in my opinion..), and I saw a link to the WR website on Pinterest, crazy as it sounds.. Honestly, though, the moment I saw it, it was like a light bulb came on, fireworks started going off, you name it… I felt like God was saying, “Ok, THIS is what I wanted to give you.”
I applied that night, and shared with a few people about it, and I just felt confirmation after confirmation that this is what comes next for me and I’m exactly where God wants me.
I’ve never felt such support and encouragement from family and friends in doing something.
I’ve never felt so peaceful about a decision.
I just feel Him ALL in it.
THAT is why the World Race… ♥
