God, you did it again!

… you gave me just what I needed, right when I needed it.

I've been going over my decision to go on the World Race everyday since I was accepted. I know it's for me but giving everything up for a year isn't something that you go into without some reservations. I called my best friend this weekend and we talked about school and the race and life. While we were on the phone, she suggested a book that she had just read called Through Painted Deserts. I had no clue what the book was about but I decided to read it anyways. She never really strays me wrong in book choices.

So at the end of the authors note, this is what it says:

"“And so my prayer is that your story will have involved some leaving and some coming home, some summer and some winter, some roses blooming out like children in a play. My hope is your story will be about changing, about getting something beautiful born inside of you about learning to love a woman or a man, about learning to love a child, about moving yourself around water, around mountains, around friends, about learning to love others more than we love ourselves, about learning oneness as a way of understanding God. We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it?

It might be time for you to go. It might be time to change, to shine out.

I want to repeat one word for you:
Leave.

Roll the word around on your tongue for a bit. It is a beautiful word, isn't it? So strong and forceful, the way you have always wanted to be. And you will not be alone. You have never been alone. Don't worry. Everything will still be here when you get back. It is you who will have changed.”

Talk about having the right words put in front of you right when you need them. They're beautiful and exactly what I needed to be told.

A lot of people have been asking me how I found out about the race and what made me decide to actually go.

I like to say that God works in some funny ways, especially when it comes to this adventure. God showed me the race through one of the girls who dyed my teeth blue in middle school. She was a bully that I was somehow friends with on FB from a long time ago. I saw where she had decided to go on The World Race and I checked it out.

At first glance, I knew the trip was everything and more of what I was looking for in my life. I knew that there was a reason I clicked on this link but I refused to apply because of not wanting to "copy" someone else that I had no liking to. However, God, well he doesn't really give up that easily as most of you probably know.

I had dream after dream after dream about the race. I'd dream about packing for the race, I'd dream about being in Africa on the race, I'd dream about talking about the race. Finally after weeks of dreams, I prayed about it. Still I wasn't really ready to listen.

I decided to talk to my family and friends about the race. I expected to have zero support for living out of a backpack for a year. Want to know what happened? Support like I've never seen. I hadn't even applied and my family was making plans on how to raise money. So finally with no more excuses, I applied. I was accepted and now I begin this journey.

I have given up fighting what God wants from me. I am ready to listen and ready to do what I am called to do. Am I scared? Absolutely. Am I ready? Not yet. Do I think I will be? Yes. He's been preparing me for this my whole life.