In April 2010, I looked at the World Race website for the first time after hearing about it from my friend Ryan. I grew more and more excited as I read blogs of current Racers who were traveling the world, showing God’s love to crazy amounts of people and seeing incredible sights. I pored over photos and watched videos of Racers living in beautiful cultures. I was hooked.
Then I clicked on the link about support raising. The moment I saw I would have to raise $14,800 to be able to participate in this incredible experience, I closed the website right then and there.
I mean, maybe people who belonged to megachurches or had wealthy family members could raise that kind of money. But not me. I was just a wanderer, living in Japan at the time, getting ready to come back to the US and face student loans, car payments and absolutely no savings. I had no church I could call my “home church” after moving around to a few different ones throughout high school and college. My family is not rich and neither are my friends.
It was impossible. I was sure it was impossible.
But I couldn’t stop thinking about the Race. I left Japan and came back to the States, and while it felt good to be with familiar faces, I couldn’t wait to get out and see more of the world. And I kept feeling a nudging that this time, leaving the US should be to specifically do my part in fulfilling the Great Commission.
So I went back to the World Race website. Over the course of about a week I would open it, stare at it, get excited, get anxious and wonder if raising almost $15,000 would be possible for me. And I prayed.
Then it hit me.
How could I dream about traveling to 11 countries in 11 months with no concerns or anxiousness, but when it came to asking people to help me fund this adventure, I was almost paralyzed with fear?
Raising the money to go on this crazy mission would be just as much a leap of faith, if not more, than the mission in and of itself. And I knew that it was about time in my life that I stepped off the edge and let God enable me to fly.
Now, almost two years later (insane!), I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Mukono, Uganda, right in the middle of the Race and fully funded. There is over $14,800 in my support account right now. This is something I've been waiting for and praying about for a long time.
And it's because of you.
Every single one of you who put money into my account, whether it was $5 or $5000, has enabled me to be here.
Thank you.
Thank you for the flights, the food and the families I've stayed with.
Thank you for my teammates, my squad and my World Race community.
Thank you for taking me to the mountains of Nepal and the streets of India.
Thank you for the laughter in Moldova and the incredible missionary families I met and photographed in Romania.
Thank you for the three sets of African parents I now have.
Thank you for the prayers prayed over me by our contacts, strangers and yourselves.
Thank you for crazy stories.
Thank you for riding on tops of buses, on the backs of motorcycles and crammed into tuk-tuks.
Thank you for allowing me to embarrass myself across the world because of differences between American and other cultures.
Thank you for the photographs I've accumulated.
For the new family I have in my squad.
For opening my eyes to an incredible world full to the brim with God's love.
But most of all
Thank you that moment when God touched your shoulder or spoke softly to you or beat you over the head or however it happened;
that moment you knew that He wanted you to send that check or make that online payment, to attend one of my fundraisers or buy that Japan photography book;
that moment that we talked or you heard me speak at your church;
that moment when you obeyed.
Thank you for obeying His call to help me go out and make disciples of all nations.
And I pray, I pray, that He will bless you immensely for your obedience. That He will honor you because you honored Him in answering His prodding.
I pray that He will bless you in the same way you have blessed me. Which would be a lot of blessing.
