There was always an itch..and itch to go an itch to explore the unknown. When I was just a 5 years old I pitched a fit because I was too young to go to summer camp and it was too far from home. I’ve always wanted to go…to explore…to live where I was unknown. where I could just be and experience. Growing up in a town where everyone knew everyone and everyones business was everyones…I was always the “black sheep” of my family in this way. My entire family was in the same town and had no desire to leave..I on the other hand had different ideas. After coming to know the Lord as my personal savior at the age of 10 He began to show me that He had given me this desire and the passion to just take up and leave for a very specific reason…that I would have never imagined 12 years later would literally take me around the world to further His Kingdom…
At the age of 15 I remember hearing the words to a song entitled “Send us to the Nations.” In that moment I felt the Spirit more alive in me than I had ever experienced in my life…He was literally beckoning me calling me to the ends of the Earth to show the love of Christ to share the name of the One who had changed all of my brokenness. I fell to my knees in that moment and began crying as I realized the magnitude of what the Holy Spirit was moving me to do…to leave all of this. My family, my friends, the life I’d always imagined I’d have..but I kept hearing a whisper…”what I have in store for you is far more than anything you could have ever asked or imagined.” My Dad was sitting next to me and I said to him..”Dad I’m going to go. I’m going to go to the nations.” We cried and prayed to the Lord. I was astonished that the God of the universe was calling me…a sinner, a girl so unworthy of His love to minister and pour into others who shared the same brokenness as me.
When I was 16 my pastor, Hank, challenged us to choose a life verse. One that we wouldn’t just memorize, but that we would strive to live out everyday. I was reading the book of Acts at the time and I ran XC so I found in Acts 20:24 a verse that says, “However I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me–the task to testifying to the Gospel of God’s grace.” At the time I just picked this verse because I thought it sounded cool if I’m being honest. The thought of finishing a race was something I could really imagine and vision in my head so it made the verse really applicable to my life, but as I grew in my walk with the Lord I would understand that He had led me to this verse for a very specific reason.
The next 5 years would literally be an uphill battle of me forcing with all of my might to forget that moment where I felt the Spirit calling me to the nations, to forget that song that still brings tears to my eyes…because I Candace Marie Blair did NOT want to give up the American Dream…to surrender everything I’d known my entire life to go into the unknown. But hadn’t that always been what I wanted…to travel, to see, to go. All the pieces were falling into place..
Junior year of college came around and that winter I remember feeling that same feeling of “you’re going to go. I will send you.” Next thing I knew I was applying to go to Botswana, Africa with CRU. Crazy things happened as anything with the Lord and before I knew it I was leaving for 6 weeks to love on children and people in a place so far from my tobacco farm loving town…and it changed me. Changed me in ways that I never thought possible. God literally broke my heart for what breaks His. He filled me up and poured into every fiber of my being and I knew when I returned home I would never be the same…
I came back and told my story of what God had done to me while I was there and cried many nights longing to be surrounded by red dirt…surrounded by a children and a people hungry for God..desiring to know Him in the most real and blatant way I had ever seen in my life. and I knew I had to go back.
So I graduated from college in May of 2013 and began to decide whether I would return to Botswana that fall or continue getting my Master’s in Teaching, which I had always planned to do. I prayed and wrestled with it but in my heart I knew the Lord wanted me to stay and get my Master’s in Teaching. So I did, begrudgingly. What I did not know was while I was angry at the Lord for wanting me to stay He was preparing the way for an incredible year where all MY plans would change and I would begin to follow His plans.
This past September in 2013 the Lord blessed me with such a strong community. It was like every facet of my life was being consumed with people constantly pushing me to Christ..pouring in to me. I had never experienced community like this as Paul described in the book of Philippians before. It was astonishing. I began to pray about Botswana and how I “knew” I’d go back for a year to serve CRU in that way in August of 2014. All the while I kept getting this feeling of “this isn’t what you’re going to do.” But I ignored it and kept going with MY plans. I began making phone calls and discussing what it would look like with family and my church to go there for a year and then it all came to a crashing halt when one thing led to another and I found out I would not be able to go to Botswana for a year…I cried. and I cried. and I yelled at God. and I was angry. I asked and begged God to please open the doors for me to go.
And I woke up the next morning and literally opened my computer and typed in World Race. I literally have no idea what inspired me to do this or where this thought even came from. I knew a friend who was on World Race…but I had never even thought of it. I opened the link and began applying. Next thing I knew I’d basically completed the application and thought what am I doing I don’t even know what this “world race” thing is all about. I explored Adventures in Missions, began reading stories, and watched videos about this incredible thing called World Race. 11 countries in 11 months.
Before I knew it was telling a few close friends and family members. I had my phone interview and on January 2, 2014 received a call that I had been accepted to leave July of 2014 for 11 months on the World Race.
The Lord had literally closed the door to go to Botswana for year and the next day opened this door for me. and then it hit me…my life verse the one I’d chosen 6 years ago..Acts 20:24 “…if only I may finish the race..” I started laughing and crying..the Lord in His sovereignty knew years ago that I would take this race, the world race, and knew that it would only be the beginning of a new season in my life and in my walk to finish the ultimate race of my life with the Lord. To take up everything I’ve known and travel to 11 countries in 11 months and share the love of Christ.
So here I am beginning this journey of my life…knowing that it is a long road ahead with much needed prayers and financial support to make it…but I’m not afraid because I know that the Lord will provide the way for me and direct my steps because after all He knew long before I ever did that I would be taking this race..
I ask that you would consider taking this journey with me maybe its through prayers or financial support. I know that I need it and that with the support of a loving, Christ centered community the Lord can use all of us as a team to change the nations and fulfill the Great Commission.
