One of the biggest things that excites me about the World Race is that is a measurable, direct, loving response to a specific prayer I remember praying.
Haha. Let me explain.
Back in August of this year, on a weeknight after work, I remember that I was pretty hungry for intimacy with Jesus. I’ll be honest with you. Some of my prayers can be pretty self-centered, needs-driven prayers, that don’t come from a place of God as my first love. They often come from a place of seeking comfort and blessings, therefore forgetting that His presence is the blessing.
Anyways, this prayer was different. It came from a place of humility, a place of honest surrender of control.
It went something like this:
Lord,
My day to day life is comfortable, and I praise you for that. I have been enjoying soaking in Your presence, and I thank you for allowing me to feel Your Spirit working in my life. I often get tripped up by the small things, and it prevents me from living out the purpose you’ve set on my heart. I don’t want to get caught up in complaining about a stressful day at work, I don’t want to judge people for the imperfections I see in their life, and I want to quit taking my eyes off of You. All too often, I trade intimacy with You for the natural comforts of this world, and that’s a horrible exchange.
If you want me to be still, I will continue seeking You right where I’m at. However, I can’t help but wonder if serving You full time in missions for a period of time would be a life changer for me. I don’t want to live out lukewarm, timid Christianity anymore. I want more than anything to become the woman you’ve created me to be. You are a good God, and I am safe trusting my whole life to You.
Amen.
Rewind a few months, back to about March of this year. I had become hungry specifically for short-term international mission trips. I had started to apply for a trip to Brazil with my home church, but ended up letting that trip go because I was being transferred to a new town for work and the timing was not right. A month or two later, I started searching online for other trips. I found a few possibilities, yet did not feel a sense of ease with any trip that I started looking into. I didn’t understand why at the time, but God was giving me a “no” with these trips, and it was my responsibility to obey this gentle nudging.
So I obeyed. My step of faith was accepting that missions work may not be in His plan for me, even if I don’t understand what’s wrong with it.
Fast forward to the beginning of September.
Here’s where I get to brag on the goodness of God.
The World Race was a random trip that I had never heard about until about a week after my honest prayer. I didn’t find it by mission-trip hunting online, because I had laid that down.
I stumbled upon one of the current racers’s blogs from a random link on Pinterest while I was searching for some new bible study resources. Hah.
The post intrigued me so I checked out the organization she was partnered with. I spent way too much of that evening reading up about the world race program, checking out routes, and other racer’s blogs. I tried hard to get the idea of the trip out of my head. I didn’t tell anyone what I had stumbled across, and had no plans to apply because the idea of the trip seemed too far-fetched. Something was completely different about this trip though. As soon as I learned about the World Race, I had an overwhelming sense of peace and almost an unmistakable confidence that God was saying “Yes.”
So here I am. I’ve been accepted. I’ve mailed out support letters. I’ll be letting my work know soon.
God said “no” to a 10 day trip to Brazil, but he said “yes” to 11 months overseas, trekking around His creation, loving on His people. He gives me much more than I could ask or imagine.
