"The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in and by the man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him. I will try my utmost to be that man."
– D.L. Moody
Hi! I'm Ceena and I'm 21 years old. I was born in India, but moved to New York at three months old, so let's just call me a New Yorker. I graduated from St. John's University this past December, majoring in English and minoring in Government & Politics, Africana Studies, and Philosophy. Okay, so I might be a little bit of a nerd.
So how did I end up here? Well, in my freshman year of college, God called me on my first missions trip to Ethiopia. I went with the expectations that you always hear about when people go on missions – that God would work through the team, that God would do amazing things for the people, that our service and ministry would be well-received and touch the hearts of many. I went on that mission trip expecting to help the people of Ethiopia, and – in my naiveté – didn't realize how much those people would help me.
I met amazing men and women, boys and girls, full of potential, yet unable to reach that potential because of the oppression and injustice they faced. I saw a little girl who twirled and spun like a ballerina; a little boy who drew pictures in the dirt with a stick. It hit me then: she didn't think she was going to be a famous dancer when she grew up; he didn't think he could be the next Picasso. Growing up, I was told over and over to reach for the stars, yet these kids didn't even know the possibilities that existed out there for them. These children, and millions more like them all over the world, were being robbed of their potential for greatness. Because of their poverty, their lack of access to education, their lack of opportunity, they were not being given a chance. At that moment, I was brokenhearted. Though I couldn't do anything then, I vowed to work for people like those children to ensure that what they didn't have or understand, I would enable others to achieve.
That first mission trip to Ethiopia took me on two others, to Bolivia and Ethiopia again. That fight for potential sort of became my thing. I was reminded, each time, of how much potential God had instilled in me as His child, how much good He had promised for me, how He knew the plans He had for me, plans to prosper me and not to harm me, plans to give me a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). I realize now that there's no reason that people in other nations of the world deserve any less, and someone has to tell them so.
This passion for missions and for service led to me an internship with International Justice Mission in Washington, DC, and again, God confirmed to me that oppression and injustice are a battle that His people are called to fight. Working with an incredible organization like IJM was nothing short of a transformative experience, and as my internship there came to an end, I knew God had something else in store for me. I had planned to start law school in the fall of 2012, but decided that deferring one year wouldn't hurt. Instead, I chose to embark on this unbelievable journey.
And so here I am. A World Racer. An excited, anxious, nervous, wide-eyed child of God, ready and willing to let Him use me however He wants. That quote, at the top of this 'About Me'? It's one of the truest and most sincere realizations that I've ever come to. Unless I'm fully and wholly consecrated to God, I turn my back on the potential He's set within me, and I do only a portion of what He's called me to do. The World Race – this journey – is my utmost attempt to be the person that God has purposed me to be, fully and wholly consecrated to Him.
World Race, September 2012, Route 1
zimbabwe/botswana | south africa | swaziland | china | philippines | india | romania | ukraine | honduras | nicaragua | costa rica/panama
"…to the ends of the earth." Acts1|8
