Some of you have been asking why I am in Costa Rica, and how all of that came about. So here’s the story, including what led up to me moving to Costa Rica for three months. I’m excited to share it!
Last year I completed the world race, and there were two occasions when I bunjee jumped. The first time was in Chiang Mai, Thailand during our first month (Jan 2016), and the second was in Livingstone, Zambia during our ninth month (Sept 2016). What I learned from both experiences is that the longer you wait at the edge of the platform, the higher the odds become of you not jumping, at least not willingly. You may be asking why I’m writing about these experiences; I will explain why this is relevant later on.
After I returned home in late November of last year from my world race, I spent some time resting, reflecting, recharging. Soon after I began searching for full-time jobs. In order to start making some money immediately, I began driving for Uber in and around Houston. I met so many different people, as you might imagine, especially since I was driving within Houston, which is a huge melting-pot of cultures. My first ride was such an adrenaline-rush! I picked up this Californian guy who wanted to be driven to a Harley Davidson store in north Houston. He celebrated with me after I admitted to him that he was my first ever Uber rider. That first week of driving Uber was exhilarating, each ride was new frontier and filled with so much excitement. I didn’t make great money, but it was a decent paycheck, and I was so thankful that I was able to make some money. Somewhere around week three of driving for Uber I began focusing more and more on the potential for making more and more money. My focus became so fixated on the money that whenever I began driving each day, I was in a bad mood and was so preoccupied with driving as many people as possible, so as to make the most amount of money. This continued for about a week, to where I was always in a bad mood for never being able to quite make the amount I wanted. One night, after sitting for about 45 minutes waiting for someone to drive, I reached a tipping point of frustration and anger. In my frustration, I actually began blaming God for being in such a predicament. Up to this point, I would spend each morning either at home or at a local coffee shop applying for jobs. Honestly, I don’t remember how many jobs I applied for, but I know they ranged from all over the United States, and there were even a few job opportunities abroad that I applied for. So mornings were dedicated to job hunting, and afternoons and evenings were dedicated towards driving for Uber. So when I reached this tipping point of frustration, I was confused why nothing was coming from all my efforts to move forward and establish a career. God met me in that moment, and reminded me of making the most of each opportunity to encourage and bring Kingdom. In that moment it became abundantly clear, I was in a position where people were willingly getting into my car, my realm, to be driven somewhere, and I was missing countless opportunities in sharing encouragement, love, and sharing my story of God transforming me and giving me a renewed hope and a future. A shift occurred in that moment, I no longer saw driving Uber as a means of making money, but rather making disciples. New Years Eve came a few days after that pivotal night of perspective change. I stayed up until 5am driving people either from party to party, or home and made it a point to share my story in some way in each ride. Turns out, I still have much to work on in terms of confidence and being Spirit-led in each conversation, but my focus was no longer on the money, it was on being an influencer. My excitement for each ride was restored, and I even began praying for each rider by name as I made my way to pick them up, and take them to where they wanted to go. Spreading God’s love is exciting business, and there’s never a dull moment when it comes to listening and being obedient to the Holy Spirit.
So it’s now the beginning of 2017, and I’m met with another decision to make: whether or not to attend Passion Conference 2017, located in Atlanta. I started attending Passion conference back in 2012, and have been each year except for the one in 2016. Each year I’ve attended it’s proven to be a highly impactful time for me, in growing closer to the Lord, hearing some incredible communicators of the Gospel talk about various topics, corporately worshiping the Lord with thousands of other believers, and receiving revelations from the Lord about my life. The conference this year began on January 2nd. I had gone back and forth about going, and was leaning heavily towards not going. However, the evening of January first, the night before the conference began, I really felt the Lord calling me to go. I knew I had friends attending from Lubbock who had offered to let me sleep with them in their hotel room. (Shoutout to Jonny and Toby) So I’m sitting there on my bed in Houston, it’s 11pm, less than 24 hours before the first session of the conference was to begin, and I pull out my laptop to see airfare pricing to see if going was even feasible from a financial standpoint. I remembered that I had United rewards points I could use, and saw that I could get roundtrip tickets for $100 total. Wow. I asked God once more for confirmation and felt that I was being given a clear green light to go, to say yes, and dive in. I bought my plane tickets and conference ticket immediately after. My itinerary getting to Atlanta had me leaving the very next morning at 7:30am from Houston to Washington Dulles airport, and then Washington to Atlanta. I had an hour layover in Washington. To me, it was a great itinerary that would put me in Atlanta around 3pm with plenty of time to make the first session starting at 7pm in the Georgia dome. Right as my plane was about to take off from Houston to Washington, the pilot comes on the intercom saying that our takeoff had been delayed due to bad weather. My curiosity led me to looking at Houston’s weather radar on my phone and I discovered a huge storm cell moving towards Houston, and it was solid red, indicating it was a severe thunderstorm. Naturally, I started to panic because I knew I had a rather narrow window of time to make my connecting flight in Washington. The initial 15 minute delay turned into an almost two hour delay. After I was sure that I wasn’t going to make my connecting flight in Washington, I got on my phone and started looking at alternative flights from Washington to Atlanta, none of which would get me to Atlanta in time to make the first session. I found what I thought was a decent alternative itinerary and accepted the fact that I was going to miss the first session of the conference. It was a bummer, but I couldn’t change the weather or the flight schedules. I began asking the Lord why he would call me to attend the conference and miss an entire session (the conference was only 2 days long), and the very first session at that. While on my phone, I arrived to the screen that would confirm my changed flight itinerary, I was just one tap away from permanently changing my flight schedule. Looking around me, everyone was doing the same, some successful to make it to their final destination without much further delay, and others noticeably bummed. In that moment I kept getting this peace about waiting and not altering my itinerary. It made no logical sense, since I was certain that I was going to miss my original connecting flight. The peace was unfleeting, and only increased as I prayed more. Holy Spirit was saying to wait, and trust. Against all of my logic, I decided to wait and not change anything. Ten minutes later we finally took off. For most of the flight I fought anxiety and worry. Roughly twenty minutes before landing I found a flight attendant and haphazardly asked if he could share his wisdom in finding a flight to Atlanta. Surprisingly, he asked for the connecting flight that I originally booked, and after looking up its status, he said that it had been delayed too, and was scheduled to takeoff 15 minutes after we were scheduled to land. That information was such a shock, as hope began to surge back into view. The flight attendant suggested sprinting to the gate once we landed, so I’m preparing myself to run as fast as I can as soon as I get into the terminal. And that’s exactly what I did, only to find the gate about 50 feet from the gate we were arriving to. So I comfortably boarded my original connecting flight to Atlanta, and pleasantly discovered that I had been upgraded to first class for free. As I was settling into my spacious first class seat and accepting a glass of orange juice from my flight attendant, I couldn’t help but ponder on the fact that in life there will be delays with various things God has called us to, and that it’s not our job to try and change the schedule to fit how we think it should look, but rather to wait and trust that the Lord knows what’s best, and that He’s the one in control. His plans are so so much better than our own!
Passion conference was an incredible time to continue learning, growing, and reconnecting with some dear community and great friends from Lubbock.
After Passion I had a few days back home before returning to Georgia, this time Gainesville, to attend Project Searchlight (PSL for short) – which is essentially a post world race conference for squads who recently completed their eleven months abroad. It’s a time to help racers move forward into what God is calling them to do after completing the race. Instead of flying back to Atlanta, I decided to carpool with some really good friends from my squad. PSL was an incredible time to reunite with my squad and experience some incredible talks and worship. Coming in to PSL, I was a bit defeated with not knowing what was next for me. I hadn’t heard back from any of the companies I had applied to for a job, so I was a little confused, as well. Near the end of PSL, during one of our talks, one of AIM’s ministry directors got up and discussed her need for more leaders for the Passport ministry, which is designed for 18-22 year olds, and are three months long. She said there were leader openings for the summer trips, but that she also needed some leaders to step up for several trips that were to leave the very next week to different locations around the world. Something in my spirit lept in that moment upon hearing about the opportunity of embarking on another trip, specifically leaving the very next week. Right after that main session were smaller breakout sessions that we could choose from. I chose the one whose title was something along the lines of when God has you in a period waiting/waiting well. The first ten minutes of the breakout was dedicated to silence, and tuning in to the Spirit. As I sat there, the silence was deafening. All that kept coming up was that opportunity to leave the following week to lead a Passport trip to somewhere in the world. It was increasingly clear that the Spirit was moving me to immediately pursue the opportunity. Now, this is where bunjee jumping came to my mind. All I could think about was how important it is to jump sooner than later when approaching the platform to bunjee jump. The Spirit was saying that, just as it is with bunjee jumping, the longer I spend contemplating the opportunity the greater the chance of convincing myself away from saying yes to what God was clearly calling me to. When God beckons, don’t hesitate. Jump. Trust. GO. When Jesus called his disciples they immediately dropped what they were doing and started following Him, and I felt Him calling me to do the same. So I got up in the middle of that ten minutes of silence, and immediately pursued that woman who had made the announcement in the main session. I didn’t even know her name, but I remembered what she was wearing – yellow shirt. Didn’t take long to discover her name is Hope (crazy huh), and shortly after that I found her and explained all that I felt God convicting me to do. We talked about where I was at with the Lord, and she conducted a sort of interview on the spot. Upon completing my quick interview, Hope said she would get back to me soon with her decision. Not sure what to do next, I went on a walk in the woods near the AIM base. In a way I felt like I was crazy for all that had just taken place, but as everything settled and sunk in I found myself filled with indescribable excitement and peace. During my interview Hope mentioned the specific trips that needed leaders still, and the Thailand/Cambodia trip really resonated with me, however, leaders were needed more critically in other trips than the Thailand/Cambodia one. Hope explained that if three other leaders stepped up, then I would be able to lead one of the Thailand/Cambodia trips. As I went on my walk, I started praying for these three other leaders to step up so I could go to SE Asia. To my surprise, three names came up: Sarah, Meredith, and Kyle. So I wrapped up my walk and attended lunch. Following lunch there was a follow-up meeting for those interested in leading a Passport trip. I felt it was only appropriate that I attend, so I showed up, eager to see if anyone else was being called to leave the following week and lead. Turns out someone did commit on the spot during that meeting, and guess what her name is. Sarah. I was blown away yet again that day. I went and introduced myself to Sarah after the meeting and shared with her my story from earlier that day, and the three names the Lord had laid on my heart, and that her’s was one of the names on my list. It was encouraging to briefly celebrate with her and her decision to go after being called. The Lord works in mysterious ways. Later that night Hope shared that I was accepted to lead a Passport team that was leaving the very next week. She also shared that she really needed me to co-lead the Costa Rica trip. It wasn’t the Thailand/Cambodia trip like I was wanting, but I trusted that if I was needed to co-lead in Costa Rica, then that’s what I will set my gaze on. Wherever the Lord put me, I made it a point to go joyfully. Hope then shared that I would be co-leading with Sarah, which was really encouraging because she had committed to lead that same day as me. God was calling us both to drop everything and go. Still not sure about the significance between Kyle, and Meredith. There is a Kyle on my team, so stay tuned. As for Meredith, perhaps one day we will meet.
So that’s the story. I ended up finishing PSL as I had originally planned. It was fun getting to spend more time interacting with my squad and catching up with them. I then drove back to Texas with my friend. It wasn’t until 11pm Tuesday night when I got home. Leader training for the Passport trips had started a few days earlier, so I had to quickly get my gear together and fly right back to Atlanta, and drive up to Gainesville, to catch the end of leader training. My flight back to Atlanta left Wednesday morning at 11am, so I spent most of the night packing, doing laundry, and preparing to leave in less than 12 hours to return to AIM base. Talk about a turnaround. Thursday our participants arrived at AIM base for a few days of training before heading out of the country. It was great meeting our team and getting to walk them through different types of preparations for an effective time out on the mission field. Sarah and I have fourteen participants on our team here in Costa Rica. We are partnering with Ocean’s Edge Ministry here in the city of Jaco, located on the Pacific coast. We have truly been blessed with an incredible team, everyone has been so incredibly open to all that God wants to accomplish in and through us. One of the neatest things for me personally is recognizing that God is moving me into a place of helping others discover more of who God is, and more of who they are in Christ. I knew that God was preparing me for this type of influence throughout all of last year while I was on my world race.
Wrapping this up, since I’m back abroad, I’m also in need of financial donations. I need to fundraise $2,000 by the end of April. If you feel led to give, please click the “Donate” button at the top of this page. Additionally, please consider partnering with me through prayer. I’m looking for some prayer warriors to commit to praying at least once a day for God to move powerfully in and through me, as well as the rest of my team. Thank you! Excited to share more later on!
