One thing you can always count on seeing while living in the Bible Belt is a good old church marquee. Some make me laugh, some are too Jonathan Edwards-esque for my taste and some (as cheesy as they often are) really hit home.
Recently, while driving down a back road in the middle of nowhere South Carolina I came across a little white church whose message sparked a resounding “yep” from me.
“Write your plans in pencil and give God the eraser.”
I immediately had the vision of God wielding this giant eraser over all of the plans I’ve had the last four years. After college “find a job” was erased and replaced with “the World Race,” after the Race “find a job” was replaced with “G42 Leadership Academy,” after G42 “find a job” was replaced with a year defined by rest, relationships and pursuing a new passion.
God gave me complete peace about this last plan for an entire year. I soaked up the opportunity to jump in my car and drive to see friends at a moments notice, I felt so much joy working in a letterpress studio and pulling prints that I had spent hours upon hours designing and setting with my own two hands. I thought I had it figured out. I thought I’d begin this fall interning in a letterpress studio with dreams to perfect the craft and eventually open my own business, but three weeks ago, God came with erasers blazing.
May 8th – Receive an email from two friends informing me that I had a spot as a trainer at the May World Race Training Camp.
My thought process: “Wait. What? A trainer? No…I told them I’d be available to help on serve team if they needed more hands. Training? Really? Ok, Jesus (and Jeremy and Renee) I think I see what you’re doing here. Training equals interacting with future world racers which equals me forming attachments which equals, dare I say, desiring to Squad Lead?!”
I quickly quieted the Squad Leading thoughts by reminding myself that squads have already been assigned alumni squad leaders by the time they attend training camp so I really didn’t need to have any expectations. This was just going to be a week of pouring into a group of awesome people who are about to go on an adventure that completely changed my life. Sounded like an all around win to me. Sign me up.
May 14th – Receive an email detailing our training team assignments.
I open the Excel sheet, scroll all the way to the right and see my name listed under G Squad’s training team, give a good fist pump at the sight of two of my B Squad (my original WR Squad) buddies’ names listed under mine and then quickly realize that the spaces for Squad Leaders has been left blank. Seriously? How convenient that the Squad I’ll be training is the only squad that has yet to be assigned Squad Leaders. All I could do was laugh.
May 17th-24th– Training Camp
Fast forward through a week of life-giving conversations, powerful teachings, Spirit-filled worship and non-stop joy, which brought me to
May 25th – Email Bill to begin the Squad Leading application process
Yep, it happened. I got the fever. I wanted it.
May 30th – Phone call saying I was accepted
And there it was. Confirmation. God delicately, lovingly erased my upcoming plans and filled it in with a big “G” and I couldn’t be more excited. I leave the US on July 3rd (yes, I know, that’s in less than a month) to fly with G Squad to Nepal. I’ll be spending 5 months with these world-changers on the field traveling from Nepal to India, Thailand, Cambodia and South Africa.
It’s been a crazy four years and I’m sure the theme of pencil planning will continue, but all I know right now for sure is that God is calling me to “Plan G.”
As a Squad Leader, I need to raise a minimum of $3,500.
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Adventures In Missions
P.O. Box 742570
Atlanta, GA 30374-2570
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