I use to think that the World Race was the greatest thing I’d do in life. That these 11 months would be my very best days.
I use to think that me leaving behind everything that I knew, traveling the world to 11 different countries in 11 months, with only a backpack, would be the craziest thing that I’d do in life…
I use to think that everything in my life was coming together for this very point…
And for the first time in my life I was dreaming so big that I couldn’t see past that point. That I couldn’t really picture life after the Race…
Well that part in my life, that after the Race part has finally arrived. And everything has changed…
Thinking back to training camp, I remember when they told all of us future Racers, that the World Race would not be the greatest thing that we would do in our lives. That it was just the launching pad. The place where God would ignite our passions, break us down, challenge us to dream bigger and think differently, and train and equip us, so that one day we would be ready to answer the calling that God has placed on each of our lives.
There I was sitting amongst the forty six others on my squad, all eager to embark on this journey ahead and I remember hearing that and being mad.
How could they say this wasn’t going to be the greatest thing I do in life? This was the scariest and craziest thing I had ever worked up the courage to do and here they were, Adventures in Missions themselves, telling me that this would not be the greatest thing I do in life.
And even though I had seen the videos, Seth Barnes the CEO of AIM, explaining that the World Race wasn’t about changing the world, that you can’t change the world when you yourself need to be changed, I didn’t really believe it. All I saw were those crazy Racers, holding orphans, healing the blind, and building homes for the poor, all in the most remote places of the world, the places you only see on UNICEF commercials. It certainly looked like they were changing this world to me!
And that was what I was going to do. I was going to go on the Race and I was going to change the world and it WAS going to be the greatest thing I’d ever do in life.
Well I have come to the end of my Race. I have traveled the world, I have left everything behind, I have held orphans, witnessed healings, and built houses. I have traveled to the most remote places of the world, places not even on the map.
I’ve climbed Mayan ruins, camped with an indigenous tribe, laid on the most beautiful beaches, rode and swam with elephants, swam under waterfalls, swam in hot springs, released paper lanterns in Thailand, fed monkeys, watched the sunrise over Angkor Wat, cried at the Cambodian killing fields, roamed the Asian night markets, stood under the Malaysian twin towers, celebrated Indian Holi festival (the original color run), celebrated four different Independence Days, three different New Year’s, turned 23 at the nicest restaurant in India, trekked the Himalayas, seen the top of Mt. Everest, watched the greatest sunsets in Swaziland, attended a Mozambican wedding, gone on an overnight safari in Krueger National Park, jumped out of a plane, seen Cape Point, swam with penguins, climbed Table Mountain, sampled wine in the vineyards of South Africa, cage dove with Great White Sharks, and been re-babtized in the oceans of Cape Town.
I’ve castrated pigs, killed chickens, cooked for over fifty people, gone a month without running water, slept in a room with chickens and goats, slept on a counter of a Cambodian hospital, slept on buses, I’ve eaten a tarantula and snake, gotten fish pedicures, been hospitalized and hooked up to an I.V, worn the traditional clothing (naguas, Punjabis, kurtas, kapulanas), used squattie potties, done bucket showers, shared a room with sixteen girls, shared a bathroom with over twenty people, got cornrows and my hair in all braids, been in newspapers, eaten nothing but rice and beans, eaten nothing but rice, eaten nothing but rice and curry.
I’ve flown 13 flights, rode 21 long distance bus rides, crossed thru 15 different countries, taken micros, chicken buses, Tuk Tuks, ferries, horse drawn wagons, motorbiked, hitchhiked, trains, planes, elephants, rickshaws, Chapas, and Kumbis. I’ve stayed in 33 hostels and lived in 14 different places. I’ve spent Quetzals, Cordobas, Colones, Baht, Real, Ringet, Rupee, Meticais, Rand, and dollars. And been exposed to15 different languages.
I’ve taught, coached, preached, evangelized, interceded, cast out demons, ministered in Red Light Districts, worked in hospitals and churches and rehabilitation homes and orphanages, visited slums, done house visits, gardened, constructed, painted, washed puppies, washed children, hand washed clothes, hand washed dishes, danced, cuddled, played soccer, hung out with prostitutes, fell in love with street kids, danced with prisoners, held carnivals, and led Sunday schools.
I have loved well and I hope I have helped to change someone’s world.
And despite all of that I can say, the World Race is not the greatest thing I’ll do in life.
But I have been changed. My passions have been ignited. I have been broken down. I do dream bigger and think differently. I have been trained and equipped. And now I am ready to answer the calling that God has placed on my life.
Since the beginning of this Race, God spoke to me and revealed that this Race would serve as my pit stop in life. That it was God, because he loved me so much, taking me off the road I was traveling. That the World Race was God making me stop to make sure that I got it right. The World Race was the tool that He would use to get me to become His, to get me to do it His way, to get me to give it ALL to Him. And now He is ready to release me and put me back on the road, the road that most certainly leads to Him. And now He is ready to launch me into bigger and greater things. And I could not be more excited.
The World Race has been the greatest and hardest eleven months of my life up to this point but I know now that there are so much greater things that lie ahead. Because in a life of following Jesus it only gets better. And I can say this with total certainty because I WAS A WORLD RACER.
