From Laces to World Races

"Wow, the world race how exciting! But what made you want to do that?"  
…..And here is where I give you that blank stare as I sit and try as hard as I can to give you a summed up, "Readers Digest Version", of exactly how I decided to answer this call on my life. Ready or not here is how it happened..

I have been running in the same park for 5 or 6 years now. It's five minutes from my house and one lap around the park is about a mile. Its been my park of choice for years. During the summers I would get up and run every day at this place, no big thing right?  When I first moved back to Georgia in August I picked up the routine and would run every afternoon like normal, and one afternoon I ran past this girl and threw up that awkward runners wave to be friendly and once I saw her face I noticed that it was a girl I knew who went to my church way back in the day, but by time I had put all this together it was to late to try and say hello. 

The next afternoon I went to the park again and ran a few miles and wouldn't you know it I ran past her again! This time I was aware of who she was and ripped out my earphones and shouted hey to her loud enough for her to hear me over her ipod. After a few min of small talk and me explaining what I was doing back and how the Lord had made it clear I was called into some sort of mission feild, local  or overseas, she told me about this cool place she sorta worked at called AIM and this cool thing called the World Race and how I should look into it, I said ok sure, finished my run and went home and googled it.

After reading and watching videos for awhile I talked to my mom about it and it sort of fizzled out as a cool thing I heard about over the next few weeks. Until I waslked out of my house and it was everywhere. You might as well have taken red paint and written "Ciara, Fill out your application now." On everyone I knew and every building  I went into. I suddenly knew and would meet people going on the race and who had gone on it before. The Lord brought the race into light for me for months. From trip leaders and racers coming through my register as REI, to running into race Alumni at Chik-fil-A , I couldn't escape it. So I went home and filled out an application but never paid the application fee..

At the time it seemed like an awesome thing for someone else to do, or that It was to big of a commitment or whatever other excuse I could come up with, but as time went by I was reading in Isaiah and was overwhelmed by verse after verse about being "called". And I was called to be a servant, and to be obedient, and how he will equip, and strengthen. At the moment I decided to pay the fee and answer the call, only to long into my account and see that someone had paid it for me and I had already been excepted into the program! 

After that moment I knew without a doubt that this is where the Lord wants me, he wants me to serve,and abandon everything I have and depend on him. And in this particular situation, Go to 11 different countries over 11 months and share his glory across the nations. 

So here we are, I went from running in the park to running HIS race in whatever route he has me run.