On January 30th, God brought my powerlifting team and I to a meet that was not on our schedule, a meet that was full a few days before. Our path was purposely moved in order to bring about the obedience of this child. This was the beginning of many blessings that led to the death of my plans. As I waited in the hospitality room for the coaches meeting, in walked an obedient new friend that God would use to tell me about the World Race. Immediately, I noticed the presence of God was all over her and God said directly to me, “Watch her.” As I did just that, I was amazed at the first words that came out of her mouth. She began to boast in what God had been doing, not only with the World Race but in her own heart and in her current ministry. As I stood with my ear tuned in the direction of this conversation, I was thinking, “Wow God, just wow!” After a while of listening, I chimed in and started asking questions. I was compelled and God told me, “Serve her, this is My work.” Well, to make a long story just a tad bit shorter, I was able to do that and throughout the next few weeks as I prayed and asked people to pray for the World Race, the countries, their people and her, people began asking and telling me, “Have you thought about going?”, “You need to do this, this is what you were made for.” “You need to go, now is the time.” This came even from people that I did not expect to hear it from. I also heard the same things from my own family. My response was, “I can’t. I have missed the deadline.” You see, I have always felt this desire and calling in my life but just hadn’t been presented the opportunity yet. As these things were continually thrown at me, I began to really think and pray about it. I began to tell God, “I am Your servant and I just want to be right in the middle of what You’re doing. If you want me to go, I will go, but present the opportunity and make it clear. I want to be obedient in every little thing. Do what You want.” Little did I know that it was going to be now, in the middle of my plans of coaching and teaching with my family (dad, mom, brother and sister-in-law) at the same school, something that we have been waiting on for years.
Well, when I heard about the race route that was released on February 28th, I was sitting at my duty post in the cafeteria the next morning. As I got an e-mail on my phone about the blog post, I began to read it. Surrounded my about 300 kids and co-workers, as I read through and prayed for these countries, I began to weep. As I had often prayed, “God break me for your people”, he was doing what I had asked. When I got to the bottom of the blog, I read, “Join the July team! Apply today!” I was hit like a snow storm in a desert and it was HEAVY! I began to ask God right there, “Is this it, is this the opportunity!? I am Yours, I will go if you want. Tell me God, do you want me to go? Yes or no?” The burden grew…. As I went throughout the week, my heart and my stomach were churning every second of every day. I was sick to my stomach, could barely eat some days, and had little to say on many occasions because it was so heavy on me. I even got so busy with things at school and my current responsibilities that I would subconsciously push this to the back of my mind. Time and time again, it kept resurfacing as I would get prayer reminders in many different ways and continue in communication with my Daddy. The burden continued to grow so much that the kids in my class thought that something was wrong on occasions. There were literally some days that I could say almost nothing because God was stirring me up in ways that I did not know what to do but simply watch and pray. About a week and a half after the “World Race Revealed” blog post, I noticed again on facebook where a certain friend, the same friend actually, posted “Join me in a trip around the world…. APPLY HERE!” Once again, you guessed it, God pounded this on my heart! This time, it was quite a bit clearer…. As I continued struggling in prayer, I again asked God, “…Yes or no? I will go….” It grew and grew and grew…. As God kept bringing this about and placing it all at the forefront of my mind and heart in prayer, I began to realize that my prayers, “Do something crazy, rock me!” were being answered. It did not sink deep and come clear until Spring Break.
The Monday of Spring Break, I decided to go on a 10 mile run from the farmhouse in Centerville to town. This gave me plenty time to pray, think and meditate on it. As I was running and desiring just to run with the Lord and hear from Him, He very clearly told me, “Go.” Over the next few days, I was awfully quiet and reserved because I wanted to iron it out for sure and not get in the way of what God was telling me. It was not until Tuesday that I ultimately surrendered my desires. On that Wednesday, I felt that I needed to completely remove myself from everything and go get on my face before the Lord for a substantial amount of time. I could wait no longer. I went to our place near the river, parked my truck and began walking. I clearly remember as I loudly proclaimed, “God, I have nothing to offer You but I want to be something in your Kingdom! I want to be in the middle of what You are doing with every beat of my heart! I will be obedient! I am Your servant! Let’s iron this out.” I wanted to be absolutely sure of this calling on my life because every decision, every step is so vital. As God showed me a spot on the grass, I quickly found it with my face and knees and began to pour out everything that I am, every desire and dream into His hands. God led me to the scripture of His response to Job when Job questioned Him (Job 38). As I was read things like, “Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place?” and “Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion?” God began to tell me, “I have it all right here. I’ve got this. I’ve got this….” I asked one last time, “What do You want of me?” It was never more clear, my King told me, “Get up and Go.” After a while longer in the pasture of just trying to “be still” and listen, I returned home, told my parents and applied the next morning!
…and the story continues…
