Hey I’m Colby!!
So here goes it, starting my blog with World Race to officially kick-off and openly talk about how God is stirring in inside me. I’m convinced he’s laid it on my heart to make time for a “gap year” and go spread the love of Jesus by serving the poor in foreign communities that desperately need hope. September 2017 seems like a long time away, but it’s going to get here quickly and I have a lot to do. The Route I chose will be taking 55 of us to the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Botswana, South Africa, and the Philippines. As I continue to learn about this journey, I am constantly reminded that this trip will be no vacation but a great experience!
I am putting myself out there, so that you might understand my growing passion and join this journey with me by continuing to check my blog, and especially PRAYING. Praying for the people I am going to meet, pray for me to stay encouraged with the passion God has placed within me, pray that others get interested in my efforts, pray that I can raise enough money to go, and pray for my group’s security while we are gone and for my dad who is so nervous about my safety.
Here’s a bit about me. I am a senior at Mill Creek High School and raised in the Methodist church. My parents made sure my brother and I were in church every Sunday and stayed involved with youth groups and mission outreach activities.
At the beginning of this year, I made some dumb decisions that got me removed from varsity cheerleading. It was a depressing and lonely time when many of my friends left me, changing how I acted at school and even at home. In late October I signed up for a Young Life weekend retreat, went without not knowing a single person, and met a group of girls that and gave me hope. It was surely a God thing and just like Jesus loved, they loved me and helped me realize that I didn’t need to do the things I was doing to have fun! One of the girls was telling us how she was going to be doing this nine month mission trip called The World Race.
On the bus ride home from the retreat I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Our family had been on three different mission trips serving a small community in Honduras where we focused on serving the needs of children, their moms who were mostly single, and building their church and school. I fell in love with it and never wanted to come home because of the relationships that were made and how much we were able to help them. It’s an incredible feeling to know that I was part of someone else getting to know the love of Jesus because of how I showed them I cared enough to help.
When I got home from the Young Life weekend retreat, I shared the experience and my thoughts about the journey with my parents. They were both excited for me, but dad was cautious and suggested I keep praying about it. I kept praying, researching World Race, and God kept tugging on me. Flipping through the bible, I came across verse Isaiah 49:6 which states, “I will make you as the light to the nations, so that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth”.
How cool would it be to be able to go on Mission trips and be able to stay a while and really make a difference! Building a church community is so amazing. Yes, building the walls is great, but showing others how to build their church through Jesus loves is even more amazing.
God made it real for me, then I asked my parents to support me. I completed my World Race application and got accepted.Next thing you know I am working on t-shirt fundraising ideas and writing letters! I am so thankful for this opportunity and cannot wait to see what God has in store for me during my journey on The World Race!!
So here we are. I’m in and it’s a journey that I am excited about, but nervously anxious too. Please keep visiting my blog, join me in prayer, and consider supporting me financially.
