Once I felt confident that Lord was, in fact, telling me to go on the World Race, the next hurdle I had to jump over was choosing a route to apply for (for those who don’t know, your route is which countries you will serve in on the race). One of my biggest fears in doing the race is that I’ll only want the cool experiences, the exotic places and getting to check countries off my list – so I wanted to be wary about applying to a route just because the countries sounded fun. I also knew that I really wanted to go on a route that went to Nicaragua because I have done missions there before and absolutely loved it – but I didn’t want to pick a route just because it had Nicaragua on it.
So, I prayed and prayed about what route to apply for. I felt God had put on my heart to stay in South/Central America, Africa, and Asia, so I didn’t consider routes that went to Europe. Then, little things started popping up that were pushing me towards route three. One of the ways God speaks to me is through recurrences. So, when He is trying to push me to deeper prayer, my friend will talk to me about prayer and then my pastor will speak on prayer at church and then I’ll be reading the Word and God points out a verse on prayer and after all these things happen I start to think that maybe, just maybe, Holy Spirit is trying to tell me something. I think He knows how oblivious I can be so He reinforces what He is trying to tell me in so many ways that it’s blatantly obvious what He wants. This is what God started doing with my route choice. First, a woman at my church who does mission work in Nicaragua was lifted up and prayed for during service. Then, another woman who does mission work in Malawi spoke at my church about the work she does there and was prayed for by our body.
I went home that day and looked back at the August route options (I chose August simply because it made the most sense practically with my apartment lease – God gives us the spiritual wisdom and freedom for practicality, right??), and the ONLY route that goes to both Nicaragua and Malawi is route three. Then, I started looking through the countries in that route and realized I had connections to many of them through some of my closest friends. I have friends who went to Panama and Indonesia on mission, a friend was working with a charity helping women who had been sex trafficked and that was specifically called out as a ministry in Thailand, and now these women at church were being raised up who did work in Malawi and Nicaragua. On top of all that – I remembered that I spent a whole night praying for Cambodia years ago during a prayer night when I didn’t know anything about the country. (In some less Christian-related connections, a photographer I worked for is now living in Indonesia and my current boss recently went to Thailand as well) As I noticed all these connections, I started to wonder if God has been bringing these countries to my attention specifically to direct me towards this route. It amazes me how intricately God works and prepares us years before we are even aware of what He is preparing us for!
So, I selected August Route Three as my World Race route. And I was STOKED! It seemed like exactly where God wanted me to be – and knowing that this was the route He chose for me gave me a lot of comfort as I waited to find out if I was accepted to the World Race. My process of acceptance took a bit longer than most because it was in the midst of the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays and I had to get a form signed by my doctor (who was on vacation) because of my MCTD. But, I finally got everything sorted out and God put me in the World Race! WOOHOO! Everything is awesome, right?? Well, not quite. As I got the news that I was accepted into the race, I was also informed that route three filled up during the time I was getting everything sorted out. Boom. I deflated. My emotions reeled as the bittersweetness of getting accepted to the race but not to my route sank in. The staff informed me that I could wait on the waiting list to hopefully get into route three or I could switch routes and have a confirmed spot on route four. I told them I would pray about it and stay on the waiting list for now.
In Genesis 21 we see Lord finally bless Abraham and Sarah with the baby God promised them – Isaac. They were ecstatic and Sarah accounts that she has so much joy that everyone who hears about this blessing will laugh with her. Sarah and Abraham were way too old to naturally conceive children and they had doubted God’s plan by having Abraham conceive a child with Hagar, but God still followed through on His promise (He always does, by the way). What a blessing! God really works miracles. But, we then get to chapter 22 when God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. I am sure Abraham deflated. Why was God taking away this blessing He gave? Was He going back on His promise? Was Abraham wrong in thinking that God would actually bless him with such a miracle? No – Abraham was confident in the fact that God would provide throughout the whole process of bringing his only son, whom he loves, to the altar. He told his servants travelling with them that “we will worship and then we will come back to you” and he tells Isaac as they are preparing for the sacrifice that “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering”. Abraham obviously knew that God would provide in the midst of this trial (and He does! He gives them a ram to sacrifice instead). This doesn’t mean he didn’t have doubts or hesitancy, but that his faith was founded in God’s promise to give him more descendants than he could count.
In the same way, I had to be faithful in knowing that God had promised me this route. I debated back and forth on whether to switch to another route – but Holy Spirit convicted me that that came from a desire to have security rather than to glorify Him. A friend of mine had a dream as I was waiting that I would “get into the route that was full that went to Malaysia” – now, she had no idea what countries were on which routes, but I double checked and confirmed that the ONLY full route that went to Malaysia was route three. God is so good that He comforts us even in the midst of a trial! Holy Spirit was using her dream to encourage me in waiting and trusting in God’s faithfulness to fulfill His promise.
After about two months of waiting to know what route I will be on, God took me off the waitlist for route three and I am officially on that route! Whaaaat – He is so good! Having to wait to find out my route made me question whether I was even supposed to be on the race at all – had I interpreted everything incorrectly since it seems like I was wrong about the route? Is God telling me I was wrong and I shouldn’t be doing the race? No, He was giving me the opportunity to lean on Him and trust His plan over my own. I’m sure there are still a lot of trials and messiness to get through as I prepare to go on the race and during the race, but God is reassuring me that whatever doesn’t go according to “my plan” is all in His hands.
grace + peace
If you liked what you read here and feel led to partner with me on mission – please feel free to support me by praying for me, subscribing to this blog and by donating! Just click the orange donate button at the top of this page or check out my store.
Here’s a song that really spoke truth into me (and still does) as I was in the midst of this:
