The Question That Every World Racer Dreads

Ask anyone
who has been or is on the World Race, and they will tell you the same thing.

Almost
without fail, every conversation that you have with someone about the World
Race is followed by the question, “What will you do afterward?”

Well, after I
finished the race, my answer to that question was squad leading.

During my
time squad leading, I continued to get the same question, “What will you do
afterward?” 

Now, I completely
understand why people ask this question. It’s natural to wonder what’s next, what the “plan” is. Most of the time when you ask this question, though,
my answer is “I have no idea.” I would
like to know what the “plan” is just as much as you. However, God doesn’t usually lay out the plan
for me too far in advance. 

Maybe it’s
because he knows that I can’t handle all the steps at once, as much as I think I
can.

Maybe it’s
because I would get ahead of myself and start to focus on the future instead of
the present. 

Maybe it’s
just because he wants me to learn to depend on him each step of the way, to
trust that he has always been and will continue to be faithful to guide me
forward.

Whatever the
reason, these past two years in particular have been a journey in faith,
putting one foot in front of the other with just enough light to make the next step
of the way visible. 

And now it’s
time for me to take to another step forward, a step that is at the same time
equally scary and exciting.

When I left
for squad leading, I truly had no idea what I was going to do when I finished. So during the last few months, I spent a lot of
time praying and asking the Lord what his plans for me were. There were several directions I could see
myself taking, but as I continued to seek God in it, through many different
words and confirmations, I kept coming back to one thing-that my time with the
World Race was not finished.

This next
step with the World Race will look a little different, though. Instead of traveling from country to country
around the world, I will be staying in one place for a while-the United States,
in fact.

Instead of
sharing a twin bed with two other people or using a sleeping pad in a tent, I will
have my own bed in my own room.

Instead of
ministering to people from other countries, I will be ministering to people
from my own country who are serving in other countries.

This spring, I
will be moving to Georgia to be full-time staff at Adventures in Missions as a Squad Coordinator. I will be working in the office there to
provide support, training, mentoring, and discipleship to the leadership and
teams on the field. Basically, I will be
the stateside connection for all the racers, particularly the leaders, who are
serving in other countries.

One of the
biggest things I realized about myself while squad leading was how much I absolutely
love the process of discipleship-the process
of investing in people in order to help them grow and mature in their faith so
they can more effectively bring God’s kingdom to earth. There are so many other aspects of ministry
that I love-especially working with children or those in poverty. And I’m pretty sure that God is going to
continue to develop my passion for those things, and maybe even take me back to
a place to do those things at some point.  But for right now, he has awakened a passion
in me to pour into those people who are ministering on the front lines in other
countries.

Everyone in
the body of Christ is connected, sort of like a chain.  We should all have someone investing in us,
and we should all be investing in other people. I am going to be the link in the chain that is investing in the lives of
the World Race leadership, as they are investing in the lives of people around
the world.

I’m super
excited about this opportunity because it means that I get to keep doing what I
love, training and equipping people to bring kingdom to the world, and I get to
keep working with an organization and a program that I value and love. It’s also a little scary because it means
moving to a new place to work with new people in a new job, but I know that
this is where God is leading me, and I’m excited about how he is going to keep
working in my life through this.