No, I am not technically on the World Race. I haven’t packed my bags and left everything behind yet. But for anyone who has ever been on the World Race and all those that are preparing for the World Race right now, you know that this journey begins long before you step onto the airplane. So I just wanted to share five things that I have been mulling over since starting the journey to the World Race.
This is Really Happening!
This will hit me many more times before January, but I was sitting with one of my best friends and we were watching WR videos with me, and it hit me: I’M GOING ON THE WORLD RACE! I’m going to be one of those people in the videos. I’m going to be the blogs I’m reading. I’m not going to see my best friend. This is really happening. It’s not a dream or a hope anymore. It’s real life! I’m leaving everything for the sake of the gospel, and God’s chosen me for something so much bigger than myself.
Fundraising Increases Prayer
In a previous blog, I said that I’m excited for fundraising this time. It’s so much more than I’ve ever had to raise before, and I have absolutely no clue how God is going to do it, but I’m ready. And that’s still true. However, I think this is the first and easiest place for the devil to attack. The doubt and worry have come. But God’s grown me and where that would have completely destroyed me before, now I pray. I feel worry about not meeting deadlines? I give it to God. I get hurt when someone says they aren’t going to donate? I give it to God. This isn’t my battle. This isn’t my fight. This is God’s and He’s growing me through it. My dependence on Him is growing so much, and I think that’s exactly how He wants it to be.
Please click the link to the side to donate, and let God use you to change places in the world you’ve never even seen!
Missionaries are Communal
I am about to spend an entire year around the same people. All day. Every day. Every waking hour, every sleeping hour. And I know it’s going to get challenging at times, but I’m ready to be back in that environment. God created us to have relationships. Deep ones. Soul exposing relationships. Over my previous mission trips, I’ve watched complete strangers be more open and dependent on one another in a matter of days than people that have had “friends” for years. We are meant to be in community. We are meant to walk this journey of life with people that will laugh and cry with us, that will push us to grow, and that see us. I don’t have that here, and it’s hard. I want it. I’ve begged for it. So I’ll take the complete lack of privacy that’s going to happen on the World Race over the complete isolation here in the states. I’m excited to be challenged and pushed out of my comfort zone.
I have Changed
I’m a strange breed called Ambivert. I am a mix between extrovert and introvert. I get joy and energy from being alone and being in a group. And in my past, on my trips, I’ve leaned on the extrovert side of my personality. But I have grown, I have healed, and I have embraced more parts of my life that God blessed me in (ie. my awesome abilities of organization). So where I used to be ENFJ, I’ve now transitioned over to INFJ. So I have no clue how I am going to be on the World Race. I’ve become more content in being quiet and listening more and being calm. There’s a part of me that worries there will be no place for me, but then I laugh because I am exactly how God made me and He needs those traits He put inside of me. I’m excited to go out into the world and listen to people’s stories and disciple small groups and being used in ways I haven’t been used before.
I’m Ready to Go
God’s called me to my community that I’m in. Since 2013, he’s been firm on me staying and not leaving. And that’s hard for me. I don’t feel like I fit. But I’ve listened and obeyed, and He’s done a lot of really good things through that. But I’m ready to go. He’s given me the thumbs up and is providing the way, and I am ecstatic to say duces, leave everything behind, and be in a community that’s doing the same thing. To most, the World Race looks challenging, but for me, it looks like home. I’m ready to go back home to the world where nothing is certain and my life is lived how Jesus lived.
I’m ready for the World Race. I’m excited and nervous. Sometimes I feel like I could hop on a plane right now and other times I think January is coming up too quickly. But this is what’s it’s like to follow God to the place He’s called you. He says time and time again in the Bible, “Go and I will show you the way.” And that’s what He’s doing now. I don’t want to waste a single moment of this journey and that includes this preparation time. It’s all important to the process of being used by God, and it’s the life I was made for.
