In January 2014, I left the United States for 11 months on the World Race. It was amazing and challenging and exciting and hard. I met and worked alongside so many incredible people. I developed relationships with people that I know will be life-long friends. I learned a lot about myself and about God and about the World.
Throughout my life, I’ve never felt a distinct “call” to missions. In fact, prior to 2010 I was pretty much the exact opposite of what you would call a “missions person”. Growing up, I was a girly girl: pink & princesses & frills were my thing. In high school, I was the girl who brought make-up to camp and complained about any time spent without air conditioning. In 2006, I began to work as the Administrative Assistant for Children’s & Student Ministries at Bayside Community Church of God and it was well-suited for the way that I thought that God would use me. I’d put God’s plan for me in a box so it made sense that I would serve Him by working at an air-conditioned desk job and investing in suburban middle and high school students. I was fully supportive of other people going overseas and serving amongst the poor but had decided that it wasn’t for me.
In 2010, my world was flipped upside down. I felt God telling me to resign from my job and let go of my mentoring relationships, but I was certain that I’d misheard Him. After all, I was working FOR Him! Why would He want me to stop? I allowed myself to get caught up in sin and my identity became completely wrapped up in my job and my volunteer role. About a year after I’d first heard God’s urging, I obeyed and resigned from my job. I’d clung so tightly to the wrong things and having them ripped away caused an unimaginable amount of pain, but God was so faithful to me.
In the summer of 2011, I spent two months interning with Livada Orphan Care in Targu Mures, Romania and it was the sweetest experience of my life. During that time, God gently reminded me of my gifts and showed me who he truly created me to be.
Before embarking on the Race, my heart had been so transformed by God. I sought to find Him everything I did and He was so very faithful to me. He’d shown me the promise of freedom that I have in Him and I’ve been able to walk forward in that.
On the World Race, the Lord took me to even deeper places of intimacy with Him and helped me to understand freedom at an even deeper level. Because of that freedom and the affirmation of my identity in Him, I feel compelled to help others experience that in their own lives.
So, what does that look like? The next step in this journey for me is called Kingdom Journeys. Kingdom Journeys is a program through Adventures in Missions specifically for World Race Alumni to walk out the calling of God on their lives. As a part of this team, I will travel with five other women to three countries spending two months in each location. Our mission will be to proclaim freedom and redemption to our sisters around the world. We will reach out to widows, former prostitutes, the abused, abandoned and overlooked. We will invite them to “Beauty for Ashes Retreats” where we will empower them to experience God’s restoration and hope through storytelling and community.
I’m thrilled for this opportunity and know that this kind of thing is what I want to be about.
Favorites: painted nails, doing laundry, things that are alphabetized, sharing life with people, thrifting, pearls, great books, a good journal, The Hunger Games series, Summer rain, traveling, belly laughs, Shauna Niequist, helping people reach their potential, reality tv.
Not so favorites: Jello, doing dishes, sleeping, Chacos, humidity, sitting in traffic, cheesy Christianity, failure, entitlement, conflict.
