I think the best place to begin is how this whole journey began for me. It started first semester of my sophomore year in college where I was really struggling with what I wanted to do with my life. It was during the point in the semester where every professor decides to give all their projects and exams at the same time. I’m not someone who gets stressed usually, but I began to get very stressed due to the work load I was taking on. Now clearly I came out alive on the other side, but during that time I began to really wonder what my future held. What was I going to do with my life after graduation? I was talking with a friend and they suggested a year long mission trip after I graduated. I’ll be honest, I laughed a little bit because although I love mission trips I just didn’t see that in my future. (Doesn’t God have a sense of humor?) Well in the same conversation they suggested I check out this thing called The World Race and since I had never heard of it I was interested in checking it out. I ended up getting on the website and I began reading blogs and watching videos about what The World Race was. I was sitting in the library and I felt the Holy Spirit lay on my heart that I was going to do that someday. Was I ready to hear that? No, I wasn’t. But as I continued to pray about it along with my close friends and family I felt like God kept reassuring that calling to go.
Over the next year, God kept reminding me of this call.
I would go to a church service and it would be about missions (I kid you not this happened several times a month).
I would meet someone who had a friend that went on The World Race.
I had a recurring dream of walking through the streets of an unknown city in Asia.
I would be scrolling through Facebook and without looking I would find a video about The World Race.
God just kept putting things in my path that reassured this calling on my life. I spent many hours reading blogs and watching World Race videos. My excitement grew as the World Race became a reality.
Then the process involved a lot of waiting. You can’t apply for The World Race until your planned route comes out and mine wasn’t going to be coming out until August. So I could tell people I planned on going on The World Race, but I couldn’t tell them what countries or even if I would be accepted. Then August came. I saw all the routes and I began praying. I knew I wanted to apply as soon as I could, but I also wanted to pick the right route. For some reason over the past year I’ve felt God laying it on my heart to go to Thailand and three of the routes went to Thailand! This helped me tremendously in picking my route because I was able to simply focus on these routes in making my decision. I was leaning towards one route, but I knew I wanted others to pray about it as well. I asked my mom to really pray and then to let me know which route stood out to her. She told me several days later… And you betcha it was the route I was leaning towards. I asked my brother… Same thing. Okay God, I get it. That’s where I’m going! So that night I stayed up all night applying to be a World Racer!
It was finally becoming a reality. The application process was a very long one filled with a lot of waiting. I finished the application. Then I had to go through an interview process. I finished that. More waiting. I got an email saying the interview process would take longer than expected due to the application office being backed up. More waiting. As someone who had waited a year for this to happen those next few weeks felt like an eternity. Then I was sitting on the couch watching Stranger Things with my roommates and I got a call from Georgia. I picked up the phone and found out… I GOT ACCEPTED TO BE A WORLD RACER! I’d be lying if I said I didn’t jump around to celebrate.
The long acceptance process was not the end step, it was actually just the beginning. Now I start the process of fundraising and preparing for my trip. If you’ve been reading through this and still don’t know what The World Race is it’s a mission trip where you go to 11 countries in 11 months. Hence the 11n11. I’ll be doing different ministries in each country, and I won’t know exactly what I’ll be doing until I get to the countries, which is still pretty exciting! I’ll be leaving in August of 2017. Now you’re probably wondering what countries will I be going to?
Serbia, Albania, Bulgaria, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Lesotho, South Africa, Madagascar, Jamaica, and Dominican Republic.
I really felt like this was the route I was supposed to take and I’m super excited about it. I hope you’re able to follow along with me as I take this journey! I appreciate prayer as I believe it’s one of the most powerful tools we have in our arsenal. Also, please subscribe to my blog so you can get updates on when I post!
