100 Days Left On The Race: Keep Running Until The End

I have roughly 100 days until I get home.

( Roughly 100 days until August 1st, around the time I will be coming home. They have not released the official date yet.)
 
Wow. Only a 100 days left.
 
So many things fluster in my brain as the end draws nearer and nearer every day. What’s it going to feel like when I step off the plane and am back in the U.S? What will I do? I’ve sold most of my possessions, don’t own a car, and don’t have a job; what’s the next chapter of my life? How will I process this past life back home? What will nights look like when I’m laying back in my own bed (probably a couch for a while) with A/C and wifi, and all of a sudden a flashback of living in the desolate slums of the Philippines or warehouse in Malaysia hits me as hard as a punch in the soul? What will missions look like in my future? Can I possibly go back to a 9-5 job after traveling around the world and experiencing unfathomable moments of God’s love and power being unleashed, or do I go back into the hostile field of the unreached and unregenerate? What does my future hold? What do I do when there isn’t another month on the field, another country to travel to, another ministry to enter into, and another night of team time, another day of playing with orphans or preaching at foreign church or walking through the slums or feeding children or visiting prisoners or praying for healing at the hospital? There will come a time where the people I’ve learned to live with and love all of these months won’t be there in the morning. There will come a time when I won’t have to need an interpreter when I talk to people. There will come a time when I won’t use a calculator to determine the exchange rate in between international currencies. There will come a time when I won’t have to pack up all of my stuff at the end of the month and say goodbye to ministry contacts. There will come a time where I will be home…
 
100 days left on the World Race.
It feels just like yesterday I was eating my first meal on the first night in mission field with my soon-to-be team leader, Noah.

It feels just like yesterday I was preaching in front of thousands of people in El Salvador.

It feels like yesterday I was saying goodbye to my first love Kingdom Unleashed in Nicaragua after spending the first three months of my trip with them.

It feels just like yesterday I was teaching Filipino slum kids about how much Jesus loves them.

It feels just like yesterday I was exploring the most beautiful beaches in the world with all of the guys in Thailand.

It feels just like yesterday Noah and I were eating dinner with our amazing Muslim friend Roz from Malaysia, sharing with him the truth of the Gospel.

It feels just like yesterday I was hugging the most precious little girl I found in a poverty-stricken village in Cambodia.

It feels just like yesterday my team started this month here in Kenya.
 

And now with my time here in Kenya concluding this week, and with only about 3 more months to go, I pray that the Lord will continue to move in and through me, until that plane ticket home. I pray that I continue to persevere and be steadfast as I continue to run this Race. Paul writes his letter to the Philippians and commands them to continue progressing in their faith so that they may be lights in the world:
 
 
Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.
(Philippians 2:14-17)
 
Paul states that he is willing to persevere for their faith in Christ, to the point where he is poured out as a drink offering. This is a bold statement, but one that he does not say in vain. He runs his race; he continues to stay steadfast, all the way until he finished his race, even to the point of being poured out as a drink offering, just before he was martyred in Rome.
 
For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
(2 Timothy 4:6-8)
 
"I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.." I want to be able to say that at the end of this trip. I want to run as fast as I can, as much as I can, until I reach the end. I do not know what is in stored for me after the World Race. After all, I did not think this time last year that I would be typing this blog in the living room of an orphanage in Kenya. Who knows where I will be in a year from now! But what I do know is that I want to make it to the finish line. I want to fight the good fight until it has been fought all the way through. I want to run my World Race, even to the point of being poured out as a drink offering. And when this Race is over, when my time here with my team and my squad has come to an end, when I leave this chapter behind me and continue onto the next one, when all that can be said and all that can be done in finally finished, and I have my plane ticket home in my hands, I may hear in my heart “Well done good and faithful servant.” And with the end of this Race, comes the rest of my life.