I got saved when I was 16 at a christian youth conference. Wasn't the first time I'd run forward at an alter call but this time it was a little different…. instead of thriving on the two week conference or camp rush and then going back to the old life I got blessed with an amazing spiritual family right off the bat that took me in once we returned home and right about then is when my life in ministry started. I quickly rose up in the leadership, was given my own cell group to lead which morphed into a youth group which by it's end, morphed into a youth church of about 100 youth. I started going on and leading mission trips every summer all over Central/South America and eventually even got to start preaching at them in circus tents. (revival!!!) After highschool I headed off to ministry school in Redding, California at Bethel School of Ministry, where Jesus Culture, Bethel music, Bill Johnson, and Kris Vallotten come from. Instead of returning to finish out the second year of the ministry school program the next year I went on the grand adventure of a 48 state, 3 country roadtrip in an old VW hippie van with the worship leader from my youthgroup, set upon the intent of discovering what Jesus was up to outside of Astoria, Or and Redding, CA.
The point of all that wasn't to brag or point out how annointed I am, it was just to give a little context of my background and where I'm coming from for this next part and how I ended up deciding to go on the World Race.
While on the previously mentioned roadtrip Dan (the other guy that came with me) and myself got to live in this amazing, constant adventure with Jesus where everyday we got to experience a different facet of Him and with every adventure, gained new breakthrough in different areas such as trusting in Him for complete provision. One time, while at a church in California, we met this woman during worship and prophesied over her and afterwards she asked about our trip so we told her. Her immediate follow up question was "do you guys have a way to cash checks?" Of course we do, we replied. "Well great! God's given me a number and I just want to bless you guys!" and with that, handed us a thousand dollar check…..this being the woman we literally JUST met. God's so good and such an amazing provider and this kind of situation became a steady constant all across our trip and in no time it was a lifestyle of supernatural provision.
Then we hit Iowa…..in Iowa, of all states…. our van decided to grieviously break down to the point of no return and we got stuck with some friends in a high stress situation in Ohio for a whole month while trying to figure out what to do next. That whole situation, as well as some troubles with and betrayals from some of the christians I held closest at that time really left me in a place of being totally burnt out and one night I just told God "Lord, I've loved living out of a place of your provision but I just can't keep going like this anymore, I want a steady job that will allow me to provide for myself" and, with the road to hell being paved with good intentions, I kinda walked away from living a life that allowed me to live under God's covering and started trying to take on the world for myself. I moved back to Oregon and went through Maratime Academy, then moved out to Florida to get a job on a megayacht, thinking hey! this will allow me to continue my gypsy lifestyle of travel AND I'll get paid really well for it so I'll be able to continue my passion of supporting other people in their dreams! A really noble idea at the time to be sure….until the first mission trip came along that I missed out on while being on the boat and suddenly boom! I had a total wake up moment of man… what on earth am I doing?? Look back at all of my christian life and all that was accomplished within that short period of time and suddenly I think just because God didn't fulfill one of His promises the way I thought He was gonna that I should just head off and do things my own way?? That's absurd! I'm built in His image and made for His glory! I was never made to just watch from the side lines, I was, am, and always will be, someone who, by nature, has to be in the thick of it…I've got to get my hands dirty.
That being said, the conviction was there and the restlessness began but I still didn't know the first thing about what I was gonna do. For the last couple of months, I'd been sponsoring my wonderful friend Brianna Robinson who was going on this big mission trip all around the world starting in January. I was supporting her because A) she's amazing and I wanted to see her succeed in her dreams and B) due to working on a boat that's in a new place every week, I don't really have a home church to tythe into so I've been using her for that, but honestly past that I'd never really looked into what she was doing. One day outta boredom I decided just to check up on it and read some of the stuff on the page…. hooooly cow, talk about powerful!!! My heart caught on fire like I hadn't felt in a long time and I just knew that this is where I needed to be and…well….the rest is history!
July 2013, hope you're ready for me, cause I can't wait for you!
