I’ve been getting this question quite a bit lately so I thought this would be a great way for me to explain.
Hearing stories from previous or current racers about being sick, never showering, eating things that are better off not being translated, making 20 outfits out of 4 items of clothing…should make me nervous. But instead, I am getting more and more excited to live out of my comfort zone, out of a backpack, and without all the distractions I find at home!
Last October I realized I was on my final year of college. I planned on going to graduate school (this is still a high possibility), but wanted to do some sort of missionary work abroad first. Thanks to a wonderful friend from camp, I learned about the World Race. It seemed like the perfect fit for me! I get to serve in more than one place and do more than one type of work. This means that if someday I decide to do full time missions I will have multiple contacts around the world. It will also allow me to see what type of mission field is right for the way God made me. With that said, I have no idea where I’m going to be come 2013.
The other day I was talking to my roommate about how God has different plans for every person. I’ve been told that my entire life, but being a 23 year old college graduate with a math degree, it’s hard not to think about my future and what God has planned for me. Wherever God wants you to be is where you should be. If you are living the way God intended you to live and you are serving Him the way He asks, you will know it and you will be blessed because of it. The World Race is a way for me to figure out where God wants me to be in the future, whether it be in some random country helping build a church or teaching 12th graders calculus somewhere in North Dakota.
Another reason I want to go is because I want to see miracles. I have heard far too many times that God doesn’t do miracles anymore because thanks to medicine and technology and such we don’t need them. I completely disagree! But I don’t think any of those people could argue that some of the countries I’m going to do need a miracle. I’ve been limiting God for far too long and it’s time for me to realize just how HUGE He really is. I have seen God work in big ways in my life thus far, I can’t wait to see how He will work when I’m out in the field!
More than anything I want to follow Christ’s last command, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Matthew 28:19
