Welcome to part 3 of how The World Race Gap Year changed my life – the final part!
MISSION
“Life is ministry, ministry is life”.
The past 9 months of ministry & the race have not looked like I expected. I wasn’t overseas for 9 whole months, I didn’t go to Africa, I didn’t go to Asia, and most of the time ministry looked completely different than I imagined.
Instead, I did ministry in Gainesville, GA & Louisiana for 3 months. I spent a month at home with my family. Instead, I went to Central America & the Caribbean region. Instead, I did park evangelism, hospitality, took dance classes, and did house visits.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that the Lord uses anything & everything as missions. All He wants is my yes. My willingness to be obedient. The race has taught me a lot about laying down expectations of what I thought missions would look like, so that I could pick up the work the Lord was handing me. I gave Him my yes for the race, and watched as He took me on a completely different path than I expected.
The cool thing about life with the Lord is that giving Him my yes wasn’t just for these past 9 months. My yes is for everyday. I gave Him my yes before the race, I’ll give Him my yes in this next season after the race, and then forevermore. The mission isn’t over when I land in the states in about a week. The mission isn’t over when I’m no longer fundraising, writing blogs, or doing a program through Adventures in Missions.
Sharing the Father’s love is meant to be a part of everyday life. Sharing the Father’s love can look like talking to a Haitian family for hours. It can look like praying healing over a Dominican women’s leg. It can look like taking dance classes in a basement in Costa Rica, or watching a child while their mom is receiving counseling. Sharing the Father’s love can happen in Costa Rica or in the Dominican Republic, but can also happen over coffee, in the library, on a lunch break, literally anywhere. We get to invite the goodness of the Lord into every part of daily life.
The Lord has transformed my life & I’ll never be the same. The race has shown me that a life fully immersed in the Lord’s work is vibrant & worth living for. So at the end of it all, there’s no better way to live my life than being on a daily mission of giving away the love I’ve experienced. Life with the Father is life in abundance. There is always more.
I’ll be posting a few more blogs about the race & then blogs more focused around my next season in CGA. Thank you so much for reading & following along on this crazy, beautiful journey. Please reach out if you have ANY questions, I would love to talk!
All the love,
Jen
