I just want to share a bit about why I feel that this is where the Lord is calling me, why missions and why now, why the World Race? So here is a bit of my story….
Ironically I accepted Christ while on a mission trip when I was 13. I know, I know…. I was in training camp ready to share the gospel with others and I hadn’t even accepted Christ myself! However God definitely grabbed a hold of my heart one night in training camp. In all honesty the reason I went on that trip was because I wanted to go to Australia, but God definitely knew what he was doing and had other plans for me. I was just on fire for God and during that following month he really used me.
During that time on the trip and even immediately after I felt that God had given me this plan for my future, to serve him to be used by him in ministry. Most people don’t know this, but the plan I felt that he had given me was first go to high school (I was after all only 13) but after that I wanted to go to Moody Bible Institute. I wanted to go to Moody, study missions and then go live in a hut somewhere in Africa serving as a missionary.
I had this vision that God was going to use me, was going to use my entire life to serve him, and this was all spurned on by this fire that was burning in me, this spiritual high that I was on. However that spiritual high, like most, didn’t last. I mean I did look for a youth group somewhere to get plugged in and grow, but after a while it just became something secondary in my life, I started to care less and less about growing and continuing to walk with God.
I became so drawn into the world, into being accepted at school, my relationship God was just pushed lower and lower on my list of priorities, I just really stopped caring. During my teens I really started to become apathetic about my relationship with God, I would say that I was a Christian, but I didn’t live like one. However it wasn’t until after high school that I really began to walk, well… more like sprint, away from God. I just began to desperately search for fulfillment in the world in what was around me and of course I didn’t find it. I’ll spare you all a very long story and just say that in those couple years I made a lot of bad decisions and as I like to explain it went off the rails….
There is definitely more to this story, you’re just going to have to check back for the rest 
– Jess
