Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

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We were asked to write a blog about how we were called to this mission trip. Here is my story…
 

                Living in a small house in a nice little neighborhood with my husband and 2 kids (with at least two more to come), staying at home taking care of the children while helping out with the church by teaching Sunday School, baking cookies and dinners and delivering groceries to shut-ins. That is where I have always thought and hoped I’d be by the time I was 25. God, on the other hand, has had a different plan.

          While I’ve unfortunately wasted a lot of time waiting for that special man and what I’ve deemed “real life” to begin, God has been shutting doors for that path. He’s ended relationships, prevented others from even beginning and somehow convinced me to work for the last two years at an all-girls residential wilderness camp. (Try meeting a guy when you work 24 hours a day/ 5days a week and on your 2 days off live in a small Florida town filled with a bunch of snow-birds!)

          So several months back when I began thinking about what I was going to do after my two year contract was over, I was at a loss. Frustrated and disappointed that I was still single; I had no idea where to go or what to do. I’ve never had any desire to have a regular 9-5 job. I never wanted to be a teacher, or office worker, or nurse, or any kind of business woman. I’ve only ever wanted to be a stay at home mom!

          During that time, I’ll be honest; I didn’t really turn to prayer or scripture for an answer. In fact, I was only reading a chapter from the Bible in a hurry each night out of a sense of obligation. But for some reason, even though I was giving Him the cold shoulder, God still chose to get my attention through my half-hearted devotion. One night I was reading 1 Corinthians 7 and God reminded me of a verse I’d underlined a few years ago.   “An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit” (7:34a). I felt like God was telling me He wanted to use me as a single woman to fulfill part of His ultimate purpose. But then the question was, how? Another verse that I’ve memorized popped into my mind…”Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27). 

 

          I began to think, “Maybe I can’t have my own children right now, but perhaps I can help kids who don’t have a mother of their own. And maybe I can help others like the widows, the poor, the homeless. I began to think about devoting a year of my life to missions. I started searching on the internet but didn’t have just one country I felt drawn to. So when I saw the ad for the “World Race” I was immediately enticed. I began praying; asking God if this was what He wanted me to do. Not quite convinced, I went ahead and applied, continuing to pray. When I found out I’d been accepted, I felt at peace with the answer, trusting that God had orchestrated this plan for me.  Me, a single Christian woman, who no matter where I am at in life, truly desires to do the will of God.