Part one:
In month four my team was in Kosovo.
While we are on the race Adventures in Missions encourages us to leave something behind in each country.
Something that is actually tangible. Something that has been a struggle. Something that is symbolic for you. It can really be anything you choose.
I brought small bouncy balls on the race to give away. Each month I have prayed and waited for God to show me what exactly He wanted this ball to symbolize for me.
Each month has been different.
But the end of the month came and I still hadn’t decided who I would give the ball to and what this ball could symbolize on my journey with God.
Then one day as I was praying in my room he shared with me that this ball needed to be my teaching career.
I wasn’t really sure I heard him correctly.
See during the month we spent in Kosovo we worked at a Kindergarten which is exactly like the centers I have worked at back home.
I was so excited to have something familiar in an ever changing season of my life.
So when God asked me to let go of teaching I wasn’t sure exactly what he ment when I was in the middle of teaching.
After spending some time with him about it he shared with me that he wanted me to let go of teaching and what I think it should look like. He wanted to give up my life as a Pre-K teacher and seek his plan for my life.
Well….God has a funny sense of humor sometimes.
I thought I had already done that.
I already left my job and came on the world race.
But God saw the bigger picture even though I didn’t when I left home.
He revealed it to me in Kosovo.
Teaching young children has been my passion. It has defined my life for the past six years. I love it!
But the bigger picture is that it’s not my identity. And that is exactly what I have made it.
I’ve put it on a pedestal and allowed it to consume my identity.
God asked me to lay it aside because he saw that teaching is where I found my identity when it should be found in him only.
Teaching is simply a gift he has given me to bless me.
So although the process wasn’t easy I laid it aside.
Teaching, classrooms, children, naptime, lunchtime, all of it!
Simply to focus only my Creator and the identity he has given me.
After all, that is why I came on this World Race.
So I gave the ball to a little girl at the Kindergarten.
And with it I laid down all the things that encompassed my definition of teaching to find my true identity in Jesus.
This journey has taught me so much more than I ever thought it would.
Experiencing God on the race has lit a fire in my spirit that I’ve never experienced before.
I love how I have hope and a future before me while God’s love and forgiveness is all around me and his spirit lives in me.
I want people to see him when they see me. To see an outpouring of God’s love.
I dont need anything besides him to define my identity.
He truly is a good, good father.
The next part of the story takes place in Zambia……
Part two coming soon!
