My Friends and Family,
THANK YOU.
From the bottom of my heart: thank you for your support. When God gave me this dream to go on the World Race, I knew it would require me to trust Him in greater ways than I ever had before. This trust journey began in finding support. I didn’t know if I could raise the money I needed. I didn’t know if enough people would care about this trip. I didn’t even know if I was liked enough to be fully supported. I won’t lie to you: it did cross my mind that this whole thing could crash and burn.
Well, I’m overwhelmed. In the last 9 months since I joined the World Race, I have had over 60 of you collectively donate roughly $14,500, 35 of you purchase t-shirts to fully fund my travel gear expenses, and countless numbers of you pray over me, encourage me, and believe in this journey with me. In times where I really wanted to give up, I would look back and see all of you standing behind me, with wide smiles and open hearts, encouraging me to keep pressing forward in faith. It is the testimony of YOUR love and generous support that will be a constant reminder to me of God’s faithfulness, a valuable reminder I will take with me on the Race for those moments when I begin to doubt. My friends: the fact that I’m standing here, three weeks from launching into the greatest adventure of my life, is nothing short of a miracle. And YOU are that miracle.
I launch out on to the World Race on October 1st, 2016. But before I do so, I want to take this opportunity to share a couple of things with you.
First, I want you to understand my heart for this trip. In the next year, you may see photos of me sitting on beautiful beaches, taking canopy tours, riding elephants, or hiking rugged mountains. I don’t want you to think that this is what I’m here for. While I will get opportunities to see the wonders of the World, these small adventures will be mostly on rest days (and will be funded entirely on my own dime!). The sole purpose of our team’s engagement in the countries we visit is our ministry; even if our initial ministry assignments are minimal, we will choose to use our excess “down time” to engage with the local people in deeper spiritual relationships, instead of binging on Netflix.
Second, I do not believe that I am going to “change the world” this year. I don’t want to be naive in thinking I, a privileged American, have the ability to change lives through a notion of Western elitism. In all reality, I may be hopelessly unqualified to do the ministries I am asked to participate in! However, I am committed to living with a servant’s heart; I wish to serve those I meet in any way I can, with the intention of making the love of Christ known. I am trusting that even through manual labor and small service projects, God will use my team through Holy Spirit power to introduce the good news of Jesus to people who don’t know Him. Only Jesus has the power to change the world; I will consider myself lucky to be there when it happens.
Most importantly, I want to share this.
At training camp, our leadership taught on the principle of operating as the body of Christ within our squad. We are a church, and we are THE church. In times of trial, we are meant to uplift one another, put each other’s needs before our own, and serve in unity through our individual giftings. By the end of our long week, once we had established ourselves as a squad and had endured the rigors of camp, each of us was given the opportunity to say “yes” – to God, to our squad, and to the mission ahead. By saying “yes”, we all committed to journeying through this next year together.
My supporters, as I am about to step out into this new world of faith, I feel it important that I also make my commitments to you.
I commit to telling you the truth. In the next year, I will face many challenges – spiritually, physically, and emotionally. I’m going to miss home. I’m going to be frustrated by my team mates. I’m going to step out in faith and sometimes fail. I’m going to be left totally drained, depleted, dead, and ready to give up. I want you to know me in these times. Through this blog, I intend to tell you the whole story. I pray that my stories of weakness under trial will result in a greater testimony of God’s grace and power moving through me. I believe that your prayers will be the very catalyst that lifts God up above the walls I cannot climb.
I commit to staying focused on the goal. I know that there will be many times where I will get distracted. I may enter into a ministry month where I feel lazy or inadequate, and will veer away from situations that might stretch me. I may enter into a ministry where I feel totally qualified, and yet miss out on the opportunity to let God move through me. I might get too safe, and fall back on excuses to retain my comfort. I might get so caught up in the “what” that I miss out on the “why”. I commit to constantly evaluating my heart, to make sure that the goal set before me – proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus – is always the focus. If it’s not, I invite you to tell me.
I commit to bringing you alongside me. I’m going to have some amazing stories to share in the next year. I won’t always be able to share every little detail, but I owe it to you all that I continually share the highlights – the things God does, teaches me, or inspires hope for. I will share with you about the many amazing people I minister to, as I want you to join me in prayer for these souls to find Jesus. At times, I might struggle to remember you all in the States while my focus is on the mission overseas, but I commit to believing that you are as much a part of this ministry as I am.
I want to invite you into this commitment.
Over this next year, I want to invite you into this missional church of mine. To pray fervently for the hearts of those that receive the Gospel. To intercede for our safety and against the enemy’s attacks. To believe in faith for God to do the miraculous. To journey through this great God adventure together.
I want my victories to be ours. I want my struggles to be ours. I want my journey to be ours.
My prayer is that through our commitment to each other to go through this year together, we will see the body of Christ rise up in unity. Through the daily ministry of my squad of 43 and the collective prayers of all of our faithful supporters, we will see a HUGE move of God spurred by a body of Christians choosing to live in bold faith.
And this bold faith IS for me and for you. The phrase “Just Say Yes” is my slogan for this year. It’s a reminder for me to choose obedience in the face of fear, and to walk in greater faith than I have ever known.
I pray this will be your theme too. I pray that you won’t read my blogs, smile, and go on with your day. I pray that you will allow the Holy Spirit to inspire you to new levels of faith, no matter what environment you are influencing. I pray that the testimony of my fear and weakness transformed by God’s boldness and strength will inspire you to seek the same in Him. I pray that as you read about the wondrous things God does through this year of living in faith, you might hear His voice calling you to do the same.
God’s going to do some amazing things in this next year.
Are you with me?
“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christmay be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves,and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” Ephesians 4:11-15
