We have one more week until midpoint debrief. It seems weird to be saying this. These last 4 1/2 months have gone by so quick, and at the same time the days seem so long. I’m just amazed how fast time has gone by. Just last January I started my application process for the World Race and I got accepted a few weeks later. For this week, I will post about my expectations as a whole for my time on the World Race and then I will tell how the World Race has been compared to that.
My expectations of the World Race were;
1. I would be doing some kind of ministry with people.
2. I would see God more than I had before training camp.
3. I would have new friendships with the people that I would meet.
4. I would grow in desiring relationship with God.
5. I would do a lot of adventure filled things while on the Race.
How the World Race has compared to these things;
1. In Ecuador and Peru, my team didn’t really have the kind of ministry that I thought we would be having. But with being in Guatemala and having almost every day consisting of doing ATL(Ask The Lord), we are constantly surrounded by people in ministry. I have really enjoyed this. At first and still now a little bit, I get nervous on doing ATL. I want to grow in being ready to hear and obey the Lord for what he has for me.
2. This have been very true of my view of God now, as to of before training camp. With having people prophesy over me, having visions, growing in my want to be in his Word, and seeing God’s hand of healing has blown me away by how amazing God actually is. I had to look for God in my life. He was always there and doing things, I just had to look. Just recently, about 2 weeks back, God healed a guy’s broken foot! I saw God heal a man’s foot today during activation day. (Activation day is where we listen to a teaching in the morning and then we go apply it that afternoon in the ministries we are at.) It was our first day of activation day and we were listening to the Holy Spirit. We walked probably 3 miles one way to get to the village. Junior thinks it is the first time that racers have been to that village. We went there because Philip had a vision of a yellow house, Carter had a image of birds, and Ben had the word follow. So we then followed the birds that we could see in the distance. We had no idea where we were to go for the whole time, and at the same time Junior(staff member) had a vision of needing to pray for someone with a broken arm, hip, or leg. We soon saw several yellow houses in this village we had walked to. We first came upon a lady that had a headache and we prayed over her and God healed her! We then saw a guy that needed a crutch to walk. We then asked him-through Junior how he hurt his foot. He said that he was riding a horse and the horse fell because a hole in the road. The horse landed on his foot. His foot broke at about the halfway point on his foot. Out of ten, he said that the pain was around 8. So we all prayed around him. We finished the first time and he said that the pain was about then a 4! God brought down the pain. We then prayed again and then we asked him how his foot felt. He said that all of the pain was gone! God healed his foot. It was so awesome. We continued through the village. When we came by their house on the way back, we saw that he still had the crutch under his arm but he wasn’t using it at all. He was walking around a little with the crutch off of the ground pinned between his arm and his body. God is so awesome!
3. I have so many new friendships. I have loved getting to know the squad and my team. I have loved the time I have lived with the other guys.
4. I certainly have grown in desiring relationship with God. It has taken me time to do this. I needed to encompass myself in things of God; like being in the Word, worshipping all that he is and praising what he has done, and listening for him. I have seen my desire to be in the Word change. At first I wasn’t striving to learn and know about my Father, but now I have a desire to know more and more about him. It has been really cool to see this in myself.
5. I have done a lot of adventure filled things since being on the race. I also have loved the adventure that God has showed me while doing ministry. Seeing God in new ways is an adventure. I have loved seeing him in more and more ways.
There probably were other things that I expected, but with all that has happened I don’t remember what all of those things were. I am so thankful for all that God has shown and taught me. During these next 4 1/2 months, I want to step into newness of listening for the Holy Spirit’s voice and being ready to do the things that he has called me into.
