In my heart I believe God calls us to a life of servitude. For me, a life of servitude involves doing whatever I can to help my" neighbor". As I have grown in my walk with Christ, the call to serve others has developed into my passion. When I think about it, I have had the passion for serving others for as long as I can remember. Through my adolescent years, I was blessed with the opportunity to carry out my passion via my home church; however, over the past two years, I have felt God tugging on my heart to do something more. While I am about to graduate from nursing school in May, I feel that God is calling me to serve NOW in an even bigger way than I could ever imagine.
Why the World Race?
If anyone has ever been in nursing school (or any other professional school), then they know the commitment and dedication required for success. For those of you who may not know, nursing school takes over your life to say the least. That is exactly what nursing school did to me; if I wasn't studying something for school, then I was sleeping trying to catch up on some rest for my next round of studying and clinical work. And to be completely honest, my relationship with the Lord was not always my first priority like I desired. I felt like my growth in Christ was temporarily put on hold while I completed the training for my career. Don't get me wrong, God continued to be faithful and help me daily as I struggled through school, but I ,on the other hand, struggled to be faithful with devoting time to Him to show Him some of the same love He gave to me. This struggle continued through out my first year of nursing school and into the second year. But as my last few months quickly approached and now continues to fly by with graduation right around the corner, I began to question why I wasn't excited to be done. I couldn't figure it out, so I began to pray. I cried out to God asking Him to reveal what was missing in my heart and to provide me with the opportunity to fill that void.
Over the next couple of weeks, God revealed two things to me. First, God showed me what was missing in our relationship and what had been holding me back from fully knowing Him. I hadn't wholeheartedly given my FULL focus and attention to knowing Him. As John Piper would say, I hadn't "let go and let God." I had let my family issues and nursing school become my focus and tried to fix them on my own, instead of going to God and asking Him to help during those hard times. The day this was revealed to me, I got down on my knees and asked for forgiveness. I thanked Him for revealing what was missing in my walk. I also prayed that He would give me the opportunity to serve Him and know Him more. I prayed to be used in ways that never seemed possible in my mind and to be challenged in my faith. The next morning in my devotion God spoke to me through Jeremiah 29:13 “If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.” I broke down in tears. God is so amazing and loving! God revealed in my heart saying, “My child I have been waiting patiently on you to look for me, I want to give you the life I have planned for you that is infinitely greater than anything you could ever imagine!" So for a couple more weeks I continued to pray for God to present an opportunity for me to serve and know Him more, and the World Race is what happened!
How did I hear about the World Race?
Over summer I had an awesome opportunity to work in the neonatal intensive care unit for my summer externship. One of my preceptors and I had a heart to heart one shift at work and I told her that my dream is to use nursing in the mission field one day. She mentioned that her sister also had a desire for missions, and she was currently on a mission trip called the World Race. Until then I had never heard of the World Race, but it only took me glancing at the website to be hooked! Eleven months in eleven different countries serving and spending every waking moment of my day growing in my walk with the Lord gave me HUGE butterflies. It was in that moment that I knew God was calling me to GO and serve. I had a peaceful feeling within my heart that day that words can not express. All I knew was I had a burning passion to get started on the application process, and I needed to figure out a way to present the idea of this awesome opportunity to my family.
Expectations of my Mission trip!
The World Race has been the perfect solution and God’s answer to my prayers. God is giving me the opportunity to give back for all the wonderful blessings He has placed in my life. That is why I feel lead to do missions, and the World Race! I want to show and give LOVE to others all around the world. This love will not be my own but will be an overflow of the LOVE that the Lord has faithfully and freely given to me. I know I will be out of my comfort zone and challenged daily, but for once in my life I will be living beyond myself and fully relying on God to aid me. I will be traveling around the world and experiencing the mighty power of God's work! I hope that this experience will humble me and allow God to regain that central focus I have been searching and praying for.
I desire to experience the world through God's eyes. I want to cry for the harden hearts of others with the Lord; and watch Him transform their hearts of stone and fill it with love and forgiveness. I long to see the shear JOY on their face when they meet the loving God that I know for the very first time! I want to experience and be an active part of showing God's love and mercy to ALL of His children! I desire to give back all the blessings God has given to me by being a light for His kingdom and serving others. Simply put, I want to see and experience more of God and His mighty kingdom He has placed on the earth.
On the journey, I hope to gain more of an insight into the person God has planned for me to become. I want to figure out who I truly am and who I want to be. I want to grow in my relationship with the Lord and learn more about whom He is. I want to let go and offer ALL of me to Him so that I may be able to understand what true Christ-like servitude looks like and ultimately fulfill this burning passion He has placed on my heart calling me to SERVE!
The World Race will do this and more! This is only the beginning and I can already see the impact of God’s hand on the process. I cannot wait to meet the rest of my team members so that we can share our passion for the Lord with each other and the world.
I invite you to be a part of my experience on the World Race. Ways that you can join me include following my blog which will be updated periodically throughout my journey, praying for me and my teammates as we prepare for the race, continuing to pray for us and the people we will come in to contact with on the race, and by financially supporting my journey. Remember, God gives us blessings for being faithful servants, so that in return we may bless Him with all that has been given to us. So I pray that you will join me in whichever ways you can; whether it be through your prayers, encouragement, or gifts I simply ask that you support me so that WE can join together our individualized spiritual gifts to BLESS HIS GREAT NAME! Romans 12:6-8 says, "In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly."
I would like to end my first blog with this quote. I hope this speaks to your heart like it has mine!
“Our lives may not be the ones we have longed for, but the greatest testimony is not how we started, BUT HOW WE FINISH. IT isn’t getting what we want; IT’S GIVING WHAT WE HAVE. IT isn’t getting our way; it’s DOING GODS WILL no matter what anyone else WE LOVE DOES. The legacy is not in our comfort, it is in OUR CHARACTER.”- Sheri Rose Shepherd
