So back at the end of July I went to the Dominican Republic for a Mission Trip with the High Schoolers at my church. Every day we spent time in worship and prayer, and sharing what we were seeing God do in the DR. One night one of the pastors from my church shared a story about a girl he knew that had come to the DR for missions. She took a week out of her full-time job as a collegiate coach to come and serve with some of the students she coaches. He explained when she got back to the States, she decided that the week wasn’t enough and wanted to do something more so decided to go on a mission trip for 11 months, living out of a backpack, and serving people around the world, sharing the gospel. I remember thinking to myself “that’s so cool, good for her!” and didn’t really think anything of it afterwards.
We got back to the States that Saturday, and I shared with everyone who asked my experiences in the DR. How we shared the Gospel with anyone who would listen (which was pretty much everybody) and just loved on the kids we met from Pasistos de Jesus (an all-girls orphanage) and Emanuel House. Exactly a week and a day after I got back, I was at church and I randomly started talking to a girl I did not know who shared with me that she had just moved back to Maryland a week prior but that she was moving again in three weeks. Intrigued, I asked her to tell me more. She explained to me that she would be doing something called The World Race, which was an eleven month mission trip around the world. Immediately I thought of the girl I heard about while I was in the DR and tried my best to remember the details of the story to share with her. A few minutes after me stumbling through the details with her, she told me she had met that same girl during her training where there were hundreds of other people and got to hear her story. She continued to share with me more about The Race and her story and I became extremely excited for her as she went on. Later that night as I was driving home from church, I called a friend who had been in the DR with me and reminded her of the story of the girl who decided to do missions for 11 months, and told her about the girl I had met that night. Her immediate response was laughter at what God was doing and she said “Kehinde, you need to pray about this. God could be calling you to this”. Hesitant, I decided she was right and that I needed to put it into prayer.
After much prayer and spending time with God I do believe this is what He is calling me to for the next season of my life. I am extremely excited but also a bit anxious at the same time. Since I’ve been sharing with people about this opportunity I’ve been extremely blessed by the positive reactions, encouragement, and affirmations. I hope that you follow along as I begin this journey and hope that you are encouraged by it.
