I’m sure many of you are wondering, “Why are you choosing to live in a tent for the next year?” and that is an excellent question, and one I still ask myself from time to time when I get nervous. I believe I mentioned in my “Who I Am” tab that my cousin’s experience on the race is what sparked my interest. When I would read Sydney’s blogs during her time on the race, I would be in tears, because I felt that God was calling me to partake in this adventure at some point. I thought it was a little strange that I teared up with every blog, and friends told me it was because what she was doing was awesome, but I knew it was something more (sometimes you just know). So I talked to my mom about it (because who doesn’t), and she agreed that it seemed to be something God was laying on my heart. It’s now been 3 years since my cousin began preparing for her race and here I am preparing for mine.
After my senior year of high school I attended a Christ In Youth summer conference (which is now called “Move”). It was on this trip that I heard about Rapha House, an organization that seeks to love, rescue, and heal girls that have been rescued from human trafficking, and over the weekend the speaker asked if anyone felt called to go to Cambodia in the future, and I stood up. I ended up going to college in the same city as Rapha’s US headquarters, which led to volunteering for them, and also going on an awareness trip to Cambodia 3 years after my commitment at that summer conference.
Now here I sit, nearly 3 years after my experience in Cambodia, following God’s lead to travel the world that He created and meet the many nations He created.
So why now?
Well… here’s what it is…
So I started dating this guy (that’s how it always goes, right?), and I still felt this nudge (or shove) toward the race, but then the longer we were together the more ridiculous it seemed for me to just up and leave for a year. My little sister got married, then had a baby, and then my boyfriend and I were talking about marriage, and there just seemed to be all these reasons not to pursue the race, but I continued to feel this call to travel and be on the mission field. Suddenly, Bing! Bang! Boom! I was single, and it was totally the right thing, but I had been so focused on settling down that that was still all I could see and want. So my amazing friend Emily bombarded me until I agreed to pray about going overseas, and I prayed got the answer that I didn’t want at the time, but knew I was going to get. God spoke to me almost immediately while I was sitting in the Starbucks Drive-Thru waiting for my latte. Now, here I am preparing for the craziest adventure of my life thus far! I mean my options were follow God, or get swallowed by a big fish, so I figured I better just go ahead and follow His lead.
