And so it begins.
A kid from Nowhere, Alabama finds himself on the frontier of the greatest adventure he has ever known.
My name is Kyle Drury and I am from a small town called Smiths Station, Alabama: a place best described by the fact that it only has one stoplight but boasts several hundred cows. Hello is replaced by “Roll Tide” or “War Eagle” depending on the college team that particular person devotes his or her Saturdays to every Fall. Nearly the entire population finds themselves in a pew on Sunday mornings. Everybody knows everybody. I love Smiths Station and was always proud of my small town.
And yet, I always knew that I was missing out on something.
There was life outside of those city limits; I wanted to discover it.
This desire to get out and see the world has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I would lie in bed at night and let my imagination take me to the far off lands I saw in movies and read about in books. And yet, I rarely left my own home state save the annual trip to my grandparents’ house just one state south in Florida. It seemed as if my dream of seeing the world would be no more than simply a kid’s dream.
When I was twelve years old, the most monumental event of my life happened: I made the decision to become a follower of Christ.
I had always grown up going to church. My entire family was plugged into some sort of ministry in the church that I grew up in. But I never really understood what it all was about until the summer of my twelfth year.
From that day, nothing was the same.
I saw the brokenness of the world and wanted to do all that I could to show people the only person who could mend that brokenness. I wanted the love of Christ to be seen in every breath that I took.
The problem was, I didn’t know what that was supposed to look like in my life.
One day, I met someone. Someone who opened my eyes to what God had been preparing me for my entire life. His name was Paul. If you don’t know who he is just open up the New Testament. He is mentioned once or twice in there.
In Paul, I saw my passion for serving and my dream for seeing the beauty of the world collide.
I understood what my purpose in life was.
The more I read about Paul and his mission to be Christ’s witness “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8), the more I felt God beckoning me to follow in Paul’s footsteps.
I went on my first mission trip the very next year. It was to New Orleans, Louisiana. I found myself helping rebuild a home that was left in the desolation of Hurricane Katrina. Seeing the smiles on the faces of the people who had lived in the house as we were restoring it brought me a joy that I had never known. I knew that I was right where I was supposed to be.
Then, one day I discovered this thing called The World Race. I was a sophomore in high school. A girl from my hometown had just graduated from Auburn and was on the Race. As soon as I heard about it, something within me came to life. I knew that this was something that I absolutely had to do.
But, I had never even been out of the country before…so how was I going to spend 11 straight months in parts unknown? I had no answers to any of the questions that began flooding my mind. All I knew was that this was something that I wanted to do more than anything I had ever dreamed of. To get the chance to dedicate a full year of my life to nothing more than making Jesus known across the world was something that I could not take my mind off of.
For six years, The World Race has continuously found its way into the forefront of my mind.
Since hearing about the race, I have had opportunities to serve in other short term capacities around the world. I have been to Guatemala three times, to Ghana, and to Argentina. I have seen God do amazing things in my life and in the lives of others during these short trips. And yet, these trips to far off places did not satiate my hunger for international missions. Instead, it added fuel to the increasingly hot fire.
Although this fire is hot, there have been times when the threat of it being extinguished has been a reality.
Perhaps the major obstacle between me and The World Race has been medical school. Since realizing that I was being called to take Christ’s love to the ends of the earth, the road has not always been easy to see. I knew where the final destination was, but I was unsure of how to get there.
At one time I thought I would be an engineer who would help others by bringing methods of getting clean water or better ways to grow crops.
I have thought about being a teacher in other countries.
I have even wondered if I was meant to be a church planter across different areas of the world.
Yet, through much prayer (and multiple changes of my major), I realized that my path led me through the field of medicine. I felt like God wanted me to show his love by bringing healthcare to people who otherwise would not have access to it.
So, I began preparing for medical school. I soon realized, though, that the path to becoming a physician was a long and grueling one. It would require four years of undergraduate studies, followed by four years of medical school, followed by around four years of a residency before I could even be a full-fledged independent physician.
Suddenly, The World Race seemed like an impossibility.
I was devastated as I began to wrap my mind around this thought.
What was I supposed to do? Do I give up on being a physician just so that I can do this one year of mission work? If not, I will have to wait TWELVE YEARS before I can go on the world race and who knows what could happen in that time? I was running out of options and finally I had to make a decision.
I would apply for medical school and skip The World Race.
I was heartbroken as I realized that this was my only option. I cried out to God. How could I be stuck in a place where I was forced to choose between the dream of the past six years of my life and my future as a doctor?
But just as it seemed all hope was lost, God reminded me of who He is.
I got an interview for a medical school in Virginia: Liberty University. It was a school built around a firm faith in Jesus Christ as God’s son. For me, being able to have my passion for medicine be partnered with my love of Christ was a no-brainer. I wanted to go to medical school at Liberty.
By the grace of God, I was accepted. I was so excited I couldn’t contain it. I immediately began to look through all the information for future students and could not wait to be able to spend the next four years at Liberty.
And then, I came across something. One sentence that caused me to laugh out loud about the fact that I had been so foolish as to doubt God’s ability to show up in major ways.
Liberty was open to giving deferments to students in the event that they were given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I knew that there was no other way to describe The World Race than a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I emailed the admissions team at Liberty and I received a call telling me that Liberty would be more than happy to grant me a deferment. I would be given a seat in the class at the medical school for 2018 instead of 2017.
I would be able to go on The World Race.
I have never been more excited about where I am in life than I am right now. God has shown his faithfulness and his love for me in ways I could have never imagined and I have never felt more at peace about my place in God’s will.
I know that there are still mountains of finances that I have to climb before I can embark on this journey, but I know better than to doubt God’s ability to show up when faced with seemingly impossible situations.
I hope that you will follow me throughout this adventure and will help me through prayer, giving, or both as I prepare for this life-changing year.
God Bless,
Kyle Drury
