My first experience with missions was when I was a sophomore in high school. I went to Juarez, Mexico over my Thanksgiving break and helped at an orphanage, serving food at a prison and in a slum, while the locals we partnered with shared the gospel. At the end of the five days, I felt like I hadn’t contributed much and that I had been in the way more than anything. I returned home discouraged and a little bit jaded.
I didn’t start traveling and experiencing different cultures again until after I graduated high school in 2004. I attended Bible School in Europe and had some amazing opportunities to travel, participate in outreach, and to grow spiritually. At this point in my life, I had no idea what direction my life was heading, and missions never really crossed my mind.
I think the pivotal moment when this changed came when I was backpacking in Peru with a friend. As we were on our way to a winery near Ica, we drove through streets filled with trash and stray dogs, while women and children watched us drive by. We drove through a heavy, guarded gate into the winery and left the poverty behind us on the other side of the walls. The winery was peaceful, calm, and beautiful, a sharp contrast to the reality we had just passed. As we entered a completely different world, I remember thinking, “There is something seriously wrong here.”
When I returned home from South America, I realized that I no longer wanted to travel as a tourist, but I wanted to travel with a purpose to help people. I didn’t want to travel into these countries where poverty and desperation were so evident and be passive; instead, I wanted to make a difference and do something, anything, to change what I had seen. I called it “humanitarian aid,” but resisted calling it missions, remembering my experience in Mexico and how little difference I had made there. This changed in the summer of 2009, when I was working as a park ranger in Rocky Mountain National Park. I was telling a fellow ranger (and fellow Christian) about pursuing humanitarian aid long-term, and his response was, “So… missions?”
“N…yes,” was my response. It was like a light had dawned and I realized that there was no chance in the world that I could be effective and make real and lasting change in the world if I was going to attempt to do it without God. And that’s what I had been attempting to do. I wanted to fix the external problems I saw: the lack of food and clean water, the absence of education and health care, and the obvious poverty that I had seen in Ica. Yet, I was ready to ignore the deeper issue that only Christ can make a lasting change in the lives of these people and that He is the only path to healing. I was ashamed and humbled that I had thought I could do any of this apart from God and suddenly I realized that I was being called to missions.
This has been the path I have been pursuing ever since that day. It’s not the life I would have chosen for myself, yet it is the only path that makes sense. Because of this, I know that it’s not me that is choosing this, but it is the Lord that is directing me here. Because of where I have been and the experiences I have gone through, I am passionate about bringing the GOOD NEWS of Jesus to the broken and hurting people of the world. I know first hand what it means to be healed and restored by God, and I want others to experience this promise too. I have been filled up so that I may be poured out, so that God would be lifted up and glorified, and so that others may know the hope that we have in Christ.
So, why the World Race? While I know that missions are my long-term goal, I have not had any clear leading in where that may be or what it might look like. I am hoping that my time and experiences on the World Race will lead me to God’s ultimate plan for my life. I would be lying if I said I didn’t have some hesitation in pursuing this journey. I’ve wondered if this really is the next step for my life or if I need to just jump in and start pursuing a long-term placement somewhere. Yet I have earnestly been seeking God’s will in all of this. He has been opening doors that have led me to the World Race, and while He has not given me a definitive “yes,” He has not told me “No,” either. The World Race combines so many elements of who I am: a love of travel, a sense of adventure, and a passion for serving. I am taking a step of faith and asking for God to use this for His glory and His glory alone.
