When does the journey really begin? At what point can you look at your life and definitively say that the grand journey that God is calling you on has begun? Over the last couple of weeks I have been trying to answer that question. I have been trying to pinpoint when exactly did my journey with the World Race really begin. Technically, it started just a couple of weeks ago when I was officially accepted to join a team leaving in January. In reality, my journey started in 2009.
In 2009 I was a freshman at Bethel College. I was super excited to experience all that they would offer, including Task Force Trips. Task Force trips are what Bethel calls their mission trips, and they normally have a few that head out every year after traditional classes get out in the spring. My freshmen year right before Christmas, Bethel announced that they would have a couple of trips that spring, one of them heading to the Dominican Republic. I felt God nudging at my heart to go. I had never been out of the country (as a Michigander I don’t count going to Canada as going to a different country). I just felt like I was supposed to go on this trip. God turned my life on it’s head after those 2 weeks in the DR. My love for God, travel, and missions continued to grow with a semester abroad (New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Hong Kong and China) my sophomore year and another Task Force trip (back to China again) my junior year. I knew after those trips that I loved travel and I had a thirst for adventure, but I struggled to know what God wanted to do with me.
When you graduate with a Youth Ministry degree and a minor in Missions, it is assumed that you want to go straight into church ministry and be a youth pastor in a church. I, however, knew that my life wasn’t going in that direction, but at the same time, I didn’t know what direction my life was going. After graduation I moved down to Texas to volunteer at a church that an amazing family, that I knew from an internship in Texas my previous summer, were planting. I knew that I loved the Powers’ and would walk with them through anything because they were my biggest cheerleaders, but I honestly didn’t know what I was getting into moving from the Midwest straight to the heart of Texas. After countless title changes and position switches I thought I had ended up in my dream spot being the missions and outreach director of a vibrant, growing, world-changing church. But even in the midst of all of this that deep longing for adventure, travel, and more Jesus was always in my heart.
I tried to satisfy that longing with a trip to Mexico and another trip to China. But it was still always there. And the more I traveled, the stronger it became. This spring as I ended my second year teaching preschool (another long story for another day) I realized that now was the time to take hold of my life and live the life I had always dreamed of. Now, I didn’t really know what that looked like or what I was going to do, but I was tired of chasing things that I knew weren’t going to satisfy me. It was in the middle of searching that God reminded me of a trip I had seen posted about on Facebook. I went to the World Race website and the more I read the more my heart began to sing. The words I was reading described me perfectly. I saw the life I had been longing for in the depths of my heart.
So as I look back over the last 6 years of my life I realize that God has been working all things out to lead me to this moment. My journey with the World Race won’t begin in January, and it didn’t begin a few weeks ago when I was accepted. My journey with the World Race began long before I even knew the Race existed. My journey will also come full circle when I begin the race in the very country that my journey began, the Dominican Republic. My journey is ongoing and I know that God will continue to reveal himself to me through all of it.
Would you consider partnering with me on my journey? I am looking for people who want to join with me in sharing God with the Nations. If you are interested in joining me financially click on the support me tab on the left side of the screen. But more than anything would you join me spiritually? I would covet your prayers as I begin to take more steps on this journey.
