So some of you may even be wondering how in the world (haha get it?) I came about saying yes to 11 countries in 11 months.
This is a very good question. But also answers with a very good story.
The summer after my Sophomore year of college, I went to Argentina for a 6 week mission trip with Cru on a Summer Project. My eyes were opened to the non-American “way” through hole-in-the-wall grocery stores, no such thing as Walmart, and also zero Christian resources for students. We have it so good in America.
With some Argentine girls and girls from my Project.
You know that scene in the Grinch where his heart grows a litter bigger when he hears the town joyfully singing? In my hometown, you would see a church on every street corner and every single person with a “Jesus fish” on the back of their car. In a different country, “Who is this loving Jesus?” So I felt a little bit of growth in my heart while I was in Argentina.
When I returned, God specifically made it clear to me that Costa Rica is where He wanted me to go. [If you want to hear more about this, I would love to tell you another time!] So I signed up to study abroad for the Spring semester of my Junior year.
Just a couple of months before, in the October of my Junior year, my Argentina Summer Project team had a reunion. There a girl from my team told me about an organization called the World Race. I thought it was amazing but I didn’t even want to think about “after college” yet. Besides, God was already taking me to Costa Rica!
Flash forward a couple of months and to my time studying abroad in Costa Rica. I had just had knee surgery a couple of weeks before, I had no idea how to even speak the Spanish language, and I didn’t know a soul. I thought to myself, “God why the heck did you bring me here?”
The third day, a man and his wife approached some of my new study abroad friends and myself on the street in curiosity that we were all from the United States. He was correct and so we bonded. The first thing he mentioned was that he and his wife were recently married and had met on the World Race.
I immediately felt like there was a small little man running around my brain checking all the file cabinets looking for the answer to what the World Race was! Once it clicked, I knew God was up to something. At first, I thought that God was providing these kind Christians as community for me to have while I was all alone in Costa Rica. It most definitely was, however, God always has so much more in store than we think.
When I returned home and entered my Senior year, the size of my heart had grown even more for the nations. I began my final course, the Senior Capstone for Communication and I was prepared for a lot of homework and papers. Surprisingly, the first day of class my professor said, “If you are looking to make good grades, take exams, and care about attendance…then this class isn’t for you. My job is to help you find out who you are as a person, what you’re dreams are, and how I can help you accomplish your dreams.”
The first couple of weeks, I was fearful of meeting one-on-one with her, because that meant embracing MY dreams. Not the dreams of my parents and not the dreams of my peers. Mine. What did I even want to do? What is my dream?
When I did meet with my professor to discuss, before I could even think, the first thing that flew out my mouth was the World Race.
So here I realized the bigger picture. I processed how God had prepared me for GREATER. And all I had to do was to take the next step.
As I placed one foot in front of the other, and walked towards the plan that God had for me all along…my heart grew even more. I thought, how is this possible? And Jesus said, “For God so loved the world,that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
So here continues my story. The one He writes for me.
