Hey everyone! I know a lot of you are wondering how coronavirus will affect the World Race so I’m here to give you an update on that and tell you what this next year will look like.
So originally, my squad was supposed to spend 9 months on the international mission field, traveling to Swaziland, Ethiopia, South Africa, and Cambodia. When the pandemic first started, Adventures in Missions (our umbrella organization) came out with a back up plan that would have us spend three and half months at their base in Georgia and launch internationally in January. And a few weeks ago this became the game plan!
Honestly, I struggled a lot with this at first. I was totally fine with it while it was just a back up but when it became reality, I was disappointed and confused. I’d been looking forward to this for years and now it was completely different. We were all given the choice to go to Georgia, defer to 2021, join a new squad in January for a 6 month semester program, or just walk away if none of these felt right. I was seriously considering deferring to 2021 because I couldn’t let go of the expectations I’d had for the last three years. But another part of me couldn’t let go of the squad I’ve been getting to know the past five months or the idea of dedicating a year of my life to God before going to college. We were told to pray and seek the Lord’s will and make a decision by the following week.
Those of you who know me, know that I am super indecisive and take forever to make a decision about the littlest things so you can imagine how stressed I was about making such a big decision in just one week. I knew that I needed to go before the Lord with it, but I didn’t even know how. I’d been looking forward to this for so long that I was scared I wouldn’t be able to discern God’s will from my own. But I finally just prayed, “God, I’m really struggling with this but I want to want what you want for my life. Please align my heart and my will with yours.”
I talked with my advisor and he told that there was no right or wrong decision, that God would show up in whatever I chose to do. I talked to my mom and she said that if five months on the international mission field wasn’t long enough, I could always do another race in a few years. At this point, I was starting to be more and more okay with the idea of going to Georgia. Then I met with my mentor the next day to talk it over and see what she had to say. I told her what I had prayed for and that Georgia was starting to be more appealing. Then she said, “Well don’t you think that you becoming more open to Georgia is God answering your prayer?” I’m pretty sure my jaw hit the floor. I was so consumed with worry and fear that I hadn’t seen the way God was working in my life, even after I had asked Him to. She also pointed out that having us at the AIM base for three and a half months would be much harder for them than just deferring our launch so they must feel really good about this. At this point I was actually really excited about the intentional, Christian community I was getting the unique opportunity to be a part of but I hadn’t made my final decision yet.
I went home and read the first chapter of the book of Joshua. It takes place right after the death of Moses. This was a time of great uncertainty for the Israelites because they needed a new leader that would take them into the promise land. Then Joshua was installed as the new leader and God spoke to him saying, “I will give you every place you set your foot, as I promised Moses” (verse 3) and “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you” (verse 5). Then Joshua tells the Israelites what they need to do to enter the promise land and they respond with, “Whatever you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go,” (verse 16). I was able to replace God’s promise to the Israelites and Joshua with what He had promised to me through the World Race. Three times in this chapter, God says to be strong and courageous because He will always be with you wherever you go. I realized God was calling me to Georgia and I said yes. And I was filled with hope and joy that literally had me dancing around for days after because I was just so excited and happy for the future.
Now nothing like this has been done before, so it’s new to everyone involved. The longest people have stayed at the AIM base is 10-15 days for training camp and we will be there for over three months. This time will pretty much be an extended and in-depth training camp. We’ll be focusing on discipleship, local outreach, and forming spiritual habits that will equip us for spreading the Good News. Alumni racers are super excited (and even a little jealous) that we get extended time to prepare for the mission field so I have no doubt that God will move in BIG ways while we’re in GA.
We will launch internationally on January 2nd. We don’t have an official route yet because of coronavirus but AIM advisors are working with our bases overseas to see which countries can receive us. Because some countries we planned to be in won’t be able to receive us, we might actually be able to minister in three different continents rather than countries, which we originally signed up for. I am particularly excited for this because when I decided I wanted to do this three years ago, the “3in9” of World Race gap year was three continents in 9 months but it was changed to three countries within the last couple of years. I was a little disappointed about this change but now God is using the coronavirus changes to fulfill His original promise to me.
A lot of racers, including myself, have questions about how this would effect our fundraising and I’m sure you do too. Georgia will actually be the most expensive place to live so our fundraising goals won’t decrease but they also won’t increase. One advisor put it this way: “You’ve all been to Chickfila and know how much a meal costs there. Well the cost of that one meal would be your squad’s food budget for two days in Thailand.” Crazy, right?
Anyway, I am SUPER excited for this upcoming year and I can’t wait to see what God does through this uncharted territory!
God bless, Madison <3
