So I have received a lot of questions regarding my decision to go on the World Race. I have noticed that there are several questions that come up again and again, and while I am happy to discuss them with you, I thought that it might also be beneficial for me to post about the most common questions on my blog. So here they are:
1. What is the World Race?
The World Race is an 11 month mission trip to 11 different countries. It is both an evangelistic/humanitarian mission trip, as well as an intense discipleship program. I will be spending 1 month in each country partnering with a local church or ministry to help with a project that is already happening in the country. My route will take me to Albania, Romania, Malawi, Zambia, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile.
2. Why do you want to go?
With everyday my desire and list of reasons to go grows longer. But here are 3 of the main reasons I would like to go…
- I want to share the hope and love of Jesus with the nations. The great commission in Mat. 28:16-20 tells us to go and make disciples of all nations. Through this trip I will have the opportunity to meet so many diverse people from all over the world and be a light used by God to pierce through the darkness and hopelessness that seems so prevalent in our world and bring a message of victory and healing to the lost and broken.
- I want my view of the world stretched. I have grown up so sheltered and I want to be pushed outside of my comfort zone to better understand God and his heart for the world. One major aspect of this trip is that there is a large focus on living a life of abandonment so that we can truly minister to “the least of these.” I will be leaving all of the comfort and security of home and living out of a backpack for a year where I will quite literally only have what I can carry on my back. I want to know what life is like outside of my little bubble of comfort.
- I want to be wrecked for God. I want to be completely destroyed and broken down so that I can be built back up into someone a little closer to the image of God. I want my heart to break for the women who have been victims of human trafficking, I want to feel the loneliness of the orphan, I want to know the pain of loss. I want God to strip me of all that I place my identity in and then replace it with Him, until all that is left is Him so that I will truly understand what the passage in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 means when it says “9 But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
3. Are you sure that this is what God is calling you to? Are you sure it isn’t just your selfish desire to travel the world?
I get this question quite often, probably because anyone who knows me knows that I can’t stay in one place and I LOVE to travel. I also hear this a lot with reference to the situation my family is in. If you know me personally then you probably know that my dad has been out of work since June 2014. He has been working part time as an adjunct professor but he doesn’t get paid enough doing that to keep our bills paid. I have been very burdened with whether or not to postpone this trip or even to go at all. I absolutely believe that God is calling me to it. Yes, I have a passion for traveling. It has been a dream of mine since I was 12 years old, but it is because of this passion that I have the courage to step out and do something like this. I believe that God is using that desire to His glory. God will provide for my family and He will provide for me. He is faithful and I believe that He is still telling me that He wants me to go on this trip. I have been praying about it and have others praying about it, and unless I hear otherwise I am moving ahead with my plans to leave in July. I don’t know what God’s plans are but I know that they are greater than mine, and I will follow where He leads.
4. Isn’t it dangerous… I mean, aren’t you afraid?
Simple answer… YES! I am absolutely terrified! I have no idea what is in store for me on this trip. I would not consider myself a courageous person. I am the kind of person who runs for her life at the first sign of trouble. If we are being completely honest… I still run as fast as I can to my front door because I am afraid of the dark. Everything about this trip terrifies me, all of the unknowns, all of the things I am going to encounter, even the ways that I am going to change. But I know that I serve a God who is so much bigger than any of my fears and He is in control. And I know that if He wants me to go on this trip, it is because He knows that there is something great in store for me and that it is going to draw me closer to Him.
