I’m going on the World Race! What is that, you ask? Where and when am I going, and what will I do when I get there? I’ll get to all that in a sec. First, WELCOME TO MY BLOG! Make yourself at home, take the tour and check out my About section for a few words on me personally, and hit the subscribe button for email updates on any and all fundraising endeavors and what God is doing in and through me and my squad mates out in the mission field once I launch. I will also be posting information on my Facebook, and my Instagram.
WHO will answer the call?
My trip will be with a group of 50 other individuals whom God has called into the missions field, as well as expierienced missionaries to guide and mentor us along the way.
WHAT is the World Race?
The World Race is an eleven month mission trip and discipleship program that will take me to eleven different countries. Upon arriving at each destination, we will partner with local ministries to reach out to the lost and the broken for our Lord and Savior. This will mean anything from street ministry and evangelism to teaching English and helping to build an orphanage or church.
WHEN will I depart?
My race route will be launching in August 2018. That means I have about 10 months to raise $18,100 in order to be fully funded when I leave. That sounds like a very daunting challenge when seen from a worldly perspective, but I know that I am no longer of the world. I am a citizen of my Father’s Kingdom and He is a good father, a good King (king of kings in fact). He has gone before me and prepared a way, He says, “Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.” Where you or I might see a mountain to climb, He sees an opportunity to show us how much He loves us!
WHERE will my World Race take me?
At each launch date, there are several routes to choose from. The route God lead me to will start out in Eastern Europe, where my first three months will be spent in Ukraine, Romania, and Bulgaria. Next up will be four months in Southeast Asia, starting in Vietnam, then off to Cambodia, Thailand, and Myanmar. The last leg of my race will be four months in South America, where I will outreach in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and finish up in Bolivia.
WHY am I doing this? (this will take a minute)
This is a question I asked myself for a good while before I had an answer. A couple years ago, I first felt God calling me to the World Race when I started hearing testimonies from others who had already gone. At the time though, I was a few years into college, still had a bit to go, and I was in a serious relationship. So I’m here thinking, “God, there is no way you are calling me to do this. You want me to raise how much money?! There’s no way I could pull that off. And aside from that, I’ve got so much going on where I’m at. It doesn’t make any sense for You to lead me somewhere else………I must have heard You wrong………..ya, that must be it……
Essentially, I told God no. I wrapped it up in the much nicer wrapping of “I heard him wrong.” In that regard, I failed miserably. But my God is a God of second chances, amen. I finished college, got my degree, and if you’ve watched the video above, you know my mom said something on that day really got me thinking. It also scared me, if I’m being perfectly honest. My life was wide open, full of possibilities and choices. The path was no longer laid out for me by anyone else. From here on out, my life would be whatever I made of it. So, I did what any sane person would do: I did absolutely nothing and avoided making any big decisions. Ya, I know, not the best course of action- or rather inaction. Several weeks pass like that, everyone asking if I have found a job yet, whether or not I have looked here, looked there, posted my resume on this or that website. Some of those things I did, some of them I didn’t. I wasn’t that committed to finding a job. The things I did do, I did mostly out of guilt because I didn’t want to fall short of others expectations. This whole time, I’m praying, “God, where would You lead me, where would You have me go, what do You want me to do?” About this time, it was prophesied over me that I had several doors in front of me. Each door was a different choice, but each one was good, God was saying that he could work in and through me in each choice. He was leaving it up to me, and I could peak into each door and kind of feel it out before I chose a path. So, I start looking for doors. Right off the bat, I knew what some of those were. I could find a job with my degree. Another option was the world race, but it definitely wasn’t at the top of my list. I was still making excuses, but I went ahead and applied for it. It was at a worship night at a local college ministry that God told me “If you choose the World Race, I’ll take care of everything. Don’t worry about raising the funds, don’t worry about buying all this travel gear, I will take care of it. All you have to do is step up.” That night, I made my choice, and here I am, writing my first blog, getting my first passport, and trying to figure out how to pack a years worth of stuff in one big backpack.
It sounds crazy, even to me, but God often calls us to do things that don’t make a lot of sense, and he just wants us to trust Him and step out in faith. Please, step out with me, and prayerfully consider supporting me financially by hitting the donate button at the top, and also pray for my fundraising, safe travel, and that I will be a light to those I meet along the way. Thank you for reading, and God bless you.
