It has been a long time coming to get to the World Race. This whole journey started back in December of 2017. I applied and interviewed. They told me that within two weeks I would be getting a call saying either I got it or didn’t. Finally, about 3 weeks later (new years stretched the two weeks thing) I got the call saying I was accepted. This was just the first step in a long series of things that God was doing to me in 2018. Next, I was called to leave my church. Doing this was a huge step of faith. I had been at my old church my entire life. It was all I knew, but I also knew that God had so much for me elsewhere. Coming to Quest was the best and worst thing I did. It was the best because I now had an amazing friend group and community pouring into me. It was the worst because when it came time to leave these were the hardest goodbyes. During this past summer it became obvious that my original route leaving in October was not where God needed me. This was extremely hard because I was friends with the whole squad on Facebook and was extremely excited to spend the year with an amazing group of people. I was extremely disheartened with going on the World Race and just wanted to scrap the whole thing. I didn’t tell many people about this, but I was really wanting to go down to Belize with the missionaries from Quest. This became obvious that right now I was not to go to Belize. So, I refocused and realized that Unscripted was indeed where I was called to be. This past fall and winter were probably the most fruitful time in my entire life. I took the leadership class at church with John and learned a lot about what it means to be a good Godly leader in and out of the church. I also had an amazing group of high school boys in my small group at church. I feel as if I learned as much from them as they did from me (hopefully). I also had the chance to serve with Arise and help get it off the ground. This was a huge stretch for me because before I had always done ministry with people younger than me, never peers. I also got extremely close with my core group of friends and was able to just be with them. We were able to go to Passion 2019 and just laugh and learn about the Lord. Probably my three favorite days of my life. I will always look back on this time of my life with nothing but smiles.
All of this to say that I am on the World Race now. For a large part of this journey I never thought it would actually happen. I doubted myself and I doubted the Father. Both of which were mistakes. I have been in Cambodia for about ten days. These ten days have been amazing. We have been given so much information on what we will be doing this next year. We have been able to see the heart of our leadership team and why they burn for this Unscripted/Fusion route. The squad has quickly become a big family. We have also been given our teams. The teams we are in is going to be the core group I will be with for the first portion of the race. I am extremely blessed to be a part of Guarder of the Heartz. We are fearlessly led by Jacob Martinez. We also have Daniel Kiraly and Tanner Albright. These three dudes have amazing hearts for the Father, and I can tell that we are going to make some amazing memories with each other and going to do some awesome work for the Father. I am sad that in the next few days we are going to break away from the rest of the squad and won’t be with the big family much after that, but I know that each team is going to do great things. It is crazy to think back where I was a year ago having just got accepted to the World Race but not truly being sure I was going to go. Now I am here halfway through month one about to start our ministry.
I also must give a special shout out to Momma Beth. Beth was only with us for the first week of this journey, but she had a huge impact on us. She showed us how to love one another and showed us what it means to be a World Racer. She was also like a second mom to me while being on the other side of the world from mine. She was always there to give us hugs when we walked into the house for training in the morning and she led the party for my birthday dancing with the sparklers.
