Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

| by archiveworldraceblogs

Thanks for everyone who has been praying for me.  Since posting my last blog I’ve started to feel a lot better!  Here is the long awaited second part of the “All His Money” blog, yeah I know, everyone was sitting on the edge of their seats waiting =).  
 
The months leading up to my birthday were crazy.  I was super busy, working two jobs (over 55 hours a week), running Fill-a-Belly, a homeless ministry with my sister, playing volleyball every week, hosting lots of friends in our home, helping with leadership at church, and trying desperately hard just to stay afloat.  I seriously need an over committers anonymous support group. 

 
What I wanted more then anything was to be able to devote my self full time to missions.  I’ve felt called to mission work since around age 10.  I’ll never forget the moment; I was sitting in my room reading an article in the Brio magazine I had “borrowed” from the church youth room.  At the end of the story about missionaries there was a side bar titled something like, “Are You Called to be a Missionary?”  As I read, I got chills because I knew missions was what God wanted for my life. 

My immediate response was, “God, please, NO!  I don’t want to be a missionary.  I don’t want to live in a hut in the jungle and eat bugs, and wear long skirts with tennis shoes, and be alone.  I don’t want to be alone, please don’t make me be a missionary.”  Thankfully, since that time I’ve learned that my stereotype of missions was wrong.  (Even though one or two times I have had to wear a skirt with tennis shoes, but those are memories I try hard to block out.)
 
As God and I were walking on the beach He reminded me of my calling and all the times it had been confirmed.  A Mexico mission trip my freshman year of high school that changed the course of my entire life, the picture above is from that trip.  A trip to Uganda after college that again confirmed my desire to lead others in short term missions, and then the World Race, which was a dream come true.  As I thought through all these adventures I realized that God had never once let me down, always provided more then I could have hoped for, and used me ways beyond what I could have imagined.

That’s when I decided to jump off the cliff again.  I told God, what ever he had planned I was in.  The journey from there has been crazy but amazing.  Fill-a-Belly has taken off, Molly (my sister) and I are forming a nonprofit, I got to go to Africa for three weeks this last month, and Expedition of hope is moving. 
 

I know I’m doing exactly what I was made to do.  It’s hard to trust that the funding will come in, especially with the economy being in the dumps.  Every day I get a choice, trust or fear.  Every morning is a new start.  I have to admit that a lot of days fear wins and I freak out about my financial situation.  I sobbed through the entire process of doing my taxes this year.  My Dad, who was helping me, kept telling me to get it together. 

Today, I’m choosing trust and I’m ready to see where that leads.