I have decided I am not leaving the World Race.
Right now every Racer on my squad is being badgered with the question:
“What are you doing after the Race?”
Where are you living?
Are you going back to school?
Where will you work?
And around this time Racers are posting blogs about what they are doing when they get home.
So I decided to follow suit and write a blog.
For the past 10 months I have been a missionary.
And I am happy to announce that I am choosing to continue being a missionary after the Race.
A lot of people have certain ideas about missionaries, maybe you envision the knock on the door of a missionary offering you a religious doctrine, maybe you envision a family living overseas running an orphanage, maybe it’s the pastor who moves overseas to start a church in Africa, everyone has a certain perception of what a missionary is.
When I started the World Race, I did not consider myself to be a missionary. I saw myself as a disciple going out and doing Christ’s work in the world for 11 months.
But I am a missionary.
Month 2 of the World Race I gave my friend Lupita the one book I had brought with me. Mother Teresa’s Book “No Greater Love.” (If you haven’t read it, go get a copy now!) Soon after this I got Malaria and was sent home to the states. 8 months later Lupita and I were put back on a team together and she returned my book. If none of that had happened I wouldn’t have picked up the book today.
I was sitting on the patio of our ministry site researching jobs and trying to figure out what to do with my post-Race life. And I took a break to read some of the book.
Here’s what I happened to read:
“We all have been called by God. As missionaries we must be carriers of God’s love, ready to go in haste, like Mary, in search of souls; burning lights that give light to all men; the salt of the earth; souls consumed with one desire: Jesus.”
–Mother Teresa
A missionary is just that, a person who is consumed with one desire, Jesus. A person who is a carrier of His love, a person who brings light, a person who goes where God calls and serves and loves whatever souls God puts before them.
A missionary doesn’t have to go overseas. A missionary doesn’t have to distribute bibles and tracks. A missionary doesn’t have to have formal training.
A missionary is a person living with a passionate desire to bring Jesus to the world around them, wherever they have been called. A missionary can work an Average Joe job, or live overseas and run an orphanage or anything in-between.
What defines them is that they live with the intentional goal of being a light and spreading the love.
I have become a missionary on the World Race. I didn’t start out as one. I didn’t know how to live in a way that brought the Kingdom to those around me, I didn’t know how to walk step in step with the Holy Spirit.
But the World Race has shaped me into a missionary. The World Race has morphed me into a daughter of Christ who wants to go into the World and make disciples, everyday, not just for 11 months.
So yes, I am getting on the plane and coming home. Yes I will be living with my parents until I get a job and get grounded in the USA. But I will not stop being a World Racer, I will not stop being a missionary.
The World Race was 11 months of training me how to be a missionary. The World Race was 11 months of teaching me how to live differently, how to live intentionally and passionately for my Father in Heaven.
So I am not leaving the World Race.
I am bringing the World Race home with me.
