I never really thought about what I was doing with this mission trip. I never took the time to think about what I was really get into and why I was doing it, but it intrigued me: I knew it felt right and I knew I wanted to do it. I had to take this seriously. I began to think. I started listing through the logistics in my mind; what would my parents say? How would I get the money? Could I really leave everything behind for nine months? I was at a loss, so I turned to prayer and then it all fell into place.
I realized for the past year of my life God had been setting me up for this. At the beginning of my second semester of junior year I decided I wanted to graduate high school early and enrolled in an online high school to begin taking my senior year online while simul taking my junior year at my private high school. I want to be a pediatrician, so I figured I wanted to achieve this insane goal to minimize the many years of school I had left to do. It was hectic. I attended regular school like normal for eight hours each day completing my junior year, but I also had about four hours each day of online school for my senior year. At times I felt like I could not handle it, however some how I made it through. I finished my junior year in May, then my senior year in July 2017.
July was also when I discovered this mission trip. As always, God knew what He was doing. I understood why I wanted to graduate early. I understood how I made it through the insanity of balancing two schools at once. God wanted me to go on this mission. I was already ahead by a year and the next mission trip was September 2018, so I had over a year to get even further ahead. Nothing was holding me back from going on this mission trip.
Except maybe my parents… I feared they would tell me I’m crazy. I had never left them for more than a week at a time. So I decided I wouldn’t tell them yet. How that made sense in my mind, I do not know, but I thought I would have a better chance of them saying yes if I waited until I actually got accepted and knew a little more about what exactly I was doing.
That lasted for about 6 days. The morning of the phone call I scheduled with a representative from The World Race, my dad came in my room and started talking to me about my future plans and college. I figured he knew I was planning something (he did) and spilled all that I had been thinking about and done with this mission trip.
To my surprise, he was just as excited as I was. He wanted me to travel the world and see the help I was capable of giving when I stepped outside of my comfort zone. God affirmed to me again that this is in fact what He wanted for me.
Then my phone rang; it was time for my phone call. I asked a couple of questions, the representative instructed me on how to complete my application and then she asked me if I had talked to my mom about this. I was amazed. My dad and I had just finished discussing the daunting task of asking my mom, he even agreed she would be hard to convince. I saw God’s work again through the representative’s inquiry. I informed her of my situation and she told me this was normal and that The World Race offered many resources to help hesitant parents. She emailed me these resources, which consisted of blogs, videos, and a website, then that was the end of our conversation. I was still doubtful on how the talk with my mom would go, so I turned back to my initial plan of waiting until I got accepted to talk to her. This lasted for another 5 days.
My family went to a family friend’s house the weekend before the 4th of July and my dad was talking to his friends about my mission trip. They all encouraged me that it would be an amazing life changing experience and one said I should blog everything. I loved the idea, so a few days later I made my very own blog. My mom was the only one home and I was very proud of my blog and I wanted nothing more than to show her, so I caved. I told her all about the mission, showed her my blog, and before she could even begin to ask questions presented the parent resources to her. She didn’t say much, so I left her to read and research more on this crazy thing I was eager to do. She didn’t talk to me about it at all, but I didn’t take that as necessarily a bad thing, I knew I had time to convince her.
I submitted my application and set up my phone interview for the next week. That interview happened Tuesday morning. I was anxious, I didn’t sleep much the night before and woke early that morning. I was told to be prepared for a hour and a half phone call at 9:00a.m. but it was 9:03, they hadn’t called and I was pacing nervously around my house when finally my phone rang. The phone call only lasted 10 minutes, whether that is good or bad I still do not know. I thought the interview went well, the representative asked me many of the same questions that I answered on my application. The call ended with her telling me she enjoyed my answers and that she would email the references I submitted and get back to me with the decision in about a week. Both my mom and dad questioned how the interview went and congratulated me when I revealed it went well, so I assume my mom is not too against me going! Now I just wait to see if I get accepted.
