Hello Everyone,
My name is Natasha Raines and I am 18 years old. This year I will be graduating high school and attending the World Race: Gap Year! My home state is Georgia where I live with both of my parents. I have an older sister and brother of which I wouldn’t trade for the world!
A little bit of my story: I’ve grown up in church my whole life and was saved at the age of eight. My relationship with the Lord really began in my middle school to early high school years. There was this season during the ninth grade where I felt as though I always had to be perfect or else God wouldn’t be pleased with me and would punish me. This went on for a few months, even though it felt like a year and a half. One day I just couldn’t handle all that pressure anymore, so I told my parents about everything I had been going through and feeling. My dad was very understanding and showed me in the Bible where God hasn’t called us to be perfect, but to love Him and be in an intimate relationship with Him. This completely changed my whole life and view of things! For the first time in a long time I felt so free; it was as if this gigantic weight fell from my shoulders instantly! For the next couple of months I studied a lot about how Christ came to set us free and how we are no longer slaves to sin but to righteousness!
Throughout the next couple of years afterwards the Lord really began to show me His heart. The Great Commission verse in Matthew 28:18-20 really began to stick out to me; I felt as if this was to be my whole life because these three verses reveal God’s heart for His people! From this point on my desire was to go on an overseas mission trip, but I was scared at the same time. My dad saw my heart and my desire to do so, and so he told me that wherever I wanted to go for my first mission trip he would go with me. To hear those words from my dad was so encouraging! It wasn’t until April of 2018 that I would go on my first overseas mission trip to Haiti with my dad and home church. As my dad and I prepared for this journey together excitement filled the air! We went to meetings, typed out support letters, gathered items for a massive yard sale, and even watched several videos to try and learn some of their language, which is Haitian Creole. From the time we stepped in the church parking lot to leave, to the time we stepped onto that same parking lot back home my heart pounded! The emotions of what we saw and experienced in Haiti was so mixed. We felt joy and heartbreak all at the same time. The hand of God was so evident in that trip within the Haitian people and our own hearts as well! Some of my favorite memories are when we went to one of our translator’s church on Easter Sunday! The presence of God was so alive and real in the church. I had no idea what was being said but you could just tell that it was from the Lord. Being able to worship with them in their own language was such a beautiful thing! Another memory that sticks out to me is when we painted a family’s home. My job was to wipe up all the paint drops that hit the floor, this may seem insignificant, but it brought me so much joy! Later we painted the girls nails and in return they painted ours as well. After we finished we were able to share the gospel with the family and the mother/grandmother of the house became saved that day! I still continue to thank the Lord for what He did in that trip!
FYI:
Some things that I love to do is camp with my family and friends, and wright in my journals about sermons and the things that the Lord had been showing me. A little fun fact: I’m always the first one to fall asleep at sleep-overs, especially if you put a movie on late at night. I’m also the first one to wake up, so I usually just lay there with complete boredom until my friends wake up:) I also enjoy watching Disney movies with my closest friends and singing along to all the songs! Another thing that I find enjoyably is hiking short distances to waterfalls.
When I took the personality test for WR:GY I obtained the results of ISFJ (introversion-sensoring-feeling-judging). I definitely wasn’t expecting to see those results, but once I read about it I agreed. Some of my spiritual gifts are serving and faith, and one of my weaknesses is definitely leadership. I’m not the one to take charge of anything really.
Something that I really struggle with is decision making! Making decisions is definitely not one of my favorite things to do, but God is so faithful. He has helped me out a lot in this area, but it’s still a working process. It’s neat though because the fact that I don’t like making decisions makes me rely on the Lord more often to show me the correct one!
Up Next:
I will be sharing in my first blog about why I chose the WR:GY, and how the Lord led me to this decision. Until then this is how you can pray for me:
– that my faith will continuously overcome my fear
– for the preparation of my heart, my family’s hearts, the hearts of the people we will meet, and my fellow racers’ hearts for what we are all about to encounter
– for provision of funds for the trip ( I know that the Lord is faithful to finish what He started and that He will fully provide, but it’s the process that’s a little hard)
– also pray that I will become physically prepared for this journey as well
– anything else the Lord lays on your heart to pray about would be greatly appreciated 🙂
I thank everyone in advance for all of your prayers and support!
