For the past week or so God's given me a realization. Looking back, you'd think I would have realized this since Day 1, but sometimes it takes me awhile to realize something is a reality. But after two months I have finally realized…
I'M GOING ON THE WORLD RACE!!!!!!!!
Just saying that brings a big smile to my face and sends shivers up my spine as I anticipate what the next year or so of my life is going to look like. I'll be in 11 different countries all across the world. I'll live in an amazing community where I will not only be encouraged, but be an encourager as well (something I'm really bad at doing). I'll experience poverty like I've never imagined as well as a love and joy for Christ like I've never known. I'll experience adventure beyond my wildest dreams as well as occasional homesickness as I remember family and friends that I won't see for a year. This coming year will be filled with many emotions.
Right now…it's JOY!
I am so stoked to go on the World Race! I feel like I've been saying that for awhile now, but this is the first time where I'm actually experiencing joy and giddyness as I think about it. It's taken awhile to fully embrace this joy because it still seems like such a long way off. I still have another semester of classes and am currently taking a summer class right now to go along with my 40-hour week job. Not only that, but I'm in the process of support raising too, which consists of writing letters, making phone calls, and setting up meetings with people, all of which takes time. Life, to say the least, has been busy. So busy, that up to this point, the Race has only been an afterthought…just another thing that I'm doing with my life.
But I know that the Race is going to be SSSOOOOO much more than that. I don't really want to make too many expectations, because I know God will use this experience in a personally unique way; a way that I won't come to realize until it happens.
But I do know that I will not come back the same.
In fact, i'm not even sure it's possible. I've read blog after blog and watched video after video (if you haven't, I would take a look at some; they're great!) and I've always seen a person being changed by the Lord. Whether it's through a miraculous healing or seeing God's creation or experiencing everyday life with the team, I've seen God molding Racers into new beings. Not the new beings that refers to the transformation of objects of God's wrath to children of God, but new beings in the sense of children of God being transformed more into His Son's likeness.
I'm so excited to see how God works in my life this coming year. Already, I've seen glimpses of His presence/power as He's provided encouragement through family and friends in ways that I haven't expected and has blessed me with my first financial supporter…my mother. God bless her! (Not just because she is supporting me financially, but also because of the great mother she's been to me and the amazing woman of God she is). I pray that He will continually provide for me and that I will continually trust in Him faithfully.
So yea, I'm excited for the Race! I'm excited to see God work in me and through me. It's a scary process as I don't yet have all the answers to some of my questions, but the only one right now on my mind is…
IS IT JANUARY YET?!?
