While I’m sure that being a contestant in a reality TV show like the amazing race would be, well, amazing, that is not what I’ve signed up for. As you can see by the banner at the top of this blog I am a world race participant. Let me explain what that means…
I have been given an opportunity to visit 11 countries in 11 months as part of a discipleship program run by Adventures in Missions (AIM). It’s kind of like a spiritual pilgrimage. I will live as a missionary on a limited budget, with only a backpack full of worldly belongings and work alongside ministries currently operating in the nations I visit. I will get the opportunity to be involved in projects that reach out and minister to the basic needs of humanity by offering practical help.
More importantly I’ll be challenged to step outside of my comfort zone, get my hands dirty, face my own selfish ambition and simply get to love on people. That is what I look forward to the most. Learning to seek faces and truly see individuals, not statistics. The woman caught in the sex trade, the boy orphaned by HIV and AIDs, the man imprisioned for his crimes, the youth addicted to drugs. Real people with real stories. It is their faces I yearn to recognize. The face of one.
I know that I cannot change anything unless I am radically changed. I can do no earthly good unless I become aware of what holds me back and allow God to change me from the inside out. I can do no good unless I learn how to love others the way that God loves me. The goal of the world race is to ignite that change in my life. It is an radical invitation to the dreamers beckoning them to live a life that is lived in full abundance and complete abandonment.
That is what I signed up for. I’m a dreamer who has always wanted to travel the world with the specific goal of reaching out and bringing relief where it is needed the most. I am also extremely cautious and lacking slightly in the area of impulsiveness. I don’t do anything without a great deal of thought. After 3 years of thinking seriously about doing this I took the plunge, applied and was accepted. Now I know that I have been launched on an amazing adventure that will take me through 11 different nations in the course of 11 months but it hasn’t quite sunk in yet. It probably won’t sink in until I get on a plane heading to my first destination, India…
Now that you know a little bit about what I’m getting myself into please know that I would LOVE it if you would join me on my journey. At the moment I’m a whole lot busier than I thought I would be, (full time work is amazing…), but it is my intention to keep you updated and hopefully entertained through my blog posts. So keep checking in because this will be a wild ride and who knows you may even learn something. 🙂
