On the last night of Urbana, one of my roommates ran into our hotel room and asked us if we came across the World Race exhibit.
“It’s a mission trip that takes you across 11 countries over 11 months!”
“OH WHAT!? That’s freaking awesome! Let’s all do it!”
“YEEEAAAAAH!!!!”
“YEAH!”
“ALRIGHT!”
“Wait you guys, there’s a catch.”
“What is it?”
“You have to fundraise about $15,000.”
“Oh what the…”
“Holy $#*T!”
“Welp, that sounded fun.”
“Yeah never mind…”
womp womp
As freaking cool as the World Race sounded, and as badly as I wanted to go, I concluded that it was not something for me. Simply because of the mountain that stood in my way of it. My outlook of support raising was never an encouraging one. I’ve already done it once before and was not a big fan. Fast forward a year later, I was at a point where God has closed some doors on me. But when a door closes, another one becomes ajar. I visited the website again just to look at the routes. I saw the September route and thought if I was to ever go on the World Race, it would be this one. I made an account just for the heck of it. A few days later I got a call from AIM staff persuading me to go. That night I stared at the apply button on my computer screen for who knows how long. At this point, I had no home church, I was fresh out of college, and couldn’t think of anyone who would help me out.
Then I thought of how many other people stood at a fork like this one and took the safer route. And because of that they missed out on the harvest. This was something that I can’t afford to miss out on and I wasn’t giving my God enough credit. “God I want to know what it’s like to live a life that’s dependent on You. I want you to blow me away.” That night I applied for the September 2011 route.
The six months that followed that decision was a roller coaster of hope and fears. Nonetheless God did blow me away, through the generosity of others, immense amounts of support, and the things that He was also doing amongst my squadmates’ accounts. And support raising: the letter writing, phone calling, powerpoint presentations, the prayers, and house visiting, was something that I came to love. As the plane was lifting off to the Philippines (#1), I couldn’t help but to think “Why me?”
Six months into the race and I still ponder the same thing. Off to month #7.
Thank you for all of your support.
