I apologize now for the length of this post. My story started a while ago, and it’s been quite the eventful road.
My World Race story began when I was a freshman in college. I attended Denver Christmas Conference with Cru over Christmas break. There was an Adventures in Missions (AIM) booth there which obviously featured information about the World Race. I saw that you had to be 21 to go on it, and me only being 18 years old brushed it off as a nice idea.
I never revisited the idea of going on the World Race until earlier this year. Around March, I was asking the Lord for ways to serve Him. I was thinking more in a church capacity, but of course He had another idea. He brought the words “Race” and “World” to mind separately. All I remember thinking is that it sounded familiar, but I really didn’t know what it was. So I googled it, and found the World Race.
I probably spent the next week researching, reading blogs, watching videos, and asking God, “When do I get to do this?!” I just knew it was something He was calling me to.
Something you all should know about me…I’m not a very patient person. When something interests me, I want to do it now. At the time the Lord brought this to mind, the plan for me was to go to nursing school in the fall for two years. There was no way I was waiting two years to go on the Race. So I decided to do everything I could to put nursing school off for a year and pursue this adventure. I applied for the World Race route leaving in September 2014, just 6 months away.
I talked to my admissions coordinator at the school I was going to (I’d be giving up my coveted spot in one of the best nursing schools in Nebraska…red flag #1). I talked to my scholarship organization (I was purposefully giving up a year of my scholarship to go on the Race…red flag #2). After getting some of the logistics worked out and anxiously waiting to hear back from AIM, the phone call finally came. I was not accepted into the September 2014 route.
They told me they thought I had some things to work through before being ready to head out to the mission field. They asked me to attend counseling and prepare to leave for the World Race in January of 2015. The problem with that plan was that I would have to push nursing school back two years, and completely give up my scholarship. It clearly wasn’t right. I had to come to terms with the fact that I was not going on the World Race.
While I was crying out to the Lord, confused and a little hurt, God spoke to me. He told me to wait. He told me that the World Race was in His plans for me, just not in the timeline that I had set for myself.
So I moved on. I spent time grieving the idea of preparing to leave. It was rough. I was so confused because I really thought it was what the Lord wanted me to do. As I processed what was happening, the Spirit helped me realize that I was using the World Race to get out of going to nursing school, which is something I truly did not want to do in the first place. I just like having a plan. I like knowing what I’m doing. And by choosing to not go to nursing school, I would be giving up that plan. Plus, I had changed my mind so many times in the past, I just did not want to go through telling everyone that I had changed my mind AGAIN.
As it became more and more apparent that I was not going to go to nursing school, I felt at peace. I informed my school that I would not be attending starting the fall. I decided to finish my Psychology degree at my current school. But after that, I had no idea what I was going to do. For the first time in my life I did not have a plan.
This past summer was pretty rough in my relationship with the Lord. I felt distant from Him, and I just did not know what to do about it. After a weekend of bad decision making, and conversations that came out of that, I realized that something needed to change. As much as I loved the Lord, I was not displaying Jesus to the people around me. If the only testament people had about Jesus were my actions, they’d be screwed.
God asked me to read the Bible cover to cover in 40 days. I thought it was impossible, that He was crazy, that I would never be able to do that. But He gave me faith to obey. For 40 days I spent 2-2 1/2 hours a day reading through the Word. While it’s hard to learn any deep theological truths when reading the Bible that quickly, what this time cultivated in my was a desire for the Lord. I just wanted more of Him. I wanted to want what He wants. I wanted to do what He said. I wanted to live like He told me to live.
I started praying about what His plans for my life were. I asked Him to reveal what He wanted me to do after I graduate in May 2015. I told Him that I did not care if His plans did not match up with what I had always wanted for myself. I wanted to follow Him into whatever He was asking me to do.
And that’s when the World Race routes for September 2015 were released. I knew immediately that this time it was right. This is what the Lord was asking me to wait for. I would be done with school. I didn’t have plans. I’d surrendered myself to His will. I was ready.
So I took the leap and applied the same day the routes were released. After an excruciatingly long month of waiting, I got THE phone call. I was accepted to the World Race for September 2015! I cried tears of joy, and shared the good news with everyone who had been anxiously waiting to hear back with me.
The Lord continued to reassure me that this is His will for me. This is His timing. For every negative comment I got about going on the Race, he provided someone else to encourage me. I can sense His approval and His excitement for me. He’s so happy that I’ve chosen Him.
Choosing to follow the Lord into whatever He has for me has been the best plan I’ve ever laid out. It’s the only plan that has left me with a sense of peace. And I can’t wait to see what else He does throughout this adventure.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” -Jeremiah 29:11
