It was last summer on a mission
trip to Guatemala
that the Lord ignited a passion in my heart for international missions. . The
Lord had begun to direct my heart towards missions prior to my trip to Guatemala,
and I prayed that he would use this trip to ignite the passion for missions he
had placed in my heart. I knew that God was going to change my heart on this
trip, but I didn’t expect Him to rock my world like He did. I expected to see
poverty, but after seeing such extreme poverty firsthand my heart was forever
changed. I realized that I did absolutely nothing to deserve to be born in America
or have all of the blessings that I have. This trip made me realize that I am
blessed for a reason and I need to use God’s blessings in my life for His
glory. Through my trip to Guatemala
the Lord made it very clear to me that loving and serving His children around
the world was where He called me to be.
I first heard about the World Race
through one of my amazing friends Emily (who is going on the WR in July:
emilymilroy.theworldrace.org) last Spring. When I heard that it consisted of
living out of a backpack and in a tent for a year, I thought “Wow that is
crazy!, I could never do anything like that!”…little did I know what God had
planned. I kind of forgot about the World Race until the following summer,
where it began to pop into my thoughts every now and then, but I wasn’t even
considering it as an option for me. However after the Lord rocked my world in Guatemala, the
world race became a possibility after I graduated. After I returned from Guatemala I
began praying about what the Lord wanted me to do after I graduated. As summer
turned into fall the Lord kept putting the World Race on my heart and in my
thoughts. I started reading World Race blogs, through which the Lord continued
to lead me towards going on the World Race. There was one blog that had
children in Africa Gator chomping…and since I am a huge Florida Gators fan I
went to the about me portion of the world racer’s blog and she happened to
graduate from the University of Florida College of Nursing, which is what I
just graduated from (coincidence?…I think not)
Even though God kept doing various
things to confirm that the World Race was where he wanted me, I did a pretty
good job at ignoring Him. I am not the “outdoors” type of girl, and in fact
have never even been camping. So the idea of living in a tent with limited
access to showers was less than appealing. Even though I was being stubborn and
hard headed the Lord was persistent. On a Sunday afternoon this past fall when
I was studying for finals, I checked my email and had received an email from
AIM. The email was sent on Saturday morning (kind of strange….) and was
thanking me for my interest in the World Race (at this point I had never put my
email into anything on the AIM site or had any communication with anyone from
AIM). I thought maybe one of my friends had given them my email, so that was
not that strange. However I scrolled down to the bottom of the email and it had
my full name, my age, how I heard about the WR, and that I heard about the WR
through Emily Milroy….Upon reading this I had goosebumps. I called a few of my
close friends who knew that I was considering the WR and asked them if they had
given AIM any of the above info. Everyone I talked to, including Emily, said
they may have put in my email address at some point but not any of the details
that were in the email. I know that God sent me that email, even if someone
gave my info to AIM I know the Lord placed that on their hearts.
So you would think after getting an
email from God that I would realize that I was meant to go on the World Race,
however me being so hard headed I took some more time to pray about it and even
asked for more confirmation….really?!? The Lord gave me even more confirmation
through friends and family, and it was in December that I decided to apply for
the World Race. Since being accepted to go on this journey, the Lord has
continued to encourage me and provide me with endless confirmation that the
World Race is exactly where He wants me. I feel so humbled that God has chosen
me to be His hands and feet all around the world, and I can’t wait to share
with you what he does throughout this journey!
“However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I
may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me- the task
of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” ~Acts 20:24
