I know that I have been slightly absent from all things World Race, but my life kind of got flipped upside down. For those that do not know, my dad recently had brain surgery to remove a mass that was found in his brain. He also has a mass in one of his lungs. To be honest, it was a phone call that I never thought that I would receive. Yet, I got it and was immediately rushing home with my brother, Jackson. Four weeks later, my dad is home and to someone who doesn’t know he had brain surgery, he looks normal.
(This is all of my family, just 10 days after Dad’s surgery!)
However, these past few weeks have been the hardest weeks of my life, simply because of the unknown. The unknown of how the surgery will go, the unknown of Dad’s recovery, the unknown of what is going to happen next (which we are still waiting on by the way). The unknown is a scary place to be.
Through everything that has happened, God has been right there with us, and that is the coolest thing of all. Life is this incredible thing that is so full of unknowns that if you sit back and think about it, you will be so afraid you will never do anything. But here is the greatest part, God knows nothing about the unknown because He has already been there, and is there, and will always be there. There is a saying that says, “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” What a powerful statement that is. Imagine a world where everyone trusted in God so much that no one lived scared.
What would you do?
I asked myself this question before I applied for the World Race because I was scared to do this. I was so full of the unknowns that I almost talked myself out of applying.
- The unknown of whether I would get accepted or not.
- The unknown of who my squad mates would be.
- The unknown of if I could raise the funds.
- The unknown of how I was going to fit everything into my pack.
- The unknown of how God would use me.
Everything that was in front of me that involved the World Race was a huge unknown. But here I am, living life in what I considered an unknown, and let me tell you, it is pretty great.
- I got accepted to the World Race.
- My squad mates are AWESOME, so much so, I think my friends are getting tired of me talking about them.
- The act of fundraising has allowed me to share my faith in ways I never thought possible.
- I just got my pack in, and surprisingly it is a lot bigger than I expected.
- I still do not know how God is going to use me, but boy am I excited to find out!
Yes, I still have a lot more unknowns ahead of me, but God has got those covered. I just need to trust Him and put one foot in front of the other to move closer to Him.
I want to thank everyone who has prayed for my dad and my family in the past few weeks. Prayer changes things, and I can be a witness to that. Prayer is still needed, as we still do not have a pathology report. Also, if you have not heard Tauren Wells song, “When We Pray,” I want you to stop reading this, and click on this link….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YZZzgJB33E
Also, I want to give a big shout out to my squad. After only talking to them through GroupMe for a few days, I told them what was happening with my dad as I was on my way back home. Immediately they began praying. I received multiple messages encouraging me that God had this. I have never been encouraged by so many people I never knew before, but let me tell you, I knew that God placed them in my life for a reason at that moment. These people have become my family. I am so excited to do God’s work with them in the new year! My prayer is that God uses us to be the light to so many people as we do His work.
(This is just a couple of people from my squad when we stayed up way too late on a Skype call!)
As always, I invite you to make my journey, your journey. Here are three simple ways:
- The most important, PRAY.
- Donate. (If you would like to donate, click the orange “Donate!” button in the top right-hand corner or reach out to me for more information!)
- Subscribe. (If you want to subscribe to my blog and stay up to date on what God is doing in my life, click the orange “Subscribe for Updates” in the left-hand corner.)
