So we’re supposed to talk about how we got called to the World Race. So let’s begin story time.
It seems like a lot of my teammates have talked about previous mission trips in their lives so I’ll do that too even though I’m not really sure how it affected my call to the World Race, but I’m gonna assume it did in a “God is sovereign, and everything is connected” kind of way. So I went on my first two mission trips in 2005 and 2006 during my senior year of high school. The senior guys in my youth group went to Slidell, Louisiana to help with Hurricane Katrina relief. I didn’t walk away feeling called to missions, but it was certainly an experience seeing the devastation that the hurricane had caused on so many people’s lives. Side note, one cool thing that I still remember from one of the two trips was on that Sunday morning, we went to a local church service. During worship, “Blessed Be Your Name” was sung, and I saw people who had lost everything from the hurricane still praising God. It was an awesome reminder of how God is still God and still worthy of praise in all situations. So anyways, freshman year of college, I went on a spring break mission trip to New Orleans to help with Hurricane Katrina relief. Again, cool trip but didn’t have a huge impact on me.
So let’s move on to something actually related to my calling to missions. So during sophomore year of college, I went through the “What the heck am I gonna do with my life?” phase. One Sunday, I was in church, and a presentation was being given on the current missions that the church’s organization had been doing. They showed a video about some of the mission work that was being done, and during the video, I had one of those “heart start beating fast because I’m pretty sure I just heard from God” type of moments. I left there feeling like I was called to missions but not really knowing what to do about it. So I talked to some people about it and decided to become a Spanish major. Spring semester starts and about one week into Spanish 3010, I realized that I’m actually horrible at speaking Spanish and was then thrown back into figuring out my major again. During this time, I went on a spring break mission trip to Romania to work in the orphanages. Awesome experience. Ask me about it sometime because this blog post is already getting too long and I haven’t even gotten to my call to the World Race yet. Haha. So I came back from my trip to Romania realizing more that I loved working with kids. So I became a Child and Family Development major. So junior year, I begin this major and am still trying to figure out what I’m going to do with it. That call to missions was still on my mind and so was Romania, but I wasn’t really sure what I was called to do. Throughout junior year and this past fall, the call to missions was gradually forgotten as I started focusing more on working with teens and exploring the possibility of youth ministry or counseling. So call to missions was gone……….until I stumbled upon the World Race.
My goodness, I am wordy in these blogs. I apologize, but I promise we’re getting to the good part now. So back in February, I really just kinda stumbled upon AIM’s website and saw the World Race page. It seemed cool, but there wasn’t an instant “Oh my gosh! This is it!” moment. I ended up applying and the World Race was now thrown into the mix of the other post-graduation possibilities. So early March, a couple days before I was going to meet up with Braedon, a World Race staff member, to talk more about me doing it, I was reading in Acts 5. I read about how the apostles got arrested and then were beaten by the officials, but then Acts 5:41 says that “they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.” I was struck by their boldness and their willingness to be persecuted for Christ’s glory. I then thought about my life and how I’ve lived such a safe Christian life. I wanted more boldness. Not that I wanted to be persecuted, but I felt the desire to live a life that at least opens myself up to the possibility of it. The funny part is that I didn’t even think about the World Race during this time. But a couple days later, I was driving to meet up with Braedon and was thinking about why I wanted to do WR and Acts 5:41 came back to my mind. What an opportunity WR would provide me to grow in boldness, to get out of the safe Christian bubble, to grow in my faith. So I talked to Braedon and found out that the door was officially open for me to do the WR. So the next couple days, I was still trying to figure out my post-grad options, but WR was definitely creeping to the top. That Wednesday (March 17), I spoke with my pastor that morning about WR, and he offered suggestions on more things for me to think about before making a decision. That afternoon, I was struggling with my decision-making, feeling like I knew that WR was what I was supposed to do but still worried that I didn’t analyze it enough and worried about what other people would think. So that night, I went to Wesley (campus ministry). So I should say that I hardly ever went to Wesley. In fact, the week before I went for the first time all semester and probably 2nd or 3rd time all school year. I had felt called to go that week, and so I went, but left that night wondering why I felt called to go. So move back to March 17, I wasn’t planning on going to Wesley but then my friend who I had gone with the previous week texted me asking me if I was going so I thought about it more and decided to go. I truly believe that the reason I felt called to go that previous week was so that I would end up going the next week, March 17. Why did I need to go this night? Well, let me tell you. So I go to Wesley still struggling with my decision making and praying for clarity and all that. And the entire message, not just one point in the message, but the entire message that night was about going out and making disciples of all nations, how there are people all over the world who have never even heard of Jesus and we’re to go and tell them. About half-way through the talk, it was clear that God was talking to me. I knew I was supposed to do the World Race. I had such an undeniable and strong tug on my heart about it and such a peace about it during the talk. You can ask the friends who I was with after Wesley and they can tell you how I had such a worshipful joy and excitement about it. Since that night, God has used a ridiculous amount of other moments to confirm further my calling to do WR. That next week, I went to Wesley again (Isn’t it funny how I never used to go?) I was getting on the elevator to go to Wesley and another girl was on it with me. As we’re going up, she asked if I was going to Wesley and I said I was, and she went on to mention that she was actually a missionary, and they were going to have a table set up outside Wesley that night. I asked her what group she was from, and she of course said Adventures in Missions. Ha! So I went on to tell her that I was doing the World Race, and I later stopped by the table and talked to the people, and at the end of the night, they prayed for my WR experience. It was awesome. Since then, I’ve had countless encounters with random people who have known people doing WR or have had some kind of connection to it. It’s ridiculous because I had never even heard of the World Race before applying for it back in February. Haha. But it’s awesome. I have no doubt that I’m called to go on it. And I have no doubt that God is going to rock my world on it, and it’s going to be amazing.
