This is the question.
Over the last year, I have been asking the question… “Why do I want to do something like this… what are my intentions/ motives.. and are they appropriate?”
I will try my best to describe/ accurately portray what God has done in my life to lead me to such a decision on wanting to go on the World Race.
I grew up in Western Pennsylvania, not the most ethnically or culturally diverse place on the planet.
BUT my perspective first was changed when the Lord led me to jump on a missions trip to Haiti– the NIGHT BEFORE it started. It was in this context that I learned that experiences and service for the Lord were things that were infinite… as opposed to the finite week of school that I would have partaken in–had I not gone on the trip 😉
It was here that I had my first culture shock. I realized that I have been living in a dreamland of America, and how the dark realities of world pain, hunger, or poverty are often silenced or pushed away in our culture. I realized I was experiencing reality for the first time in my life.
Haiti left me with many soul searching questions. How can someone make a difference in such a massive world? in such a dark world? in places where I cannot relate with those in pain, in suffering, in bondage? and even more specifically.. How can I God use me in places such as these?
It was on my second trip to Haiti the next year that the Lord revealed many people in my life. He showed me how we all have gifts, no matter how insignificant they might seem. He showed me that no matter what gifts we have.. He can use them in an eternal way if we give Him the opportunity. I realized soccer was my gift, and my way to communicate with people my age who spoke different languages. Soccer is often literally the only way I can directly relate with people who I cannot speak with. it brings people together. It gives people reasons to celebrate together, reasons to greet each other when meeting on the street the next day. This led me to go to Costa Rica. To evangelize to those we meet on the (soccer) field.
The World Race has been on my heart and mind for the last year and a half. I have heard God’s whisper
throughout different seasons of my life, and I have heard God’s voice a little louder in my most recent mission trip last spring to Honduras. I felt comfortable in the Third World environment. I felt like I could attempt to do this lifestyle for 11 months. I felt called.
*I desire to note that I do not believe the only way for me to glorify God at this point of my life is to go on an extreme or radical trip across the world. I believe God is entirely SELF SUFFICIENT– He will accomplish what he needs to– with or without Ryan Brown being involved, and AS the Race has developed as a possibility in my life– I have been equally as excited to simply start up “normal life”.. get a job related to my degree, and live somewhere in which I experience God through his creation. This has stemmed from a summer spent in Yellowstone National Park and two beautiful summers spent in Juneau, Alaska (a place which I have come to love.) I am excited to start working off my student loans, to get involved in a church, and to find a lady to make a family with.
But that still small voice still reminds me– not everyone has the same desire to serve God
internationally as I do. We all have different callings. He gave me this desire– So i simply want to give a year of my life to really invest in what he has instilled in me to begin with.
My 10 year plan is: to see whats God does around the world, therefore go on the most diverse world race route available– traveling to 11 countries in 4 different continents. Perhaps find which culture God has drawn me to. Go home wrecked and work off loans, and then finally find my way to that international place in which I have possibly been called to since the beginning of time.
I say this very well expecting my 10 year plan to be wrecked by God’s perfect plan. But hey, it is fun to shoot for something and see what God does instead.
Thank you SOOO much for reading all of this, it was a lot!
-Ryan Brown!
