Wait, Why The World Race?
It started as I was growing up. I’ve grown up with family in missions. My uncle lived in Thailand for several years and ended up marrying a Thai wife, my precious aunt. My sister and brother-in-law lived in Mumena, Zambia for 3 years. Now they have a little family with two daughters and still pursuing missions towards Peru. I grew up going on mission trips. I’ve been blessed with opportunities to go the places I’ve been with mission in mind. “To make a difference”. Those are the toughest words I’ve grown up learning. “Where am “I” suppose to be?” “What am “I” suppose to do?” “How can “I” make a meaningful difference?”. Questions I’ve asked myself my entire life. I’ve jumped around with career options and the decisions I’ve made have never felt like they’ve filled into those questions. Until now.
For a few years now I’ve been praying for an opportunity to push into the mission field. My family and past produced an influence on me. I scoured the internet for mission trips “I” wanted to go on. “I” wanted to go back to Brazil. Wanted to go to countries that “I” found to be a great place to live and also reach into it as a missionary. “I” found trips and prayed over them over and over. I just didn’t think they were it. As much as I wanted to go on them, I didn’t feel God push me towards them. It felt more of a personal preference. He didn’t show me that this is where I needed to be. So I dropped it. I asked God if He’ll provide me with the opportunity He wishes upon me. If you know me personally, yeah I’m not patient. He made a lesson of that.
A year goes by. I was in Costa Rica visiting my sister and her family as they go through language school in preparation for their big move to Peru for a 5-10 year mission. One night I was just scrolling through Facebook before bed. You know those suggested or recommended posts that usually are adds of some sort? Yeah, well I found The World Race promotion video on one. Titled “More than just a mission trip”. Keep in mind I had never, not once, heard of this trip before. Now I know someone everywhere I look, that knows somebody, that knows somebody who went on it. My curiosity set in. I clicked on it and watched it. I just couldn’t stop smiling. Thought to myself, “Wow, this is awesome. I’d never do it, but that’s really cool.” As the video was coming to an end I found myself crying. Out of nowhere. This was it. I felt such a dramatic pull to this trip, even though at the time, it felt completely unrealistic for me. I didn’t want to do it. I prayed for days, then I felt the call to apply. Within an hour of applying, I was again, scrolling through Facebook. I found a friend who’s status said “Been a good two years Dallas…”. I was intrigued. What is she doing now? I hadn’t spoke to her since the good ole days. I grew up with her in my youth group at church but hadn’t talked to her in quite some time now. I scrolled down her Facebook page to find that she was, at that time, launching in two weeks for The World Race. Within an hour, God put someone in my life, that I trust, to converse with about this decision. I immediately contacted her and she gave me all the little details that I didn’t know. We still keep in contact to this day while she is on the race still. Later that night I fell upon a verse. “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” Isaiah 6:8. How ironic is that? If this wasn’t an answer to my prayers all in one night I don’t know what is.
I learned many things at training camp. About me. About a real relationship. About mission. About what’s the real mission? About Intimacy, community, and Identity. About how God is bigger than all we can comprehend. About coming as you are. About how He’s running toward me with open arms and glad I’ve come home. That grace will always find you before judgement will. How grace won’t keep track of your mistakes. Of how to look to God instead of everyone else. I’ve learned to hear His voice. In all things. About forgiveness. About letting go. I’ve learned the more time you spend with Him, the less you’ll be fooled. That this is only the beginning. Overall, instead of going on a “mission trip”, I’m committing to a life on mission. That this is so much more than a trip, as that video title said. That this is the beginning of being a true servant. For the rest of my life, a child of God. A son to a father.
So, maybe you noticed. I put “I” in quotations quite a bit in this blog. Literally, as I’m typing this, something has come to me. One night we were introduced to listening prayer. Where you pray for someone else and just say what has come to your heart during. I had a teammate pray for me and she said the letter “I” came to her multiple times, as well as other things. Crazy. I put I into quotations because that was the problem. “I” wanted a mission “I” wanted to go on, not the one He wanted me on. Initially, The World Race, no way. 11 countries in 11 months? That crazy. Our God is unpredictable.
You know, a lot of times we get so focused on us doing the right thing or what we want to do for God, but in our own way, that we don’t listen. A way that reaches our satisfaction. A way that meets our needs or wants. Listen. He’s talking to you. He’s been talking to you your entire life.
So I ask you, is what you’re doing for God about “I”, or is it what “He” wants you to do? Take this question seriously and keep it with you. Then ask Him.
31 days. 31 days until my life is changed forever. 31 days until I’m stripped from my comforts and pushed into vulnerbility. I’m scared to be honest with all of you. I’ll be tested in ways I can’t imagine. This will be the hardest thing I do in my life, but I trust Him. This is what faith is all about. He’s moved so much in me already since being accepted to go on this journey. For the first time in my life, I feel that I’m in the exact place I’m suppose to be.
I’m all in.
