I’m writing my first “official” World Race blog from the top of a double-decker bus in Thailand (a fancy bus, I might add—we have air conditioning and reclining seats!) It’s 5 am and we’ve been traveling for longer than I can wrap my head around. We had a 13 hour flight from Atlanta to Tokyo, a 6 hour flight from Tokyo to Bangkok, and now a 12 hour bus ride from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, where we will be serving with our ministry contact for the rest of the month (more details to come later!)
But before I get ahead of myself, I’ll tell you a little bit about launch—the 3 day final preparation experience in Atlanta prior to our departure from the US.
As you may have guessed from previous blog posts, I left Pittsburgh with a shattered heart; my sweet boyfriend Neil took me to the airport and walked me to the security checkpoint. We spent every last minute that we had together hugging, praying, and wiping away each other’s tears; I have never had such a heart-wrenching experience like that before. Later, I arrived at the hotel in Atlanta a bit shaken up from the goodbye, but there was so much to do that I had to put my emotions aside. For the first time since training camp, my squad was reunited and the atmosphere was electric. Anyone would have thought that we were all old friends by the excitement that we greeted one another with.
The next couple of days were filled with training sessions, worship, and team bonding. It was the final night of launch, however, that impacted me the most. The speaker was a former Racer, and she spoke about the manifest presence of God. In order to fully receive it, she told us, we needed to practice thanksgiving/praise and forgiveness/repentance. We entered into a time of worship, and as I knelt on my knees with arms open wide, I began the process of thanksgiving by praising the Lord for the circumstances in my life.
I praised him for the obvious blessings that he has given me, such as financial security and the opportunity to go on the World Race. As I did this, I realized that there were many other blessings in disguise that he needed to receive full credit for: my student loans, the fact that I have about $8,000 that still needs to be raised for the Race, and for separating Neil and I for the next 11 months.
These are all things that I previously wouldn’t have thought to thank God for. I realized that due to these less than ideal situations, I needed to press further into the Lord than if everything were handed to me on a silver platter. Because if everything happened the easy way and I always got what I wanted, I wouldn’t have a reason to rely on my Father.
Within that time of worship, I learned so much about my faith that I had not thought about before. I used to thank the Lord for sunny days, wonderful friends, and unexplained discounts on my malaria pills. However, I learned that when I say that I’ll worship my Lord in ALL circumstances, it includes the seemingly bad ones, too. He really does have my best interest in mind, and is weaving together the story of my life in a way that will glorify him the most. So, if deepening my relationship with Papa means learning some things the hard way… sign me up. I’m all in.
I am so excited about this journey. By abandoning my comfortable life in the US, I will need to draw closer to the Lord than ever before and learn to praise him for any situation I find myself in. Will you join me in my journey? Subscribe to my blog to receive my posts via email, and consider praying about supporting me financially.
