I’m back home in the USA!
The World Race. What can I say? I don’t think that I have ever felt as alive and purposeful as I have the past 11 months. It was a literal dream of my heart come true. I have no idea how to sum up what this year has meant to me and the many lessons I have learned but I’m going to attempt by sharing three takeaways.
But first I want to thank God for this gift to me. Second I want to thank everyone who has supported me on this journey in any way. You are seriously the best and words can’t express what this has meant to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
First takeaway, God revealed to me that the World Race marked the end to a season of regret and restoration that I had been in for most of my twenties. I had explained in a past blog that I battled with fear for most of my life that led to a series of regrets that I held. But God had been one by one restoring what the enemy had stolen from me and giving me those experiences that I thought I had missed.
For example, it was a dream of mine to do missions work overseas, live in community, and travel. God used the Race to check off all three of those things. I got to experience the body of Christ on a global level, live with and befriend some of the most amazing people in the world, and travel to 13 new countries. I no longer feel that void of missing out in my life.
Second, I got over a big stumbling block in my fear of evangelizing. I also wrote a blog about this so I will keep it to a recap. I had asked God why it was so hard for me to evangelize. He said that I was wanting to out of the wrong motivation. I was wanting to do it to be a “good” Christian. God revealed that love has to be my motivation in evangelism. I have to care about the person as a human being. This took the pressure off of me to work Jesus into conversations and freed me to just be nice to people and love them naturally. I love the way God views the world through genuine love and not performance.
Third, I learned that you don’t need to be overseas to be a missionary. I had heard this previously but I experienced the truth of it. Missions work is surprisingly everyday ordinary. I didn’t become super spiritual once I took on the title “missionary.” In fact, it’s easy to make it your job and leave the leading of the Holy Spirit out of your day. I had to be just as intentional in seeking out time with God as I would have at home in the States.
Many of the activities I did are things that can easily be done in my own community; help out at children’s church, volunteer at an organization that feeds and helps the homeless, mentor a child in foster care (shout out to Arizonan’s for Children if you want to do that), visit a care facility for the elderly, and befriend coworkers. The people at my workplace need to hear about the love of God just as much as the person overseas. Basically it is becoming aware of the people and needs around you. Any time you show the love of God to your “neighbor” in the smallest way you are doing missions work.
I say all of this not to downplay overseas missionaries, they are awesome, but to encourage you and me to live life intentionally with God wherever you are geographically.
I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the gift that the past year of my life was and I look forward to what God has in store for the future. This was not the best year that God has for me but a training ground for what the rest of my life can look like lived with Him.
Thank you again for everything! I pray that you will reap a spiritual harvest for sowing into my spiritual journey!
In the spirit of reminiscing here are some before and after pics of my squad!
I squad at training camp June 2018
I squad at launch August 2018
I squad at final debrief June 2019
Man, I love these people!
