Last summer I went on my first overseas mission trip to Africa. We were in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe where we visited schools in the bush and taught the kids about Jesus through testimonies, songs, and bible stories. It was an amazing experience that changed my life more than I even knew it did at the time. Looking back, I see it as God’s way of putting a new desire in my heart for missions. Experiencing another culture and ministering to other people in the name of Jesus was something I never experienced before. My eyes were opened to the fact that there is so much more to life than what I was doing at home. There is a world full of people who need help, who need hope and love…they need Jesus. I wanted God to use me to help bring that.
In the past year I have been struggling with the thought that there’s more that I wanted to do with my life. My desires about what I wanted out of life were changing as I grew in my relationship with God. I was getting to the point where I felt like there was something missing in my life, like I was supposed to do something greater, something bigger– but I had no idea what that was. I had no thoughts of anything I could do to “change the world” so I just continued to live in my comfortable, safe routine. However, in the past few months, things that I had been praying specifically about were becoming closed doors. And all within a small block of time! Surely God could have spaced it out a little bit! 😉 But ya know, as much as it hurt to keep getting no’s, I knew God was up to something. But again– still had no idea what He wanted me to do! I was at a holding pattern waiting for His direction. And to be honest, I never thought it would be mission related. God just showed me once again that His ways are much better than I could have thought for myself!
One night I randomly found the World Race website and quickly looked over it thinking it was cool but saw the price and thought “Oh well! Not for me!”, and went to bed. A couple days later I looked at it again and actually took my time looking at what it was all about, reading some blogs, seeing what types of things were going on in these countries. It didn’t take me long until I was literally in tears because everything I read was exactly what I’d been searching for! My heart was ready to explode and I knew I had to do it. I started praying about it that night, took the steps necessary to be accepted and here I am! An official World Racer! =) I am still in shock sometimes that God gave me this incredible opportunity! I just feel so blessed because I am so unworthy, but He still wants to use me to carry out His mission. Incredible.
