Hello Friends and Family,
I am super excited to announce that I will be embarking on yet another journey. While I have been on many adventures recently, this one, by far, will be the biggest, most challenging adventure I will ever experience. In October 2017, I will be taking part in The World Race. Over the course of 11 months, I will be traveling to 11 different countries, along with other Christians, to spread the word of the Lord through mission work. The World Race (WR) is a program that stems from the organization Adventures in Missions which has been sending people from different churches and backgrounds all over the world since 1989. I am extremely privileged to be given this opportunity to serve others, and I could not be more excited to begin my preparations. Eleven months is a long time, right? So I figured I would break it down for you.
Countries visited:
Chile, Bolivia, Argentina/Paraguay, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda, Thailand, and Cambodia.
What I will be doing:
While each day on the WR will look a little different, I will be spending a majority of my time reaching out to communities around the world, many of which have never heard the word of God, and sharing with them the beauty of opening their arms to Christ. I realize that everyone has varying spiritual backgrounds and that no two relationships with God are exactly the same. And what’s so unique about WR is that it involves a two-way learning process. As much as I will be helping others build their relationship with God, I will also be learning to better and further develop my own relationship with Him. Through this “door-to-door” ministry, I will be teaching Bible lessons, volunteering in orphanages, helping with construction work, and so much more. I will be devoting the entirety of my 11 months on the WR to serving God and helping to transform the lives of others. Life on the WR will not be luxurious as I will be living out of a backpack for 11 months and sleeping literally wherever. For me, this is a dream come true, and I could not be more excited for the experiences that await me. Whether it be hiking for four days to a remote village or crossing a flowing river to be able to spread God’s glory, I am up for the challenge. It’s safe to say that my life on the WR will be drastically different from the life I’m used to. But that’s okay because I love the idea of constantly being on the go and not knowing what to expect. That’s the beauty of life, right?
Why Now?
A few weeks ago, I was scrolling through Facebook, and I stumbled upon a post about the World Race. I had heard of WR before, but I never really looked into the program. Upon further researching the organization, I quickly found out just how transformative the WR could be for me. It was at this time that I decided to apply for one of the October 2017 routes, which has led to me where I am now, writing to all of you. As some of you are aware, after dropping out of college in the fall of 2014, I learned a lot about the person I wanted to become and the life I wanted to lead. And after working for the rest of the fall and into the winter, I spent the spring of 2015 traveling throughout the South Pacific, where I was able to fall back in love with my passion for travel. During my three months abroad, there were several occasions where I was able to fulfill my other passion for giving back. I have always had a passion for helping others and for using my abilities to change lives. Life is a pretty bumpy journey, filled with many trials and tribulations, but I have come to learn that sharing your knowledge and stories with others are two of the best ways to make life’s journey a little less burdensome. We all walk along different paths in life, and it’s not always easy to stomach some of the realities that life throws at us at times. Until you experience the world and learn to accept it for what it is, that is when you will truly know how to go about transforming it. I have been privileged to travel to some of the most remote places on Earth and even to some of the most inhabited. But what I have learned from each of my travels is that people are the same almost anywhere you go. We all want to learn, we all crave knowledge, and we all are capable of realizing the power behind growing from one another. It always amazes me that people with so little consider themselves the happiest people on the planet. At first, this was hard for me to understand, but the more time I spent with these people, the more I realized how right they were. Happiness is all about what you bring to the table. No one determines your happiness but yourself. Only you can find what makes you happy and what fulfills you in life, and for me, building relationships with people and giving back are two areas where I find happiness in life.
These past two years have truly been eye-opening for me, and I have done a lot of soul-searching to try and figure out God’s plan for me. As it turns out, I don’t know what God has in store for me, but what I do know is that serving others is what I’m destined to do. I haven’t always had a strong relationship with God, but when I started to take notice of the differences between my life without God and my life with God, I realized how much more blessed my life became when I allowed God back in. And the more I began building my relationship with God, the more clarity and the more direction I gained in my life. I know that this is the best time for me to pursue this journey, and that it was meant to be when I stumbled upon the WR that day. I still have a lot to learn, but I know that by participating in the WR, I will be one step closer to fulfilling God’s plan for me. God works in mysterious ways, and I would have never thought I would be preparing for what I am expecting to be the hardest, most life-changing experience at this point in my life. My life is about to change dramatically, but I could not be more excited to welcome the challenges and rewards that await me.
Yours truly,
Tori
