When I first heard about the World Race through a friend, I was not looking to do missions at all. I am a college student graduating in December with a degree in Criminal Justice and I truthfully thought that I would just use my degree straight out of college and work for the rest of my life as a police officer. The first thing I noticed while looking at the World Race’s website was 11 countries in 11 months and the idea of something like this was terrifying. I had little to no knowledge about mission work at the time and the idea of fundraising my way through something this big sounded crazy. I did not consider the idea much for a few months until after I went on my first mission trip in May 2021 to Puerto Rico. While in PR, I absolutely fell in love with the heart of missions, I longed to share the gospel with strangers, to just walk closer with Jesus, to read more scripture, to learn what His voice sounds like, and to help others physically and spiritually. The more I talked with other missionaries, the more I heard radical stories of how the Lord provides.
When I returned home, I looked up the World Race again, but this time, I was interested. However, I couldn’t yet convince myself to commit because I was still afraid to take that leap of faith. One day, the Lord randomly told me to bring up the World Race to one of my friends who I was close with, but this confused me because she had never mentioned missions to me before so I was sure that I was not going to bring it up to her. While on the phone with her later on that night, she brought up the World Race to me and asked if I had ever heard about it and that she was considering going. That night, I heard the Lord tell me to just take the first step. So I immediately began starting the application process for an 11 month trip starting in August of 2022.
After a couple of days of starting my application, I realized that going on a mission trip starting the same semester that I was set to graduate probably wasn’t the best idea and if the World Race was something God was telling me to do, then maybe I should just wait until a later date to go. For months after this, the idea of missions was not burning on my heart anymore and for a bit I thought that I might have been mishearing or misunderstanding the calling that I once felt so confident in. I began to let go of the calling and just focused on my education, getting a part-time job, and figuring out what kind of job I wanted after graduation.
A few months ago, I randomly began to have the desire for missions again. After about a week of this desire, I looked up the World Race’s website again and saw a 4 month trip and found myself interested all over again. I asked God to direct my path if this is something that He desired for my life and two days later, I received a call from the World Race asking if I was considering finishing the application that I had started months prior. I explained this whole situation and we decided to switch my application to this trip instead of the one in August 2022 so I can finish out college and continue to pray about the trip to see if this was where the Lord was truly guiding me.
The Lord continued to send confirmations that I was to go on this trip so I finished my application and let it rest in His hands. I knew that this trip would not be possible in my strength and that I just had to let it sit with the One who would make it all happen. I went from being nervous to apply to having such an incredible amount of peace knowing that I was walking in obedience to what the Lord was inviting into my life.
I had a friend ask me the other day “what are you expecting on this trip?” My response was so simple but there would have been no other way to phrase it “I want to see people meet the Lord for the first time. I just want to share the goodness that is found in Christ alone.” From the outside, we can look at mission trips and we see all the opportunities and fun things that can happen, but truly, the value of all it diminishes if Jesus and His gospel isn’t the focus.
