For those of you who are unfamiliar with the World Race, it is a program through the organization Adventures in Missions. Adventures in Missions is an organization that has been sending short term missionaries on mission trips for years.
On the World Race I will spend 11 months traveling to 11 different countries (Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, India, Nepal, Lesotho, South Africa) working with existing organizations to care for people and to share the gospel. Each month will look different but we could be serving in any number of different ways such as; helping in an orphanage, teaching English, or building/fixing buildings.
I am most excited to be able to have real conversations about life and God with people who are different from me in many ways and to experience different cultures. I’m also very excited to see how the same we actually all are.
I first heard about the race in 2014 when one of my older friends went on it herself. I started reading all the blogs and learning about the race and it’s been something that’s been on my heart since I first heard of it. A little over a year ago it became something I decided I wanted to seriously pray about. The fact that I get to go in a little less than 9 months is so crazy!
I feel as though my view of the world is too small. I’d like to think that I can see past my privilege but I think there are still far too many things that I view with my own lens. God loves the whole world and every single person in it and I want to do the same thing. I’ve become very aware recently of all that I have, and how I don’t appreciate it nearly enough. There are always so many jokes made about how when you are in college you are a “broke college student.” In comparison to some people yes, college students are broke, but in comparison to the world, being someone that owns a car and works a minimum wage job puts me in something around the top 5% of income earners in the world. Gosh, how I lose sight of what I have!
So why do I want to go on this race? Let’s finally get to that:
I think of it like this; It all comes down to the first miracle that Jesus performed that is recorded in the bible. (John 2:1-11) I won’t go through the whole thing but here is a summary: So, Jesus is at a party and they run out of wine and essentially he decides to save the party from disaster. He asks some servants to serve a bunch of water to the guests of the party, but first to the master of the banquet. Serve the master of the banquet WATER. Risky. The master of the banquet tastes it and loves it. Jesus had turned it into wine. The servants are amazed, they serve the wine to the rest of the guests, probably jumping up and down with excitement. The servants probably didn’t stop talking about it all night. The guests are indifferent.
An amazing miracle happened here. But who saw the miracle? Only Jesus and the servants. I think that more than anything, when you listen to God’s call and you follow him you get to see amazing miracles happen. This miracle went unnoticed except to the ones following Jesus, the ones taking a risk.
I want to take risks for Jesus and see miracles happen, and they will! I want to be able to talk my whole life about the things Jesus invited me into and let me see. That’s why I want to go on the World Race, I want to follow a God that loves people quietly and loudly at the same time. I’d rather do something risky for Jesus than do something comfortable for anything else!
Thanks for reading guys, I’m beyond excited! Stay tuned!
With love,
Court
