Why I am going on The World Race

What lead me to decide to go on the world race?

     My senior year in high school was going perfect, I had made so many new friends and had tried so many different things. Then, one of my friends had asked me to go to life groups with him. I hadn’t been since 5th grade and I had been asked to go numerous times, but this time I finally decided to go.  At first life group was just a lot of fun, but then I became really good friends with some of the boys in the group. We started going on all the retreats and causing lots of trouble. Before I knew it these guys had became my best friends. We all started going to Tuesday night church together and eventually Sunday church and Bible study together. Before we knew it we were all having an impact on one another. These boys helped me grow in my faith. We all stopped looking at worldly things and started to put our trust in Jesus. 

   That summer was a busy summer, I heard about a mission trip to Chicago. I had always wanted to go on a mission trip, but didn’t really know what they would be like. I knew a bunch of people going to Chicago and on top of that, I had never been to a big city before so, I decided to go. Preparing for the trip was a great experience, We learned a few stories that we would eventually teach to the people we would meet. Chicago was awesome, we stayed in the city but took the subway to a place called Garfield Park. On the subway, I saw a man who was in a gang, he was all tattooed and looked kinda scary but he was reading a pink book. (which I thought was weird, because of all the stereotypes of gangs I had heard). A younger adult from our church sat next to him and started sharing the gospel. I thought that was amazing! A scary guy in a gang just listening very intently. Garfield Park is a very violent and poor area. We set up a free car wash at a local church, and before we knew it the place was packed. Everyone wanted to get a free car wash and hot dog. I was amazed how most of the cars that pulled up were rusted and beat up and after we washed them they still looked terrible! But, the people were so grateful for what we were doing. A police man even pulled up front and jumped on his car talking through his PA system yelling “FREE CAR WASH” . In the parks (which were not really parks, just empty lots), all the kids would come up and play with us and then we would tell them about Jesus. I feel like many of the kids didn’t really listen to us, but I believe God made a way for those who did.

      After Chicago, I was heading into my year at the University of Tennessee. I had the choice of living a “typical college life” or living a “Christian” one. Tennessee is a big party school, I may have chosen to live a party lifestyle if I hadn’t gone to Chicago, but after coming from the Chicago mission trip and having a well grown faith, I knew what was the right choice. I got to college a little bit early with all my roommates and other friends. They all wanted to do a Fraternity, so I decided to join along for rush week. Long story short I ended up at the BYX house after seeing how different they were than the rest of the fraternities. It turned out that BYX was the Christian fraternity. I decided that I would rush BYX. I joined BYX and the people I met helped build my faith. We would worship together and have Bible studies, but still have tailgates and parties. 

   I tried to get involved with a local church or Christian organization, but I couldn’t find one I liked. College was awesome, I had everything I needed, but something felt missing, and I felt that I was not doing enough. One weekend my friend dropped off a book and told me to read it, that book was called Radical. I do not not like reading, but I somehow read that book in a week ( which is really fast for me). The book opened my eyes to other parts of the world. I felt as if I was not doing enough for God. I said I was a Christian yet I had a blind eye to all the things happening that I could do something about. I wasn’t sharing the gospel with others, I wasn’t praying for others, I was being selfish. Half of the worlds populations lives off of $2.50 a day, I spend that on cokes a day. About 22,000 children die a day due to poverty. WE CAN HELP FIX THAT! Alot of these numbers are estimates and vary, but still Hundreds of thousands of people die due to unclean drinking water! I take two showers a day. There are a lot more devastating facts on poverty that we just turn a blind eye to. In 1 John 3:17 it says “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?. The Bible has countless verses where Jesus tells us to help the poor. I realized I couldn’t just turn my head anymore. 

This is where it picks up. 

     I was in my English class and then my teacher started talking about an author and then gave us an assignment on that author, The author wasn’t a Christian author but I had heard a sermon from church the week before about this person which I thought was strange because it was a random author who wasn’t a Christian writer.                       I went to my Geography class and we started to learn about Thailand, I thought that Thailand seemed awesome and that one day I would like to go there, I hadn’t even been thinking about a mission trip yet.                                                                         Over the next couple months, every-time I went to church or to a Bible study the main topic was about being a missionary. Every where I turned I felt as if God was calling me to be a missionary. When I was walking to class, the street preachers who I had never talked to approached me and started a conversation.  They asked me many questions I did not have an answer to and I thought it was strange timing for them to talk to me, because they had never talked to me before (and I had my headphones on).       

     When I went back to my Geography class we were focused on Southeast Asia. I learned that the population in India and China are the biggest in the world and will soon account for over half the worlds population. I heard that many places in China are starting to become christian and hopefully soon it will become legal. ( I don’t fully understand what the laws and punishments over there are), but one thing I realized while learning about India is that its population will soon be bigger than Chinas. I realized if you can spread christianity throughout Southeast Asia, in places like Thailand, Cambodia, or even parts of India, then Christianity might take off in China. 

   I realized that in America, just about everyone has heard about Jesus and it takes something bad to happen for them to think they need a God, but in other places around the world many people just want to hear about Jesus, but have no way to. I realized that I needed to go on a mission trip. That week I was scrolling through the internet and an Ad for the world race popped up on my screen and I clicked on it. I had never heard of the world race before and read that it was a mission trip to other parts of the world for a long time. I realized that I did not want to go on a short mission trip but a long one would be more beneficial. I had experience backpacking and I was actually planning to go backpacking the next summer, so I thought that was an awesome thing.  I looked up other mission trips, but then decided The World Race would be best for me.

     I chose the countries Thailand and India because of the amount of people in surrounding areas and the small percentage of Christians. I chose Guatemala because that was the other country that came with those other two countries. HaHa Guatemala has now changed to Costa Rica, which I am actually happy about. 

     After signing up for The World Race I had my interview and got accepted right there!!! I was then told that I had to put a deposit fee of $150 in to reserve my spot. I was hesitant on doing so because, after that there was no turning back. I prayed to see if this was right for me. I waited a few days and then one night at a BYX worship night someone spoke. I forget what they spoke about but, I do remember it was about  Doubting your doubts. So I payed the deposit fee and the rest is a story for another time……