Why am I joining World Race? While this is the purpose of my first blog post for World Race, it is not the place I want to start. This trip is the start of a journey that I have been working towards for the last 10 years of my life but that God has been working in me for my whole life. So I’d rather start with the question of why do I want to do missions?
Well, to start off, I believe the Bible tells us all to live missional lifestyles. This is most noted through the Great Commission which is a command Jesus gave to His disciples and is what we are to follow. Matthew 28:19-20a says “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” In Matthew 16:24-25 Jesus says to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” Here we see that Biblically as Christians, we are to give up our lives to fully follow Him while going throughout the world to do so.
Secondly, I have had prophetic words over my life starting from my childhood pointing in this direction. My first prophetic word was on October 11, 2004 at age 8 which said that “I was a young boy who loves adventure and has great creativity and that God’s going to take and use that. You will be an adventurer and travel the world.” On April 30, 2005 at age 8, I got another prophetic word that said “There is a little cartoon by the name of road runner, and he is going beep beep and just takes off. And in your season the Lord is going to take you and apprehend you where it’s just going to be that. It’s like putting on a pair of Nike’s and the burden of the Lord. And you’re going to remember what God has said about you and it’s going to fall on you to the point where you’re going to run. And you’re going to run fast and you’re going to run far. And I see you running the circuit of the earth.” Later in August 2015, I was given a prophetic word that said “I just see international travel when I looked at you. There’s an international spirit about you.” I have been given several prophetic words since, but I bring these up since they were in my early days before or at the beginning stages of me considering doing missions.
Thirdly, I have a passion to do missions. Starting from my childhood, I can’t remember not believing and accepting Jesus as the Lord and Savior of my life. While this was the case and while God had begun to reveal Himself to me, my life really changed when I was 15 years old. When I was 15 years old, I got connected with a group called YWAM who came to my church to do evangelism in the summer. While I had no desire to do evangelism beforehand, seeing peers my age live fully for Jesus and have a heart for the lost only spread to me. Since then I have tried to fully live my life for Jesus and started doing yearly mission trips with YWAM. Finally, in my late teens/ early 20’s, I started seriously getting the desire for missions full time; however, I still felt God leading me to college and had never known anyone who had transitioned into full time missions. While God did send me to South Africa where I served as a missionary for 7 months, I desired more. I felt God leading me to go back to the States for a season and continue developing for a couple of years while serving on short term mission trips. This last year the passion for missions has grown and the calling to step into full time missions feels right as confirmed through the Bible, prophetic words, spiritual mentors, and the fact that I completed work related items which I believe God will use me in for future mission work.
Now back to the question “Why am I joining World Race.” Well, based on what I just shared, how can I not! World Race is a mission trip I discovered about 15 years ago in my preteen years, and which about 10 years ago I learned more about by watching YouTube videos of people doing the trip. I always had a desire to one day go on World Race, but more than that I desired to be used by God wherever and whenever. I desire to surrender at least the next 5 years of my life to do so. I want to preach the gospel, serve those in need, pray for the needy and sick, and live what the Bible commands us to do. In February I prayed and fasted while seeking God as to where I should start full time missions and felt lead to start with World Race. I believe God impressed in me that He has given me the desire and ability to do it. While I am starting with this, I hope this is just the beginning of my full time mission work. When choosing which track to go on, I desired to go to Africa but also felt a calling to minister to Europe. The track I have chosen will go across Africa, Europe, and Asia. In these continents, I will be going to 6 different countries over an approximately 10 month period. I am excited for the journey ahead and for all of you who get to partner with me. That’s why I’m joining World Race!
Photos of some of my past mission trips below (description below picture):
My first mission trip: Philippines April 2012
YWAM mission trip group Joshua Generation that came to my church in July 2012
YWAM Joshua Generation Mission trip in July 2014 with me sharing the gospel
Engineering Ministries Internation (EMI) South Africa where I served as a missionary for 7 months in 2020.
Me in South Africa sharing about Jesus and preaching the gospel. The man with the white hat whose name was Lucky I was able to lead to Jesus!
