I’m going to be honest – the last couple of months have been hard. I have felt like I’m living multiple lives and I’m not sure which to focus on or be excited about. Preparing to leave the country, everyone you love, your family and friends, your church(es), and the life you’ve worked so hard to find and build for a year is difficult. I don’t know exactly what my life will look like when I get home, let alone what everyone else I love’s life will look like when I get home.
I’m sharing about this mission trip with a children’s church this Sunday, and I’m going to be talking a little bit about how my life on the Race will look compared to my life now. Living in tents or hostels or host homes, living out of a backpack, living with strangers in a country I’ve never been to before. I am reminded of in the Gospels, when Jesus calls his first disciples. Matthew writes about it in chapter 4, verses 18 through 22: “While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.” A few things strike me here. One, these men were just doing their jobs – just catching fish, living their everyday life to provide for themselves. There was nothing special about it or them, and yet Jesus makes them part of his inner group, his disciples, calling them to the highest type of work. Two, the word “immediately.” I don’t know of the exact translation of the Greek word here for immediately, but I am struck by the immediacy of the disciples’ devotion and commitment to Jesus. This is the way all followers of Jesus are to live – to devote ourselves to Jesus first and above all other things in our worldly lives. Three, the way the Gospels write that James and John “left their father.” I know Jesus loves family, even teaching on honoring and respecting your parents, but here again we see how we are called to put Kingdom work above all else, sometimes even the comfort of our homes and family. My family is the biggest blessing God has gifted me. That makes it hard to leave for these 11 months, but it also means that because they have raised me to put God first in my life, they are my number one supporters and understand this call on my life.
Jesus came to the earth and was offered as the ultimate sacrifice for us to have a relationship with God. He said that he came not to get rid of the Law, but to fulfill them (Matthew 5:17). Even though we no longer have to offer sacrifices of animals or other things in order to have a relationship with God, we still need to have a heart posture of sacrifice for the Kingdom – to be living sacrifices (Romans 12:1), offering ourselves, our time, our comfort, our money, our plans for Him. That is what I have been learning the most the past couple of months – that I must live as a sacrifice to God, for the Kingdom work he has called me to.
Don’t get me wrong, I am beyond excited for this opportunity to travel the world, sharing the Gospel. I am so honored to do Kingdom work and blessed by the support and love I have been offered. I cannot wait to embark on this journey and to have my friends and family alongside me in prayer! Please continue to pray for me and my team as we prepare, for the countries we will be ministering in, the leaders and the training staff, and for God to continue to work here and now in my life and yours in the 4 short months leading up to my launch.
