A Quasi-Foreseen Plot Twist

Dark humid air and the white noise of cicadas envelope us. My iPhone vibrates me awake- 5:45. I rub my eyes, then stare at the trees for a while, not wanting to climb out of my cozy sleeping bag, or to climb down from the top of the hammock stack we’ve made. Eventually I do climb out into the chilly air and down past the hammocks of my fellow racers as their alarms go off. I fish my towel, some soap, and fresh clothes from my pack and start my trek from the woods down the hill to a small wooden shack with six orange buckets from Home Depot. I pick up a bucket, fill it under the spigot, and grab a plastic cup, which I’ll use to pour water over my head. This bucket is my shower now. It’s also my laundry mat and a surprisingly comfortable chair. After showers, my 8 person team and I will receive a plate of eggs and head up into our isolated room (it’s still Corona time, people) to worship, write, listen to teachings, talk, debate, read, discuss, love, cry, prophesy. 

I was supposed to be in Romania right now. But plans are fragile these days. When World Race announced that we would stay in Georgia for training and local outreach during our first semester, then launch from the US in January, I was angry and confused. God had been calling me to the race for years. For things to change so drastically seemed like a lure and switch type of deal. But during that time of anger and confusion, God was revealing something new to me: 

I was interning at New City, a church in St. Louis, helping with a tutoring camp for kids on the north side of Delmar. While I laughed, asked math questions, and ran around the park with these kids, God revealed to me an extent of St. Louis’s inequality that I’d never thought possible in America. I met kids who had the world against them. I met kids who were first generation English speakers, who already knew how to survive on the streets, who fought for any shred of an opportunity. Adults fighting hard to make a safer future for their kids. Others, hopeless and unable to get help. The broken roads I’d been waiting to fly to were less than 45 minutes from my driveway. I witnessed the BLM movement. I witnessed the pandemic. And all the sudden, my country didn’t seem so put together any more.

In that season, God showed me that the problems He was revealing to me and to the world couldn’t be solved by any party or movement. It had to be Jesus. So in a way, it made perfect sense that I didn’t need to go anywhere to bring the love of Jesus to a broken people. It made perfect sense.

So I drove to Georgia. It wasn’t as cool or adventurous as hopping on a plane to Romania. But God called me to the race a long time ago, and that didn’t change when travel changed. 

And now I’m here, doing missional training, living in a tightly knit community, learning and discovering a ton, not doing local outreach yet due to Covid restrictions, but hopefully soon. I’ve only been here a week, but I’ve experienced so much that I can’t yet put into words. It’s uncomfortable, yes. Part of our training is living minimally in the woods for the semester. But I’m so insanely excited for all that God will teach me here. 

In this season, I’m praying for a greater understanding of Him and of the world, and that I will learn to constantly walk with Him. I’m praying for my team to be a united community, and that we will be brave enough to call one another out and point one another to Christ. I would love it if you could pray for me too! I am so thankful for all of you out there who are supporting and loving me through all of this! You all seriously rock! Here are some of the verses that have stuck out to me this week: 

Jeremiah 29:12-13

“Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you,” declares the Lord

Joshua 5:13-15

Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?” The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

Romans 12:9-10

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.  Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.