Why I’m Going on the World Race: An Overview

I cannot thank you enough for being here and for walking through this coming year with me! So much has led up to this moment, and so much will follow. I hope to share with you every incredible thing God has been doing in my life recently. But first, I need to tell you what this whole “World Race” is and why I’m doing it: 

I’ll start with the why: 

I was born into an incredibly privileged life, with education and opportunity at my fingertips. Yet none of it was ever mine in any respect.  Everything God has given me was meant to be passed on, whether that is material resources, education, or salvation. 

Jesus fed and healed people. He met their physical needs before he met their spiritual needs. To share the Gospel is not to strut the streets of Nineveh, shouting “Repent.” To share the gospel is to meet the needs of the oppressed. To share the gospel is to be the love of Jesus. He gave up everything he had, even his life, so that we might have salvation. 

I go to share this Gospel. I go to share the wealth that was never mine. 

But not just for one year. I’m talking about my life. 

I want to work in Environmental Public health to empower developing communities to sustainably grow their economies and gain access to basic needs every human has a right to. Before I start learning about this from an American college, I must first learn from those who actually live in developing communities. I must experience the needs. I must ask God, “Where do I fit into this?”

 I go to learn. I go to see God through less of a western lense. 

Finally, I have urgent questions in my faith. I imagine that you, the readers of this blog, do as well. I’m taking a year away from school to dedicate 100% of my time to God. I’m taking a year to fully and recklessly wrestle with God, not out of pride but out of trust that God has the answer. I want to ask him every ominous question and listen incessantly day and night and see what happens. And I want to share it with you. 

I want to pour into you through my trip. I want you to experience what God is doing in me. I have so much to say, and by God’s grace, I hope to share it all. 

But enough with the abstract. Here are the things my team will be doing in Romania, India, Costa Rica, and the US: 

Draganesti Olt, Romania: My first three months will be spent in Romania, located in Eastern Europe, a place characterized by “Christian” cultural heritage, yet filled with people who are in need of Jesus. There, I will be partnering with Hope Church, a local ministry, to meet their needs and to learn from them. Though I will not know the specifics of my routine each day until closer to the trip, we know that the church we are partnering with gives eyeglasses to those in need and provides children’s day camps as well as local community outreach. 

Telangana, India: For the next three months, we will be partnering with local schools, Bibles for the World (founded by a guy who translated the bible to his own language, then started a hospital, seminary, and school! What?!?), and christian churches. What we will be doing in India is up in the air right now, given what is currently going down in parts of India, but I will hopefully be helping teach in a local school. 

San Jose, Costa Rica: Finally, my mouth will be opened! I’m far from fluent in Spanish, but I can manage if the term “manage” is defined very loosely. By the end of the 12 weeks I spend there, I hope to be close to fluent. In Costa Rica, our team may be doing sex trafficking ministry, feeding programs, and camps among other forms of outreach. I feel strongly called to all forms of human trafficking ministry, and I’m expectant for the Lord to do incredible things while we’re there. 

United States: Though our team will only be training in the United States, my goal is to pour into you through my story. So stay tuned. You are both the sender and receiver of this mission.

Please pray that I will hear God and follow him. Pray that I will love and share and be heard. Pray that I will be able to learn enough Telugu in the next 9 months to be able to teach by the time I get to Telangana. Pray that God will show me more truth than he ever has before. Pray that I will be his hands and feet. Thanks again for joining me here. 

Sincerely, 

Kate

Isaiah 43:19 

For I am about to do something new.

    See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?

I will make a pathway through the wilderness.

    I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.