Leaving the Ninety-Nine

There are ten days left until I leave for the World Race. Just. Ten. Days! The amount of excitement, joy, and awe of God is indescribable. All I can tell you, is it brings me to tears this morning thinking about what God is doing. So much work and sacrifice has gone into this trip, and it’s finally here. This past year has forever changed me, I can’t imagine what this next year has in store. As I’ve been saying my goodbyes this past month, God has revealed things about the World Race to me that has me beyond excited for what is coming next.

I just got back from my last camp with my home church, Brookwood. We had 300 students ranging from 5 grade to just graduating high school come to spend intentional time with God for a few days. I know almost all of the 300 kids, and I most certainly love every single one of them with everything within me. Yesterday, I had to say goodbye to them all, and man did it wreck me! My joy has been in getting to serve these kids every week, and building relationships with them. Many of them I have known for the full 5 years I’ve volunteered and worked at the church. I’ve watch them grow, learn, and experience all kinds of things. God has given me countless blessings in my time serving with these students, and after these 5 really, really great years yesterday was the day I had to walk away from it all in faith that God is calling me to something greater.

Leaving my students and my church family at Brookwood is not what I want to do. It’s been a struggle between me and God, but God has shown me great mercy through the struggles. During the worship session on the last night of camp, when I watched as my kids cried out to God through the song “Reckless Love”, I felt God speak to me. As I glanced around at my kids singing about how God does everything to reach them, I felt God say, “I have these kids already in my hands. These students have other shepherds looking after them. I need you to leave the 99 for my 1. I need you to go to the countries where kids have never heard the name of Jesus and bring them home to me.” And to that, all I could get out was a tearful “Ok, God.” He has faithfully promised me that my departure is something He wants because it is something for the greater purposes He has in store for me.

What is even more cool, is that during the bus ride home from camp the next morning, I checked my emails to catch up on what I had missed while at camp. An email that I had waiting for me was an email from my Squad Administrator (SQA) with updates on what our month one country will be. After hearing from God that I was leaving the “99” students for the “1”, I read the details of our mission for month one. (Drum roll!….) We will be going to Lajas de Yaroa, Dominican Republic to do work with H.O.P.E. Dominican Republic that includes doing children’s ministry, VBS, and some other kid-related mission work.      What a faithful God! He knew He was going to change our route, and in doing so it resulted in giving me comfort and peace on the day I was dreading for weeks. I’m so excited that God is going to use my gifts and passion during our first month. I can’t wait to build relationships and see kids meet Christ in Lajas de Yaroa!

( (A picture of Brookwood Church’s OneCamp2018)

It’s been hard leaving everything behind to go after the unknown. It’s still hard trusting God enough to leave one blessing for the next. BUT GOD IS A GOOD GOD! He knows my heart, and He above all knows even more than me the pain of leaving the 99 for the 1. He is walking with me every step of my surrendering. I will miss my students, but I am going to meet all kinds of different kids (as well as adults) around the world to love, pour and invest into. My God gives me joy in my surrender, and I can’t stop praising Him for all that He does. 

These next 10 days will be super busy for my squad so please keep us in your prayers! We are all saying our goodbyes to everyone we love to follow God into new territories, and each person on my squad is dealing with struggles. If you are willing, please put a calendar reminder on your phone/devices to pray for us on August 3 at 4 PM  as we gather together to start launch for our trip, and another calendar reminder to pray for us on August 7 at 2:20 PM as we get on our flight to head out to the Dominican Republic!