Hey everyone!
Surprise!! I’m going to Thailand and Cambodia! It has been quite the journey to even get to this point so I’m going to tell you all about it! Over the past year God has been working in my life in so many ways. I cannot even begin to describe the amount of spiritual growth I have experienced in this past year. It’s kind of funny to think that it all really started with this global pandemic.
Once everyone was sent home from their colleges everything really started to feel real. About a month into quarantine I got together with my old small group from high school for a ~socially distanced~ picnic. After that reunion I started hanging out with a group of people from my church all throughout the summer and it truly brought me so much closer to God being around each of those amazing people. To those of you who were apart of that group; you truly made such an impact on my walk with God, probably more than some of you know.
Some time during that summer I was scrolling through facebook and one of the quizzes of “What kind of missionary are you?” popped up and I decided to take it just for fun. It got me thinking about World Race but I didn’t really consider it being something that I would do anytime soon. Soon after that I had found out that one of my favorite people ever got accepted to go on a WR trip. (KP if you’re reading this, I love you). This definitely caused me to go back and look at the possibility a bit more seriously.
Fast forward to a couple months into moving to Ames for college and I started exploring the idea of a summer study abroad trip. There was one in particular that caught my attention. The trip was called Creating a School Garden and it was to Kampala, Uganda. I decided to submit my application but had also started the application for The World Race just because I had been thinking about it.
Shortly after my interview for my study abroad trip I was put on the waitlist for that trip. Throughout the whole process I had been praying, and asking God what he was calling me to do. After a month on the waitlist I got an email that I had been accepted to the Uganda trip. I was so excited, and I thought that it was a clear answer from God that I was supposed to go to Uganda.
About a week passed by and I got a text from someone with World Race checking in from the missionary quiz I had taken last summer. Right after reading that message I got an email saying that the study abroad trip I was planning on going on was being cancelled due to the college pushing back the date for all international travels. At first I was upset knowing that I wasn’t going to Africa anymore.
After thinking and praying about it I decided that maybe God was closing this door so that the door to the World Race would be opened. I continued to pray about it and I scheduled a phone call with someone on WR staff. That Sunday at church the sermon was about missions and my world was just rocked. It felt like God was so clearly telling me to go. What was even more crazy was that the video that they had shown at church was a couple that were about to be missionaries in Thailand. I ended up finishing my application the next day and now finally here we are!
I have already seen God work in so many ways throughout this process and I am so excited to continue this journey and see what other doors God might open. If you would like to stay updated throughout my journey make sure to subscribe for updates!
-Lexy
