Why The Heck Am I Here???

Why the heck did I sign up for a nine month mission trip away from everything I know with people that I’ve never met before??? A question I seem to get a lot, just maybe not said like that.  

I want to start off by saying there’s absolutely no way I could have gotten here if God didn’t make the way. I could have wanted to do this my whole life, known everything about how to get in, prepared myself in every way possible, but if God had a better plan, the door wouldn’t have been opened for me to make it to where I am right now: writing a blog on my very own world race blog account. Still surreal to me. Luckily I’ve learned that God doesn’t put desires on our hearts for no reason. He lets us dream big && scary dreams and fulfills them in the right timing!!! 

My dream started about two years ago when I was a sophomore in high school. I was scrolling on Instagram and somehow ended up on the account @dasiaolivares. At the time, Dasia, the girl who’s behind the account, was about a week away from coming home from the race. It had been nine months of not seeing her family, her home, her friends, or even American ground and she was finally going home. I soon found her blog link in her bio, and found that in these last days around the world, she wrote a blog called “Don’t Go On The World Race.” Me, not knowing what the heck the world race was, was caught off guard by the title. I had to read it. 

Over a half an hour later (i’m the slowest reader ever lol), I had tears falling down my face. Thinking that this blog was a bad review on a program she had been through, I went in reading it with no idea what God would move in me. In this blog, Dasia wrote about each country she ended up in, the ministry, the people, and how Gods hands had worked through it all.

The last two paragraphs of it promptly read, “So Dasia, I tell you, don’t you dare go on the race. It will be hard, and exhausting, it will wreck any definition of home you’ve ever had. Jesus will use it as a tool to push you closer to him. To be more dependent on him. Your idea of the meaning of life and the purpose of which you have will be brought to light, and wrecked and redefined. You will see some of the most beautiful corners of the universe few people know about and you will see that in every culture, every country, the Lord dwells among each of them. You will dance like you never have before. You will love and be loved deeply and more recklessly than you ever have in your whole life. You will learn new ways to be appreciative. You will learn far more than your brain will be able to comprehend, and yet you will find application in the things you’ve learned today and yesterday and nine months ago – years and years from now. Dasia, you will never be the same again after this. So here I tell you, stay complacent and comfortable. Go through college because that’s what society says to do. Float through the motions, graduate and get you degree in social work. And then open up your own soup kitchen. Have kiddos, marry a lovely man, and die. This is the way of the world, in which you would be better off obeying. So lastly i say to you, just don’t go.” 

Wrecked. Just like that. Through the beautiful words of a stranger thousands of miles away, my life was changed. That day was the start of me wanting to know absolutely everything about the race. I followed as many people on Instagram as I could find who were on the race, read so many blogs, researched a ton, and told my parents constantly all about it. They definitely thought I was a little crazy at first. It wasn’t until I talked about it for two years and started telling random people about it who asked me what I wanted to do after high school that they really thought I was serious. 

Fast forward and now I’m a senior in high school. And because God has given me a heart for missions and people around the world, He gave me the chance to go to Africa this past summer with Adventures In Missions. So there I was, about two months ago, serving with a team of sixteen people from around the states in Swaziland, Africa for a month. And the crazy thing is that God confirmed the race for me in so many ways there.

My month in Africa went so fast. And as I sat on a fifteen hour plane ride from South Sfrica to Doha in the middle east, my two teammates and I decided to apply for the race together. With our three leaders cheering us on, who had crazily all been on the race before, our applications were sent before any of our parents could even find out (Oops lol. Luckily mine weren’t surprised when they found out, it was almost like they expected it at this point). A couple weeks later and all three of us were officially accepted. 

My story is a testament to God’s hand in guiding and providing, and it’s not even close to being finished yet. Being accepted was only the first step. My second? Raising over $16,000.

“Look at the birds in the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable then they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” Matthew 6.26-27 msg. I hear “God guides where He provides” a lot. It’s not a bad statement at all, but it’s hard to believe because I forget the ‘why.’ This verse reminded me the reason God provides so much for those so unworthy of it: He cares for us even more than any of his other beautiful creation. He sees us through his eyes, clean because Jesus was once made dirty. And as He has compassion on the birds in the sky, He must have even more compassion for me.

16,000 is a number i could never come up with on my own, but I refuse to make $16,000 look bigger than the God I serve.