Hello friends and family!
I’m assuming if you are reading this, you already know who I am, but if not, here is a little introduction.
About Me
I am 19 years old (20 by the time I leave for the race). Born, raised, and lived in Montana my whole life, only having moved houses once in my life (just half a mile up the road from my old house haha). As you can imagine, having Glacier National Park in my backyard, I basically grew up in the mountains! My favorite hobbies are skiing, snowboarding, hiking, camping, and rock climbing!
My Testimony
I was born into a Lutheran church where I was baptized as a baby. I went to Sunday school at this church and even went to preschool there for two years. When I was around seven years old, we decided we wanted to explore other options just to see what was out there. Only a few weeks later we received a letter stating that we were not welcomed back. It was at this point we knew we had made the right decision in switching churches. We started going to a non-denominational church where my parents got involved and have been ever since. Around 7th grade, my best friend invited me to come to youth group at the church that his dad was the pastor at. I started going, not because I knew God and wanted a relationship with him, but because it was fun, and it gave me something to do and for four years that’s all it was. Something fun to do. When I got into high school, temptation and doubt really started to set in. I would question God all the time and ask him why he hadn’t shown himself to me if he was real. The summer after my junior year, I went to a summer camp where I had been having a blast all week! On one of the last days, they had an alter call where anybody could go up and lay everything out to Jesus. I thought “I don’t have anything to lose so I might as well.” As I’m sitting there talking to God, telling him everything that I’m going through I said, “Jesus, if you are real, I need a sign that you are listening. Please just give me a sign God.” That exact moment a girl came behind me and started praying over me. Everything that came out of her mouth was so perfectly crafted, I knew that it wasn’t her that was talking to me, it was God, letting me know he was listening. Later that night, they brought up that if anyone had an experience with God and wanted to get baptized, they would have an opportunity in the weeks to come and I knew that was exactly what I needed to do. I got baptized the summer leading into my senior year and for the first few months, I was on fire for the Lord as all new Christians are. But then the burnout came… I didn’t own a bible, and I never really read one either, so I didn’t know how to deal with something like this so… I kind of just gave up and fell back into old habits. These old habits persisted for over a year and actually progressively got worse. I had a horrible relationship with my parents where we constantly over stepped boundaries and disrespected each other and it got to the point I had to leave and live on my own. While living on my own, trying to figure out what I would do with my life, one of my old friends had hit me up and told me he was starting to go to a bible study and was wondering if I would want to join him. Knowing that I had nothing else going on, I said “yes.” Week after week I would show up, for the first time, actually reading the word of God, and that’s when I started discovering the truth of the gospel. I was eager to get a closer relationship with God, so I was doing everything the bible told me to do. I encountered Jesus again one night when I was praying in my friend’s room telling him that I knew there was more to life than this. Jesus lit the path with his feet that I have been walking down ever since. Not only do I have an intimate relationship with God now, but I also have a better relationship with my family and have also made soooo many new friends along the way. There is so much more of my testimony that I could share so if you are interested, send me an email and I would happily share with you what Jesus has done in my life. I can’t wait to see the path that the lord brings me down!
Why I Chose World Race
Throughout my walk with the Lord, I have had seven (a holy number) different people come up to me and tell me that God spoke to them saying that they saw my being a disciple of Jesus, going to many different places, teaching the great word of God. This all happened in the span of two weeks, after another crazy thing that happened, but that is a story for another time. I immediately knew that this was Jesus speaking to me, so I got to work researching a bunch of different organizations. After hours of research and praying, feeling like nothing was calling my name, I was feeling kind of hopeless. A few days went by, and I remembered, an old friend was actually on a mission right now! Before she went on it, she told me that I should look into it because it seemed like something that I would be interested in but unfortunately at the time, I never actually did that. Luckily for me, the link was still saved in our chats, so I clicked on it and started doing more research about “The World Race.” After getting connected and talking with multiple people, who were either current racers or past racers, I finally felt I had found the place for me. I prayed on it for a couple of weeks saying, “God, are you sure this is where you want me,” “Lead the way God, I only do as you say,” and “show me, God, where I am supposed to be.” Over and over, I kept hearing “yes” and “bigger things will come after.” So, after hearing Gods voice, leading me down this path, I signed up with no hesitation. I know that things will not always be easy and there will even be times that I may doubt myself but the one person I will never doubt is Jesus Christ. He has led me down this path and for that, I know he will provide.
Thank you guys so much for taking the time to hear a little bit about my story. I pray that you all follow along with me in this exciting chapter of my life and may God bless you!
