Well, a lot has happened in the past month or so. I really can’t explain it all in one post but I’ll do my best.
The college ministry at my church goes to Tijuana, Mexico every spring break on a mission trip called Awaken, and I wanted to go but I was really worried about the fundraising and I felt like I couldn’t go because I was already fundraising for the race. I ended up deciding to go two weeks before spring break just trusting God to provide the funds. We met a week before leaving to talk about the trip, and I asked when we needed to be funded, thinking maybe I didn’t have to have all the money before we left and I could pay it over time after we got back, but I was told I needed all the money by Thursday. It was Sunday. I got really nervous and just said “okay God, I’m trusting in you for this one because I know I can’t do that.” I posted about it on my instagram and after receiving incredible support from so many people, I was fully funded on Thursday night. Wow.
I could talk about that week forever but I’ll just give some highlights. We partnered with a local church (All People’s Tijuana) and worshiped like crazy, heard some incredible words, met new friends from other Antioch churches, and did outreach and evangelism in the city. A lot of crazy stuff happened on outreach and I couldn’t list it all, but we saw lots of physical healing, the Spirit filling people, and people giving their lives to Jesus. The healings were amazing but even more impactful to me was seeing people experience and accept Jesus for the first time. I was sitting next to a man who was being prayed over by some of my teammates and he was crying and praying as well, and I realized he was accepting Jesus. I started crying because all I could think about is how incredible it was to be sitting next to a child of God as he was coming home. We also worshiped in the middle of the red light district and drew people to us that just wanted to be prayed for in the middle of that dark and broken part of the city. This was my first mission trip and it really showed me that we were made to share the gospel and I’m so thankful to have experienced it.
Then we came back. The US was a lot different than when we left it. All our classes moved online as we prepared for quarantine. All of us were so excited and ready to continue ministry in Salt Lake City. We were on fire and ready to just go out and share the gospel with everyone. Except we couldn’t. We began to adjust to the situation, and although we can’t do everything we hoped right now, and lots of friends went back home, we’re expectant and hopeful to grow in our relationships with God during this time. I’m so so thankful for my Antioch SLC fam.
For everyone who is wondering about the status of my world race, at this point not much has changed and leadership is still confident that we’ll launch in September. Training camp has moved from July to September, and we’ll be launching directly after that in mid-late September. As far as fundraising goes, any donations made through my blog will be refundable should the trip significantly change, but I have faith that we will launch and God has an amazing plan in this!
Here’s a link to updates about the virus from the world race: https://www.worldrace.org/3-19-2020-615-pm-coronavirus-covid-19-update/
Love you guys, thanks for reading. I encourage everyone to take this opportunity to slow down, get in the word, and pray. As difficult as this time may seem, it’s an incredible opportunity to grow in relationship with our Father. Distractions and commitments are gone. Spend more time with Him! Start talking to Him and asking questions, see what happens! You’ve got nothing to lose.
