Ready, Set, Go!

I believe there are three things to think about in regards to preparing for the World Race. 

1) Ready ~ Are you ready? In my mind this is a mental, emotional and spiritual kind of ready. I’ve applied to the race, I’ve gotten accepted and I’m totally ready! I’m excited and if I was leaving tomorrow I wouldn’t mind. Emotionally and spiritually, I’ve been thinking about and praying about my next adventure to serve God. To be honest, if I wasn’t ready, I would not have applied. So yeah, I’m ready! Don’t get me wrong, there is still more I can do to emotionally and spiritually prepare myself, but in reality there is always more I can do. There is always room for growth and a relationship with Jesus is something I will always want to spend time nurturing, but I am ready for this step of faith. 

2) Set ~ This is all the practical preparations. Fundraising, getting the gear I’ll need.. stuff like that. I’m currently in the midst of this. 

3) Go ~ This will happen in October when my World Race adventure officially begins. This is the step I’m excited for, going to the field and stepping into the ministry work. 

Three parts. Preparing the mind and heart, practical preparations and going. I like 1 and 3, but not so much 2… and that’s exactly where I am. In the midst of getting ready. 

Honestly? I wish I could skip this and jump on a plane now. Thinking about all the things I have to do before leaving makes me feel SUPER overwhelmed… but it’s also a super important step that cannot be skipped. Without getting set, I cannot run the race that God has placed before me. I need to set myself up for success and that means I need to be patient and trust God through the whole process, not just on the field.

When I think about getting set, I think about when I ran track in high school and I was taught how to get myself set up in the blocks. I had seen people run races in track and I think I even vaguely remember seeing people put their feet in the blocks, but I had no idea what they were or what they were even for. Once I started running track, I still didn’t really understand the blocks and thought they just seemed tedious. It wasn’t until I tried a race using the blocks, and practiced without the blocks that I really understood. The set position, feet in the blocks, helped me to take off faster and really launch into the sprint. Without the set position, I would be behind everyone who used the blocks and have to catch up. I’m sure there’s more to it and I am in no way an expert in track and field, but it’s what I’ve thought of as I’ve stayed up way too late pondering the preparations I know I’m facing. 

For the World Race, I have to give myself time to get set. If I didn’t, things could go really bad. I would not get a good start on the race and it could definitely hinder my ministry. Imagine, I get on a plane, land in a foreign country and am then told to set up my tent that I’ll be sleeping in for the next month, only to realize I don’t have a tent because I jumped to go too quickly and did not get set. There are so many reasons the set step is vital to the success of this ministry. I may not like it, but I need to remind myself that God is in every part of the ministry. He is with me in the fundraising, He is with me in the late nights overthinking packing, He’s with me through it all and I believe that full-heartedly putting effort into getting set will be so worth it in the end. 

If you’d like to pray for me, pray that I will be blown away by God’s goodness rather than overwhelmed by the enormity of everything that goes into a mission adventure. 

~ Kaci