WE WERE ON A BREAK !! or so I thought..

If you have been following this journey on my social media at all over the last month or so you would have seen every possible emotion about the race and many different opportunities to prepare for the Race. If you haven’t, don’t worry I will share it all here, right now! 

Starting back at the end of February, beginning of March, was when my thoughts started creeping in about every possible fear related to missing people, not being missed, raising 19,000$, not being qualified on the race, etc. Once I finally started admitting those fears the Lord started chipping away at them and replacing them with truths. These truths were coming from random strangers, past racers, family members, friends, and from the Lord himself. While I had begun to believe the lies that this trip would not be an opportunity to grow in my faith like I had been praying for, the last two weeks have completely been smashed those lies and been replaced with opportunities to grow in my faith in this preparation season. 

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This past week I WAS ON spring BREAK with the intentions to meet the goals that I had set which were: raise $1,000, make 5 new connections, have dinner with a teammate, spend time with the Lord, clean out my closet for my mission garage sale, and improve my hike time, and EVERY GOAL WAS MET AND EXCEEDED!! (except my hike time because there was no time to hike over break and wait til you hear why!) 

You guys, God had such greater plans than I could have ever imagined from the very first day of break! I woke up on my first day of break with all the motivation in the world to clean my room and fill boxes for my sale, and I also got so many others on board and have collected many boxes from such great people over the last week with more promised to come! (If you would like to donate anything for my mission sale on April 26 – May 4 send me an email – [email protected].)  

I got to have dinner with Michelle who is on my squad and Hannah who is on an August route, but we will be at training camp together, and both of these meals were so good for my soul! I also got coffee with friends from high school and college which allowed for me to process so much of the past and the upcoming future! 

On Saturday I had a Noonday Collection sale with Lauren, a past racer and SAU alumni at my favorite local coffee shop and guys, JESUS SHOWED UP AT A TRUNK SHOW! He didn’t buy anything but he allowed me to meet so many of His precious daughters! There was one woman who had never been to The Brew before, and had no connection to me, but felt like the Lord was telling her to come in to get coffee that day, and while I did not get to talk to her, Lauren did and to hear her story was such an encouragement because I was so discouraged that no one would show up to my event, and SHE WAS THE FIRST ONE!! So Samantha, if you are reading this, thank you for following His leading, you were such a blessing to me! Not long after these four girls walked in to the shop (who also had never been to The Brew before and had no idea who I was, but turns out we had many connections, which was so cool!) These four young women each had amazing stories of how the Lord has brought missions upon their hearts and we had some amazing conversations about life! After they were done finding beautiful pieces made by women all around the world, they asked if they could pray over me and my upcoming trip. GUYS! It was such an incredible moment and I felt the Spirit touch my heart and give me incredible peace and joy about the upcoming year! I’m tearing up again just remembering such a beautiful moment! I hope you four come across this blog because I want you each to know how much of a blessing you were to me on Saturday as well! I am praying for each of you as you each pursue the call for missions on your lives, who knows maybe one day you’ll do the World Race! 🙂 (I hope you’re counting because that was FIVE unexpected connections made about the WR)

And while I thought raising $1,000 would be a lofty, but possibly realistic goal to meet, the LORD BLEW THAT OUT OF THE WATER!! Here is my post from Facebook:

“Major praise to God right now and a little moment of vulnerability from Kristin. I don’t know if you have seen my goals for spring break that I posted on social media and it’s okay either way if you did or not, but one of my goals this week was to raise $1,000 for my trip. I thought that this was a pretty lofty goal but was still doable because I have my event coming up on Saturday and had plans for an updated adopt a box. Key words being, I had plans. When I first posted my goals something in me just felt like this wasn’t right, that maybe it wasn’t supposed to be the way I went about it, or maybe the amount wasn’t right, I don’t know something in my heart just said this wasn’t right. I posted it and Immediately took it down because you know that feeling, then an hour or so later posted it again thinking, well if I don’t do anything the money isn’t just going to fall in my lap. So I posted it, and got some responses which was really cool, that left me feeling like I had done something right in this process for once. But really, let me tell you what God did was so incredibly right. This morning my dad went to the dentist and then went to pick up some donations for my mission sale, he came home with something for me that a man he had just met gave him. He literally dropped it in my lap as I was sitting on the couch watching Hallmark. I bet you’re wondering what it was. A CHECK FOR ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS. My dad was feeling emotional about it all that a random stranger would follow the Lord’s leading and donate such an amount, and let me tell you what I was feeling. Like I was a total mess up for not trusting the Lords tug at my heart just a few days earlier. To trust Him in this process, to lean into Him and let Him work in the hearts of others just like He did in mine just a few days earlier. So you guys, when the Lord tugs on your heart I pray that you answer it. Even so, if you don’t I pray that you become vulnerable when you mess up, and receive His grace because He gives it so freely. That was a little long, but I just felt like it needed to be shared because guys, GOD IS SO STINKING COOL and He deserves all the GLORY!!”

And that was on Tuesday guys. By Sunday on the last day of my break I have raised $2,952 and it is only 9:00!! 

This week when I thought I would be on a break and working my butt off to reach my goals, the Lord had other plans for me, which were like nothing that I could have imagined. HE IS NEVER ON BREAK GUYS! My last goal was to spend lots of time with Him and I had so many road trips that were filled with worship, prayers, and podcasts! I started reading Girls with Swords (Which Ari I need to give back to you haha) and spent time digging into the book of Colossians which my church has been studying for the past 2 months. AND GUYS I LOVE SPENDING TIME WITH HIM. 

One more quick testimony that I am sure you will be hearing a lot about in the next year. For the last 4 years I have been praying the word “cultivate” over my life, to cultivate fruits of the spirit like joy, faith, self-control, and gentleness. For the last four years I have experienced seasons that have shown how I have grown in these fruits, but also shown that I have A LOT of growing to do! Which is why in my season of preparing I have claimed the phrase “Take Root, Bear Fruit” and while I haven’t seen a lot of fruit coming up in life, I bought a Key for the Journey necklace LAST week. These necklaces are made by my team leader Austin who went on the race and saw it as a ministry to pray for a word from the Lord that would be for someone in this season or their next season. Austin didn’t know that cultivate had been my word for the last few seasons and on Saturday I returned home from my trunk show, opened up the box and saw the word… BLOOM. 

So for this next season of the World Race, and even after, I am praying that these fruits BLOOM into my life where they are so visible and easy to also give away to sustain those who are so hungry for the Gospel!

Here’s to BLOOMING!