Why The World Race

            So… what is my story you may ask, why is a 23-year-old from the little town of Eaton Rapids, MI heading out on the World Race? Well it starts with Kathy and Doug meeting a very long time ago, but we can fast forward quite a few years… I was born in Lansing, MI on November 24, 1995 to two loving parents and an older brother, Kevin. A bit of the basics: I have lived in the same house for 23 years, attended the same church until my junior year of high school, and went to both public and private schools. As a kid, I had great friends, and lived a small community life: played community soccer, basketball, and softball- found out I wasn’t very good at those sports though… was in local children’s theater productions, and was a girl scout, you know, the usual. But, the unusual life quickly followed my childhood into young adolescents. When I was in sixth grade I went on a mission trip to Jamaica, which allowed me to develop a love for people who were living in a different culture then me. I continued to go on yearly mission trips to the same community in Jamaica for five years and made some great friendships, learned to live a different life, and how to be changed by the work God was doing in awkward middle school me, and in the community of St. Anne’s Bay! I transferred schools in middle school and maneuvered such a time as the new kid, but I survived, as many do!

I experienced a pivotal moment in my faith during my high school years when I was blessed with the opportunity to go on a trip to Israel and walk in the footsteps of Jesus. This experience laid a firm foundation for digging into the Word and finding out for myself what it was all about. I have hours and hours of memories and moments that I would love to talk about, but the main point is that, Jesus met me in Israel and I fell in love with the Middle East, people who were different than me, and a savior who died for me.

And fast-forwarding five years to May 2017, I had the opportunity to go on a trip with my university to South Korea for three weeks, and that was stretching to say the least. After that trip, I learned that I really can live and teach abroad, there are communities of Christians everywhere, and the Korean culture and history is beautiful and has stuck with me. These trips will never leave my heart, as I left a piece of my heart in each of these beautiful nations.

             Apart from these experiences I had and the love for the nations that has grown within me, I owe much of my desire for The World Race to a small Christian camp in Michigan that I have been attending for 15 years of my life. Every Thursday of Simpson Park Family Camp is missionary day, where missionaries come in and share with us the work that God is doing through them overseas. And every year I got a stirring within my heart, I remember in ninth grade going back to my mom after service and telling her that God told me that I was going to be a missionary! Within months after such news, I had let the dream of overseas long-term missions depart from my mind, but it never left my heart. And for seven more years God stirred within me at those Missionary Nights at SPC. I had memorized verses like Matthew 28:19-20 and Acts 1:8 to silly tunes as a child at camp, and I still have those verses engraved on my heart, but it took 7 years after little freshman Kristin got the call to actually do something about it. I had always made excuses about why it was not the right time, or what I had been called to wasn’t real. But one conversation this summer with a camper of mine really put things in perspective, her words of  “if not now, then when, God can do the impossible, why should I keep limiting what He could do in me and through me?” This freshman camper’s faith reminded me of where I had been when I was in her shoes seven years ago. I came home from that week at family camp ready to fill out the application for such an adventure with God. Here we are, five months later finally blogging about what a mission God has called me too!

            While the zest of travel intrigues me, it is only a piece of what draws me to an 11 month, 11 country mission trip. A tight knit of believers is something I have always sought out, and it has been one of my saving graces as I have gotten through life. I owe a lot to my family, friends, and teachers for getting me to where I am, but I know I am ready to take a step out of my life in small town in Michigan, and serve the world. This is not just a mission, it is a {co}mmission, I get to take a year out of my life, live and serve alongside like-minded believers and be stretched while experiencing and learning things that can only come through an experience like The World Race. I am both ecstatic and terrified for this next phase of life starting a year from now, as I go through this year, please join me in praying for me, my team, and those we will encounter on such an journey with Christ!

            Stay tuned for more updates from #JourneyWithKJ

Matthew 28:19-20 “Therefore go and make disciples in all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and then teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you; and be sure of this—that I am with you always, even to the end of the world.”