Hello everybody!
I just wanted to once again thank you for the support and willingness to follow along with me through this journey. I wanted to start out with sharing the story of how I got to the place I’m in so y’all can have a better understanding of where my head is at.
So, throughout the summer I spent three weeks serving at the outstanding SharpTop Cove in Jasper, GA and when I tell you it was the best three weeks of my life, that’s no exaggeration. Throughout my time there, my desire to serve honestly grew so much stronger. I don’t say that for anyone to be like, “wow Esther, you’re succhhhhhh an ammmazing person.” No, don’t want that. I came back from SharpTop a different person than I left and knew that I didn’t want to keep living the same life I was living. Even though I had that thought, I didn’t necessarily know how to act on it. One Sunday morning I went to Passion City Church with my good friend Addison Holler and we listened to David Platt preach an incredibly convicting message. He asked the question, “Are you going to choose comfort or are you going to choose the cross?” He talked about how Christianity is not a world of comfort and how the road of following Jesus is not paid with self-advancement. What hit me was when he stated that we can live a comfortable Christian life ignoring what is happening in the world and that is the danger. We are given the privilege to go out and share the gospel but there are 2 billion people in the world who have no idea who Jesus is. “Are you going to settle for maintenance or are you going to sacrifice for mission?” While he was talking, I started thinking about the Race. My initial thought was, “Please for the love of goodness get this thought out of your head. Why in the world would you be thinking about the Race? You don’t have time for it. This is not part of the plan. Get. This. Thought. Out. Of. Your. Head.” After the service, Addi asked me if the message made me feel like I wanted to do anything about what was said. I was like woah, it’s crazy that you asked that because I actually started thinking about the World Race but said that I didn’t think I was going to do anything about it.
Later that night I found myself digging into the website and doing research about World Race Gap Year just for fun, because why not. I learned some information, watched A TON of Youtube videos of vlogs, packing tips, stories, the whole shebang. It didn’t matter though because I was not about to actually apply for this thing. I made an account and opened the application just for fun and then closed my laptop and went to bed. The next day I got a text message from someone who works for Adventures in Missions saying that he saw I opened an application and asked if I needed help with anything. I was like haha noo I’m good, just opened it for fun, not actually interested, thanks though. My head kept thinking about it, one of my Work Crew leaders that did it sent a random message in our group asking if anyone was interested, and it was continuously being put on my heart. I still was like nahh so I moved past that and had an advising appointment to talk about my major that day, so I went but the entire time she was talking about what I can do with a Communications degree, I could only think about the Race. I was supposed to go straight home and declare my major but I found myself going home and watching more videos on Youtube. I opened the application again and thought why not just fill this thing out for fun (I do that, it’s weird, I know). I got to the essay questions and said, “Not about to spend my time thinking and filling these out if I’m not doing this thing” and therefore proceeded to closing my laptop once again. By this point you’ve figured out how my head works and can guess that obviously I opened my laptop a few hours later and thought, “I have time on my hands, might as well just fill it out”… and so I did exactly that. I went on and pressed next..next…..next anddd submit. I submitted the application…
Next step was to schedule a phone interview so what do you think I did? Obviously, I scheduled a phone interview. An important factor here is that at this point I haven’t told anybody what I was doing except for 3 of my Work Crew friends: Lily Ann Bagley, Camilla Fielder, and Parker Greene (who were the best advice-givers and helped me tremendously along the way). What’s most significant is that I actually didn’t tell my parents anything until 2 days after I submitted my application, which most people would think is absolutely insane, which I guess it is. Basically, I sat them down and said, “Hey so like, kind of did a thing. Kind of applied for a 9-month mission trip… in 3 different countries… would leave next September… kind of have an interview tomorrow… no big deal. I wasn’t necessarily nervous about telling them in the first place just because my parents are honestly some of the most amazing people> dad’s a missionary, mom is the most intelligent, brilliant psychologist, and outstanding Jesus follower I know. Anyways, my mom kind of questioned where this came from since it was so out of the blue and my dad’s initial response was that if the Lord was telling me to do this, then they basically didn’t even have a part in this decision. He told me that if this is what I’m called to do then I have to go for it and they’ll be there alongside of me every step of the way. I knew that their response would be amazing but it really was incredible to see how they responded, even though I was telling them after I applied. The next day, Thursday, July 18th, 2019 I had my interview. It was incredible to see how the Lord truly has His hands on everything and just gave me what to say throughout the interview. It went incredibly well and at the end, I was told that I had been accepted and I think my jaw dropped.
How? In a matter of 5 days? Thought about it that Sunday. Applied that Monday. Interviewed and got accepted on Thursday. In a matter of 5 days, I made a decision to throw everything off track and turn my life around. What I didn’t know was how perfectly the Lord had orchestrated everything that happened. It didn’t matter what I wanted, there was a plan, it didn’t matter that it wasn’t mine. God already knew how this was going to play out, and seeing that was really cool not gonna lie to you. When it comes to now, I’m taking it day by day and living in the moment with everything going on with college, trying to figure that out (if that’s even possible). Just wanted to put this out there. If you’ve made it this far, THANK YOU. If it was boring, I’m so sorry, I’ll try not to be in the future. I love all of you with my whole heart and can’t thank you enough for your support, whether it be financially or with your prayers!
UPDATES: T-shirts coming soon! I’ll send another update once they’re out!
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-esther 🙂
