Expectations of what we should do can sometimes keep us from what we were born to do. Most people expected me to go to college right after high school, and then expected me to go to college right after the race. As I explained in a previous blog, that is not happening. I am going to a discipleship school called CGA that Adventures in Missions has. CGA is meant to prepare, teach, and guide me to living a missional life. They have a slogan “Learn yourself, Lead yourself, and Lead others” which I absolutely love.
I wanted to share more of my heart behind going to CGA. The reason why I am choosing this path and not my previous route. While on the Race I heard of CGA, but never thought that it would be for me. I was ready to go to college in the fall, I truly was. I was just living life on the Race, then comes our month 4 debrief in Thailand. I was talking to our squad mentor, Kacie, about growth and how I have changed so much, then I heard “you’re not done growing yet.” I was totally setback by this and truthfully I didn’t know how to handle it. Then the Lord for the first time put CGA on my heart. I started to look more into it at online and realized that it is a place to really continue my growth. The race definitely was a place and time for growth, but CGA is an intense discipleship program that is meant to walk you through yourself, the Lord, and how to become a Jesus minded leader.
I heard and saw all of theses things but I was scared. I wanted to please everyone around me and keep to my original plan. I was in Myanmar and trying to walk through this decision. I was praying that the Lord would give me a clear answer and that I would fully know what He wanted me to do next. Now looking back it was clear that the Lord called me to CGA back then but I didn’t accept that answer. I wanted to go to college in the fall so badly.
So I decided that I was going to start school instead of CGA. I thought is was right because I felt comfortable doing it (blog about comfort vs peace goes all into this), but something I wanted to share about this time is the vision my teammate Malia had for me.
We were doing listening prayer things for each other and this is what she got for me. The Lord gave her a vision of me on a line, ready to run a race. The person had the gun ready to start the race. Then I stopped and turn towards God and ask, “God why am I doing this? I just got off of the race?” then she said that the Lord told me, “Rachel I am not finished with you yet, and your yes is vital to my plan.” When she gave me this I had already decided to go to college, so I was confused and again I didn’t want it to be true that He was calling me to CGA.
So when I finally made the choice to go to CGA everything fell into place. Everything started to make sense. The Lord is strongly calling me to CGA and He has said that my yes it vital to His plan. So I am here ready to always give my yes to Him. I know that the Lord has more to work and grow in and through me, so that I can be prepared for the future He has for me. Don’t worry y’all, I am still going to college. I will be starting the spring semester after CGA, since CGA is only August through December. I know the Lord has called me into the medical field so that I can travel the world and help people. He has given me a vision of starting my own medical missions organization that is solely surrounded by the heart and love of Jesus. Traveling the world to bring kingdom and helping people in need of medical attention. God has bigs plans for my life and He is asking me to take time to grow myself and work through things before I am fully launched into those plans.
Another thing that my family recently told me that they knew once I left for the World Race that I wasn’t going to start school right away. God has been preparing this path for me for a long time time.
As you can see at the top, my fundraising bar has gone way down lol. I am starting over with the whole fundraising thing. God provided $15,800 for me to go on this crazy adventure, He will provide $5,950 for the next. I will be selling super cute t-shirts that say “choose joy” in yellow, light blue, and maroon.
They are super cute as you can see and they are comfort colors! they are $25 each and I can ship them to you!
I am so grateful for all of the support that y’all have given me! I literally couldn’t be here without y’all. If the Lord is putting it on your heart to donate I would be so grateful and if not, I would really appreciate it if you could pray that the money comes in and that the Lord provides! You’re all wonderful and I love y’all!!! Thank you for everything.
