Hello and welcome to my blog:) hehe
I’ve received a few questions about why I am doing World Race Gap Year. I wanted to tell you some BIG things that the Father has been doing in my heart and how I ended up here!
Over the summer, I learned who the Holy Spirit is. I became aware of the Father’s presence – which was a very specific prayer that was answered. I learned that God doesn’t always move in ways that I can understand. I saw him putting together my story. I cried…. a whole lot – like buckets worth. These tears came from utter amazement of what God was doing. One of my sweet sweet friends called them “righteous tears” every time I lost control of my tear duct. After worshiping one night, I walked up to a kind friend and cried, “I CAN’T TAKE ANYMORE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT” and we both giggled through our tears. Giggles that I know were sweet to the Father’s ears. That’s just how overwhelmed I was – but in a positive way. The word “overwhelmed” typically has a bad connotation and can be easily associated with stress – but that’s not what I was feeling. I was overwhelmed with God’s goodness and had an overflow of JOY. God plopped World Race Gap Year right in front of me. It was a burning passion. I felt peace. I had to go.
God wrote this pretty sacred story of how I actually ended up signing up for WR. so many pieces and little details and if I wrote it all out for you, we’d both be here for hours – since he had this all planned out before the beginning of time ya know – but here’s some highlights: In conversation with friends, I said that I wasn’t going to college next year. Ummmm…like what? It was like I said it unconsciously. I hadn’t even allowed myself to think college wasn’t an option yet. That just slipped out and immediately scared me. I remember thinking “Layna! You can’t just say that!” I expected others to judge me big time- but that was so far from what actually happened. Then I found myself in a sweet prayer sitting on my bathroom countertop while reading Nehemiah. During some alone time with my God, He had called me by my name and said, “Daughter, come dance with me.” Then a previous racer asked me why I was interested in WRGY and I didn’t have words. I cried uncontrollably. All I could say was that I knew I had to go. And she was able to point out the Holy Spirit working in my heart. We love friends like that:) Then I told my parents the whole story ASAP and my sweet mama said that my PRESCHOOL TEACHER told my mom when I was FOUR YEARS OLD that my love for people was going to lead me to do missions. like who tells a four year old that. God does. wow. wow. wow.
so long story short, I signed up for the race.
To wrap this up – here’s what I am singing over these next few months in preparation for launch and over the rest of my life: “When I see your face, I’ll wish I’d given more away so don’t let me waste a trial + don’t let me miss a chance to praise” (You Deserve It All + (Spontaneous) – by UPPERROOM). I want to give it all away. I want to choose sacrifice – because Jesus sacrificed everything for me. He took my life from the dead. But I don’t want to choose sacrifice because I think I can pay him back…because my goodness gracious there’s absolutely nothing humanly possible that I could do to repay Jesus. But I want to give it all away so that other people can have a chance to choose to do life with the amazing Abba that I have.
It means so much to me that you are willing to invest time into reading this and partner with me alongside this crazy journey! I have so much more I want to share with y’all so stay tuned for more blog posts! thank you thank you thank you!
