Salutations friends!

I am so excited to start this journey on the World Race, and I'm even more excited to have you all come along with me! The World Race is an eleven month mission trip that will take me to eleven different countries across three continents, to serve communities in need. I will be traveling with a group of other young Christians as we chase Jesus and spread His word. For these eleven months I will be backpacking and giving up different comforts to encounter the Lord in a more radical way! Now, I'm sure some of you are probably wondering what led me to decide to leave my friends and family for eleven months to live out of a backpack. Well, here's how it happened...

Throughout my time at Butler University, I have never been able to shake the feeling that I wasn't suppose to settle into a teaching career right after graduation. This feeling freaked me out because it's scary, confusing and overwhelming. So, I tried to ignore it; and if I'm being completely honest, I learned how to ignore it so well that in the fall of 2020 I was fully ready to settle into my career. 

However, Christ had something different in store for me. 

When I began discerning my future, these feelings came back full force and I was could not ignore them anymore. I decided to pray more intentionally about what these feelings may mean. As I prayed, I learned that I have an extremely strong desire to fully surrender to Christ. He was calling and inviting me into an intimate relationship with Him. Once I finally realized this, I felt like I was burning and I had to find a way to fulfill my need to surrender. So, I started praying more about my next steps and I started doing LOTS of research. These two actions made me quickly realize that the Lord was calling me on mission after graduation, so I started applying to different programs. 

Throughout the application process, the Lord slowly revealed to me His specific desires for my mission. I want to be thrown out of my comfort zone by committing myself to Him in a radical way. I want to be challenged by living a minimalistic life where I give up the worldly possessions I place value in (vanity, working out, etc.). And lastly, I want to decrease, so that Christ can work through me and use me as an instrument to bring others to the Kingdom. 

Eventually, I found myself on the World Race website and a wave of peace washed over me. I knew that through the World Race I could live out what God is calling me to do. I could live completely for Him.  

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog! I’d love for you to partner with me in my journey with God around the world in the year ahead. Here are a few ways you can join in the fun: 

1. Pray for my team and I that we use the time we have left at home wisely and that Jesus remains the center of it all as we fundraise and prep for what’s on the horizon.  
2. Give towards the funds I’ll need while I’m on the World Race. Donate here. 
3. Share my story with your friends and family. I hope God uses it to encourage you and everyone who reads it. 

However you choose to be part of the ride, I’m so grateful to have you on my side.

xoxo

claudzilla