Adventures Deserve To Be Shared.

Here is your personal invitation to my life in missions. Welcome to my blog!

To be honest with you, I have no idea what will become of this blog, since I have never had a blog before, but I am truly excited about the opportunity to share my life with all of you! I am not sure who all is reading this, or what has lead you to my blog, but while you are here, go ahead and grab some coffee or tea and relax on a couch somewhere for a little bit so I can share with you my heart, my mind, and the power of Christ that will continue to transform me through my new life in missions! May God bless us both through these blogs and may your life continue to be transformed as you are lead closer to His wonderful adventures in store for you.

When I was a little kid, my brother and my dad would often go camping together with the Boy Scouts. One summer, they traveled to Canada to do some canoeing and live in the wilderness for a while. At the same time, I went off to summer camp for a week. I had never been to summer camp, and it was an amazing time for me. I got back the same week as my brother and dad. The night we got back, we shared a meal together and then spent a long time at my childhood home swapping stories about our adventures. I told them how much fun it was to go hiking and horseback riding, and they told me how they got to swim in a lake with a waterfall. There was something so fun to me about being able to be a part of their trip and inviting them to be a part of mine. After we were finished talking about our adventures, we knew each other better and had some how bonded in a unique way that we would not have been able to without sharing our adventures that night. I truly love it when people I know share with me stories about the adventures and journeys they go on that change and enhance their lives. It always makes me feel valued and a part of something much bigger than myself when I am able to enter into the meaningful moments of loved ones.

Everyone desires to share life with others and to be known. I want to take this time in my life to allow you to get to know me through my adventures in missions - to shout from the rooftops of the internet about the delightful and overwhelming moments of joy and change currently impacting me. Even though I have only been a foreign missionary for a couple of months now with Family Missions Company, I already have a hunger in my heart to share with the world what a missionary life looks like. I ache to share with all of those I come in contact with how my life has already been transformed, and will continue to be transformed, through a life intentionally spent sharing Christ with the poor. I want each and every one of you to be on mission with me, since mission is what makes me and so many others I know thrive. So, I invite you into my life with my stories and my thoughts about the moments I have had and will have soon. Welcome to my mission!

Currently, I am about a week away from officially moving to General Cepeda, Mexico, after spending four months in intensive training and preparation to do so. I had the wonderful opportunity of spending 3 weeks in Mexico serving the people there. I have been trying to absorb what it looks like to be a missionary and to leave the US and my family behind so that I can venture off to share joy and truth with people I don't even yet know. This whole process has been overwhelming, exciting, and filled with so many experiences I am still processing! After only 3 weeks as a missionary in a foreign country, I am confident I could write pages and pages of stories of how my life has been enhanced through missions. I could tell you about the time I saw a woman in complete poverty literally on her death bed with more joy in her eyes than I have ever seen in a human being. I could tell you about the time I learned how to flip tortillas like a true Mexican (with my bare hands, which were burned for many days after my horrible attempt at tortilla perfection). I could tell you about the tears I saw running down the face of a woman whose last family member died and who was mourning because the lack of priests in her area made it impossible for her to have the luxury of attending a funeral of her only brother. I could tell you about the joy I saw in the Mexican children as they taught me Pato Pato Gonzo (duck duck goose), or about my wonderful team and team leaders I will serve with in Mexico sooner than I can believe. I could tell you all of the things I will be doing as a missionary, and all of the things I have been blessed with doing already. But, those things will have to wait. My purpose here today is to share with you some of my passion for Christ's mission in the foreign field.

There is a severe need for missionaries in our world today. Millions and millions of people go without - without food, without water, without proper clothing or housing, without education, resources, friendship, or support. There are more people than I can count who suffer every single day without ever receiving the help they deserve. These people are real people, and I promise you that the constant suffering they have is also real. I have seen it; it is absolutely present in our world and overwhelmingly heartbreaking at times. Poverty is a real evil that can only be rid from the world with intentionality - intentional relationships, intentional time spent serving those in need, intentional compassion, and intentional prayer. There are millions and millions of people who live their whole lives without knowing or without encountering the joy and the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This fact is as real as the air I breathe and as real as the computer or smart phone on which you read these words. Every human being deserves the opportunity to be presented with the truth about Christ. Missionaries are essential to providing others with that truth. I cannot wait to spend the next couple of years of my life trying to be a part of this. What an honor it has been, and what an honor it will be to dedicate the time I have in missions to preaching the Gospel and serving the poor. I know it will be a joy, and I know that it will be the biggest adventure of my life so far.

I ask that you would keep my in your prayers frequently! Pray for my team, my health, my ability to serve, and most importantly for the people in Mexico. There is real need in General Cepeda for missionaries, so please pray that these needs would be satisfied as my team and I try to discern how to best serve His people. Christ calls us all to adventure - to an adventure with him, to an adventure for him, and to an adventure leading to him in eternity. This adventure deserves to be shared, so I cannot wait to share it with you! May God bless you! In Christ and with Christ, your friendly neighborhood missionary, Rachel Speer "To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest achievement." -Saint Augustine of Hippo