i just wanted to let you all know that since i am no longer on the world race, and will now be part of aim staff i now have a new blog site. i will no longer be posting on this site. i don't have much up yet, but don't worry it's on the list of things to do :)

so check out my new site for future updates. (it's just like this one, only on a different web address.) make sure that you go up to update alerts on the new site so that you know when i post something new.

http://caseywells.myadventures.org

thanks ~ blessings ~ love

casey

when i was 10 years old i made the decision to get water baptized. it wasn't something that anyone told me i needed to do or asked if i wanted to, i just knew that i wanted to let the world know that i was giving my life over to christ. so early on a sunday morning i waited for my turn to be baptized infornt of my church. i don't remember a whole lot from that morning. there wasn't anything super 'spiritual' or crazy that happened as i was dunked in the water wearing a white robe. but there was something that happened that changed my life forever...

the man that was baptized before me was a refugee from africa. he had fleed from his home land to the united states, because he was going to be killed for his faith in jesus christ. he had come to the states looking for freedom. this man had a wife and children still in africa, he had no idea if they were dead or alive. he had decided to get baptized because he was going to find out if he had received his greencard the following week or two. he would either be allowed to stay in the united states and bring his family over, or would be forced to return home to be murdered. either way he was going to praise jesus name.

it was this man who changed my life forever. i do not know what happened to him. but from that moment i fell in love with africa. i wanted to go. i wanted to spread the name of jesus in africa. to be the hands and feet of jesus in africa.

i now have the opportunity to go to africa. to live in this place that stole my heart so long ago. i am not afraid of: the people, war, aids/hiv, being mugged or threatened, of dirt and disease, or anything else that comes along with living as a minority in a third would country...  my biggest fear is that i will not have the funds to go and live in a place that has stolen my heart. it sounds so silly, but it rips my heart in two. i've seen god provide so many times and yet this fear still grips it's tallens deep inside.

lord ~ i am willing... send me... provide for your daughter to go... let me be the hands and feet that change a generation.. that bring a hope and a light amid the darkness.

so i've been sitting here the last two days reading everyone's blogs... quite a chore i must say...

god has been speaking to me some of the same things that he's been talking to the racers about - the whole concept of being rather than doing. he's been speaking to me about this for quite awhile now, so i've had time to impliment it and really let it soak in...

so now the tables have turned once again... i am set back into the reality of the world. i have decisions i must make. i must go back out and find a job (what do i want to do for the next few months?). i really do need to make a decision on what i am going to do in swaziland (am i going to help with the new training base aim is starting to buid or am i going to lead the june world racers?) ~ it's come to the point where not having a specific answer just will not work anymore.

i sat down with one of my pastors yesterday and was challenged with some tough questions: what is the long term affect/goal of these ministries (for the people they are reaching as well as for those involved), what are your long term goals, where do you want to be in 5 years, 10 years, how is what you choose to do now going to affect what you want to do in the future, how is it going to help you reach your future goals, what is it that you are wanting from us as a church to do...

the reality is, i don't know. i've been seeking god for so long about what i am supposed to do, and along with that who he wants me to be...

so please pray with me and for me that i would begin to find the answers i've been looking for... that god would show me really clearly exactly where he wants me to ' be'.

i had the awesome opportunity of spending the month of january in mexico with the january 2007 world racers! what a mind blowing trip!   having only been home for a month and then to pack back up and leave once again... a month seemed like it would take forever! but it sadly came to an end all to quickly!   if you've been following the racers blogs than you have a bit of an understanding of what a great trip it was....  

i will admit it.... when i first heard that there was going to be 50 racers for the january trip i thought seth was nuts! i mean there are still so many little things that need to be worked out. my trip might have been the first to go, but that doesn't mean that this group isn't going to be pioneering! even when i first started to meet the group i was still a little worried...    but i must say, they totally got rid of every hinderence i might have once had. they are an awesome group of people who are totally prepared to go out on this great adventure with christ! i know that they will change people's lives for the better, and that they will be better people for it.

saying goodbye was to difficult to even attempt...  so i just settled for 'see you later' - i will be seeing the teams in swaziland in june, and it can't come fast enough!       reading the blogs just isn't enough, i can't wait to sit down with cups of good coffee and chat once again.... but until then....   thank you!...

for letting me join you...

for letting me be myself...

for helping me find my passions once again...

and for oh so much more!    i love you!

when was the last time you were on your knees in prayer?

when was the last time you spent more time during a church service in prayer than listening to a sermon?

this is the life of the church here in southern mexico!    

so even before i left the states,  i was asking god   why do you want me in mexico?    what do you want me to do while i am with the jan 07 world racers?    what is it that you want to do in my life?

but i have realized this week that those questions aren´t really as important as we make them out to be.    you see it´s not about what i do or don´t do while i am here.   sure the experiences i´ve had help me to be able to share with the group, but it´s not even about my experiences.   it´s about how those experiences have changed me, made me more into the person god has created me to be.   you see i have been a blessing not because of the things i have done or taught while here in mexic, i have been a blessing because i have been myself.   

i learned a lot just `sitting at the feet´of andrew, gary, seth, and bob the last few days.  as i served them, prayed with them, talked with them and listened to them.   it´s not about doing,  it´s about being.  it´s not about dying everyday,  it´s about living everyday.   

the best gift i can give to anyone is to just be myself. to be the fullness of who god has created me to be. it sounds so easy,  yet i have lived most of my life trying to be someone that i am not,  trying to fit into the mold of the people around me.  but the truth is that a part of me is dying inside when i am not allowing myself to do all the things that i normally want to do.  i am ok with the fact that i will never be like everyone else,  and to be honest i am happy about that.   

so here and now i start living life to the fullest....  i am going to be myself everyday,  in every way,  no matter who else is around or what the circumstances might be.   i am no longer going to hide what christ has placed inside of me....   i am no longer to deprived the world of the gifts he has placed in my life....   i am no longer going to deprive myself of being free to be me

well after one more red eye flight i made it from seattle down to mexico. to be honest i wasn´t really sure how it would all turn out. i don´t think that any of the world racers knew i was coming, i was often asked the question - so what team are you on a or b?  and with a big smile i would just say - well actually i am an 06er  : )

it has been such a joy and priveledge to get to know all of the racers! they are amazing people so excited to go out and serve the lord. sharing stories of last year and answering questions about what is to come has been a lot of fun. the amount of training that they are getting is amazing. i would sit there and think, wow that would have been awesome to know, or i´m glad they don´t have to learn that the hard way. after the practicle stuff last week and the ministry / god stuff this week i know that they will be fully competent to ´finish the race´.

to close i just wanted to share a couple of quick words from the sermon that the local pastor preached our first day in mexico      - - - - - -          he spoke from joshua 1:8-9    - ´god doesn´t fail us, we fail him´ .......... ´the devil doens´t sleep, he waits for an opportunity - don´t give him one´.........       ´try to do a little bit more for the lord´                                       that is going to be one of the challenges that i set before myself this year, to not give the enemy any opportunities, and to always be trying to do a little bit more for the lord. it seems like such a simple little thing and yet there are so many times i fail to acknowledge that it is the enemy who is attacking me and only give to the lord , failing to give him my best.                   what are the challenges that you are going to set before yourself this new year when it comes to your relationship with the lord?

well i've been home for a month... enjoying being home and being close to family and friends... it's been a blast!    i've been working full time for See's Candy (i have so much fun working with all the gals there! it's one of those places you always look forward to going. it's like being a kid in a candy store, oh wait - i am a kid in a candy store!).  i also spent sometime volunteering for Ronald McDonald House Holiday Cruise - we take care of all the wonder and majic as the families get to be together for Christmas Eve, it is always such a joy to bless someone else in absolute ubundance as we celebrate Christ's birth.

tomorrow i start the adventure all over again...  i will take three different flights over night to go and join the world race 07 for their training in mexico. i am really looking forward to being around the new group of racers. i've seen their passion for the lost, their desire to love each other, and a glimpse of how much fun they are going to have while reading some of their blogs. i can't wait to see and hear how god is going to use them on this amazing adventure that they are going to have with him.

so please pray for me as i join the world race 07 for the next month. pray that they get all the training that they need, that god will speak through the men and women who will be doing the training, finances, travel, safety, and that we have a lot of fun as we get to know each other and share the love of christ to everyone around us!

love and blessings,

casey

The Race is over! We’ve completed everything that we were sent to do and now we are all back home, back in the “Real World.”

It has taken me a long time to write my last blog, because well, what can I really say?

So I thought I would share with all of you the thing that changed and affected me the most this last year. . . .

I could tell you how the kids at the orphanage challenged how dedicated my own faith is, or how sleeping on the streets made me think of how I have viewed the homeless in the past, or how seeing the mountains and the sunsets all over the world made me realize again how incredibly big God is …. But …. the one thing that changed my life the most is none of the things that we saw or even really the places that we went, it was the people I was living with. You see, because I had been on the mission field before, I had been to many of the places and seen many things before. I’d even been to some of the same countries before, so I had already experienced the impact that happens to everyone the first time around, and God had a more personal experience for me this time.

This time… well… it wasn’t really about changing everyone and everything else… this time God wanted to change me. This time wasn’t about living and working with other people it was about loving them and being loved by them.

God used this year to sometimes gently, and sometimes not so gently come to the realization that loving other people wasn’t just about them, but that it brought great healing and happiness to my own life. Just because others didn’t understand me at first, they didn’t stop trying to get to know me and to love me. They challenged different areas of my life not necessarily by what they said, but by the way that they lived their own lives. I saw different things in their lives, different aspects of their character that I wanted in my own life. I began wanting to spend more time with them as they did different things because I wanted the beauty I saw inside of them to rub off on me. They let me be myself and yet have the freedom to change and grow. There was always someone there to encourage me, make me laugh; help me get through the rough patches when I just wanted to cry, and to give me the best hug ever!

You see I am a better person, more of the woman God created me to be not because of anything that I did or the places I went to. I am a better person because of the ones who loved me …. Anna-Marie, Anita, Ashley, Cathy, Chad, Clara, Dude, Estee, Gary, Jacques, Jessica Friske, Jessica Sisson, Katherine, Kim Kinsley, Kimmy Lynch, Lana, Laura, Liesl, Lloyd, Paul, Sarah Cruz, Sarah Rinn, Stefan, and Tauna.

Thank you!

Love always,

Casey