It’s month 10 of the World Race. Where has the time gone?! It’s already October, and back home my friends are busy watching their favorite football teams on TV and drinking Pumpkin Spice Lattes at Starbucks while I am sitting in a café in Kathmandu, Nepal, about to start planning M Squad’s upcoming travel day to India, and in a moment of reflection I cannot believe this is real life. I am in freaking Nepal!
This year has been full of so many experiences. I have gotten seriously sick several times this year, had to learn many hard lessons, and I have grown closer to God than I could ever imagine. That’s when it struck me: the World Race is so much more than just a mission trip. It’s an adventure and a life changing experience. I have grown close to my teammates, prayed and worshiped with them, shared many meals with them, slept in a tent for 4 months, washed my clothes by hand more times than I count, foregone showers numerous times and cycled through the same 3 or 4 outfits all year long.
The World Race isn’t a mission trip. It’s an experience that lasts for 11 months. You don’t just leave your home for a week or two, go to another country and get a temporary spiritual high. It’s an experience I can’t honestly begin to put in to words. Nor will I put it in to words because how can you confine your journey to just a few words? Words just can’t and won’t do my Word Race experience justice.
I had the honor and privilege of having my father come out and visit me for a week on the field at the beginning of September during Parent Vision Week. Perhaps he said it best when he said he thought he knew what the World Race was like because he, too, had been on mission trips before. But he said that it was an experience like nothing else he had ever experienced before. And he was only with us World Racers for 6 days!
But what I can tell you about the World Race is that it is about community, love, accountability, and encouraging and spurring one another on towards Christ. I have grown up in the church my entire life, and I have never been surrounded by so many genuine Christians. For the first time in my life I haven’t felt like I needed to act a certain way or say something just to fit in. I have been able to open up and expose the ugly and shameful side of myself – and I was received with love and grace by my fellow World Racers.
The point of this blog post is not to tell you all about my specific experiences this year. The point is that I want you to know that if you have ever considered doing something different in your life or if you want to grow closer to God you should seriously give the World Race a look. Yeah, 11 months and $15,500 sounds like a big commitment. But in the scheme of things, it’s really not. This has been the best decision I’ve made in my life aside from accepting Christ as my savior.
I’d like you to watch this video to see just a glimpse of what this year has been like for me and my squad. One of our squad leaders put this together at the end of month 8, and although it doesn’t fully capture my personal World Race experience, it will give you an idea of what the Race is like. I hope you enjoy it.
