Warning: I’m going to get super vulnerable here. This is kind of awkward since I know that my parents are going to be reading this, but this blog is about the reality of what God did in and through two of the people that I love most in this world – my parents.
After anxiously awaiting the day that I got to hug my parents for the first time in 8 months, we all finally arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand for a weeklong adventure of fun, prayer, ministry, love, healing, and growth.
Parent Vision Trip is aimed at promoting intergenerational bonds between parents and children while engaging in ministry in the local community. The World Race creates an atmosphere of vulnerability where we can share while looking back on life and process in a way that will draw us closer to Jesus, and I wanted to share this with my parents.
So, my parents got divorced when I was 16-years-old, and it was, hands-down, the single most impactful event that has happened in my life to this day. You know when that vision that you have of your life comes crashing down on you, well that’s what happened to me then. Although it was a horrible and painful experience to go through as a child, it completely shook my world and caused me to turn to the only One who could comfort me and bring me peace. It also caused me to take a genuine look at who my parents were and see them as actual human beings, with brokenness and sorrow, rather than place on them some unrealistic expectations of being “superheroes” with no flaws. This was a huge reality check for me. Let’s face it, I would never have chosen for my parents to get a divorce. But looking back on things, I know that the experience is part of my journey as it has led to more personal and spiritual growth, strength, and wisdom than I could have ever imagined. God really does work all things for good.
With this in mind, my parents were both super supportive and loving throughout the journey of the Race. Then came time to invite our parents to Parent Vision Trip. I never had a second thought in my mind about inviting both of them, and I knew that they were both going to do all they could to get themselves to Thailand. So, they both came. My parents both came to spend the week with me, all the way across the world, knowing the other one would be there, and there was not a second thought about it.
When they arrived in Thailand, I immediately felt right at home. Although you would think that having my parents join me on the race would feel strange and foreign, it actually felt oddly normal. I jumped right into sharing all the things that I’ve learned and experienced with them, and I could already tell that they were blown away — by the ways that I had experienced the Lord, the way the Spirit was so evident in the racers, by the way that we worshiped and shared with vulnerability, and especially by the special community that we had built together.
Although it was unspoken, we all agreed to put the past aside in order to focus on the reasons that God had us here together, in Thailand, for the week. And that, in itself, was beautiful. It allowed for God to work through our past, through brokenness and pain, in order to bring more healing to the present and more hope for the future.
Over the course of the trip, I got to worship with my parents in a way that we have never before. I got to pray with my parents in a way that we have never before. I got to serve with my parents in a way that we never have before by going out into the bars and into the slums to love on the women and children there. I got to see the Lord breaking my Mom and Dad’s hearts for the people of this world in a way that He has never done before. I got to play with tigers, elephants, and in waterfalls with my parents—something we had never done before. And I got to see God reveal himself to my Mom and my Dad in a way that I have never seen before.
I also got to ask some of the hardest questions that I’ve ever had to ask in my life and see the fruit that came with asking and saying the hard things.
“We will always be family, and this is the new normal for our family, and that is okay.”
“What is it going to be like at my wedding if there has not been healing and restoration between the two families?”
“Focusing on the future, how can we best work so there is more Jesus, more peace, and more freedom in our lives?”
And the answer that we found that week was to always turn to Jesus.
As my dad said on the last day of PVT, “This is a new beginning.” And I am trusting that God will remain faithful to His promise that He exchanges beauty for our ashes and makes all things new.
