For months people have been asking me this question: “So what exactly will you DO on the World Race?”
Good question. You would think now that I am ON the race, I would be able to answer this a bit more accurately. But the truth is, now it is all even more uncertain than ever. There is a lot of "Jump in the truck! We are going to go help out or serve somewhere!" with no clue exactly where or what it will look like.
POSSIBLE things we could be doing:
-construction and painting in schools, homes, and churches in need
-teaching English in impoverished schools and community centers
-community feedings of malnourished children, and working in orphanages
-volunteering with various tasks in maintenance of homeless shelters
-visiting hospitals in need of prayer or hands-on taskwork
-working with organizations that help reduce human trafficking
-preaching/sharing testimonies/leading worship in local churches
-working with organizations that intervene for street children
-assisting local farmers in agriculture
We partner with many, many organizations that have tangible goals and simply need manpower. Just a very few examples would be Remember Nhu, The Well, SHE, ChildVoice International, Children’s HopeChest, Red Letters Campaign, Habitat for Humanity, and many others.
To say that there is one specific, worldly goal “accomplished” in any given country is not the goal or the focus. We provide hands-on labor where it is needed, we hold and hug orphans that have been abandoned, we help bathe and feed street children, we visit the old and dying who have been forgotten, we meet educational needs whenever we can….but most of all, we aim to develop relationships with the people we meet and the opportunities we have.
I did not come on the World Race to dig wells, build schools, cook massive amounts of food, preach, teach English, or do anything else of the sort. I came on the World Race to show love and kindness to the people I meet….people who may be desperately needing to know they matter. All of those things are simply a part of the way I hope to communicate that love, and to pour myself out in any way I can to serve them.
That being said, I am trying to drop my own expectations of what my work on this trip will look like in the next year, and I ask my supporters to try and do the same. I am not good at sitting around for long, and the reality is that some times we will have long days of doing very little while we wait for our outreach to begin in the evening. Because there will be some places that we can’t go anywhere without our hosts due to safety, we can sometimes spend a good deal of time sitting around at the mercy of the laws of safety and culture, anxiously watching the clock to get out the door and serve and show love.
It is in these moments that I try to remind myself that this trip is not about me: it is perfectly planned and laid out by God, and He will carefully orchestrate each relationship, each interaction, each form of service…and that feeling good about myself or anything I could accomplish is not the point at all. I gave up the rights to be self-focused when I came on this trip, and I praise God that this all is in His hands.
