Seeing as The Hunger Games consumed my life last year and The World Race will consume my life this year, I thought I’d make a comparison. This may sound strange to some. You may be thinking, “How are there similarities?” Well allow me to shed some light on that topic.
Clearly we are not being forced to kill each other for our survival, but we have been prepared to bring the death of the flesh so many can be reborn in the spirit of Christ.
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Matthew 10:39
In the last year God has been having a reaping of His own. He’s pulled the names of 63 men and women between the ages of 21 and 35. He was looking for servants who were ready to break their chains of bondage, receive the Holy Spirit, and showed the willingness to go out into the nations and do His work. Some of these tributes have been career Christians, some have only been walking with Jesus a few years, and some were just now finally ready to truly let Jesus into their heart. Us tribute know who we are and have accepted God’s challenge. Meet the ones who will walk along side us, guiding us through this journey.
Meet our Effie Trinket, Haymitch Abernathy and Cinna. KK may not have the pink hair, but she certainly has the spunk and excitement of Effie. The only similarity between Seth and Haymitch is their wisdom and straightforwardness. As for Carly and Cinna, let’s just say Carly lives out radically whereas Cinna showed his in his designs. We are so blessed to have these amazing mentors.
Just as the tributes arrived to the Capitol, so did the Racers arrive to Taccoa Falls College. Wait, no that’s not right, we rode in an overloaded school bus and were fed Pop Tarts, Twizzlers, and chips. We certainly had more fun on the bus than Peeta and Katniss had on the train. Thanks to Cinna’s team of Brittany and Travis, we were all wearing orange tie-dye T-shirts. Others handed out accessories such as Hawaiian leis, bandanas, and rubber bracelets. After filing through registration showing off our orange spirit for L squad, we set up our tents and went to worship.
The rest of the week would have made for a very entertaining reality show, but for the sake of future racers we don’t want to reveal any of the significant moments. I will share that although we were not out hunting our own food we were definitely exposed to food we aren’t used to eating. Many of us felt like Seam kids having less than usual to eat. We were also exposed to crazy sleeping situation, nothing like strapped in a tree, but just as uncomfortable. With all these new situations it can be stressful, but like Katniss and Rue we leaned on each other for support. Like Katniss and Rue we all felt very much like family within days of meeting each other. We carried each other, we cried with each other, we laughed a lot with each other, and now we can’t wait to see each other again at launch.
There is not one winner when it comes to God. He has amended the rules and will allow all those willing to accept Jesus into their life and receive the salvation they crave. In the end, just as in The Hunger Games, the spark took life and fires are burning in the hearts of many. The fire is catching.
