My heart is bursting as I sit on a bus headed to month 11 between Budapest, Hungary and Lviv, Ukraine trying to process a year’s worth of experiences. In no way can it all be done today but, we are just a few short weeks away from coming off of the 11 months that consist of literally the longest string of adventure I can ever imagine. For 11 months, our life consisted of volcano boarding in Nicaragua, elephant rides in Thailand, and the craziest life-fearing bus experience of my entire life in Nepal on our way to jumping off the highest canyon swing in the world. At times cows walking down the middle of the road was a normal experience and it wasn’t abnormal to wait for them to move so the car could then drive past. We hopped from city to city, country to country and continent to continent.
In a matter of days I could go from wearing a punjabi in India riding down the street in a tuk tuk to being in Swaziland, Africa on a Safari after sitting in Wimpy’s (a local diner) trying to talk to connect with 30 other members of the squad present because it is the only place in town to get wifi, to taking a 20 hour train ride through the Serbia into Hungary and ultimately arriving at our contacts house outside Lviv, Ukraine and being overwhelmed with southern hospitality. It has been an amazingly beautiful experience while stretching me as an individual and allowing me to see some of the most stunning places. The sounds and sights get to fill every part of my memory but overall the culture I have been surrounded by in the world is what has stolen my heart.
Let me not forget or even try to give you a false impression that the world race was easy or a vacation. It was far from that! I could never go anywhere on my own which if you know me that in itself could drive me crazy. I have consumed more PB&J than any other time in my life and for five months I consumed rice almost every single day. I have worked with countless ministries and each one stretched me in a new way mainly because I did something at each that was outside of my comfort zone. I have slept on the floor with ants literally crawling over my body in a trail, gotten mosquito bites too outrageous to count, and experienced bugs I don’t even have a name for. I slept in a tent for months at a time waking up in a sweat, or covered in rain that had leaked in or having bugs hovering on the net to join me as soon as I opened the door. In no way can I EVER forget the bathroom experiences and how toilet paper was a hot commodity or that around the world, bathrooms are disgusting and not even cost money to use.
This is what our life was for the past year. Now we enter the new season of life people are calling “reality” and get to see what God has for us. We aren’t going to have adventure on a weekly basis; life is going to go by so much faster because America wants everything with a snap of its fingers. It isn’t going to be full of new tastes and smells around every corner. I am going back to my hometown and have seen it all (except the things that have been built during this past year).
It is really coming to an end. No matter how much I try to push the end date further and further away, it just continues to get closer and closer. Even as our teams get dropped off at ministry today and we said goodbye, it hit me how much this year has truly changed my life forever and it seems so strange to wrap my head around the idea of even leaving.
But, just like I knew it was time to come on this trip in the first place and didn’t have a clue of what to expect, it is once again time to face reality and really prepare to come home and for me that is processing with a lot of questions to review my past year and just reflect on this journey.
So, I write all of that to say that on the surface this looks like an un-relatable experience but, why are the questions I am asking myself and fellow racers after this year of my life any different for my community at home? Can’t we all process and reflect on some of these questions to see what God has taught us in the past 11 months? Yes, of course some are not relatable for people at home, but, I really think the majority of them are. I know that I am going to hold myself to a standard to ask myself these questions in the future -even years from now – because I feel like they have helped me so much already.
I really want to challenge the friends/ family / everyone to really ask the same questions world racers will be getting asked when we arrive home in about a month. I really want to hear about the last year of your life just as much as you want to hear about mine; I don’t want to miss out on the adventures you have had and the things God has taught you this year. If we process before arriving home we can talk more in depth instead of just surface level questions like “my year has been ‘good’” — how boring!
I can’t wait to talk, laugh and do life with each and every one of you. As I am sitting here writing this while driving through the farmland of Ukraine, it has just hit me that the race was just a starting point of a life-long deep relationship with the Lord. I don’t have it all together or know all the answers. I am not even sure what the next season holds. But, I do know that even better things are yet to come. The world race is not the greatest thing that God will do in my life; this is just the beginning. I know without a doubt that the next season of life will be just as beautiful or better than the last one.
ENJOY PROCESSING the questions below that I am starting to ask myself, these have been compiled from alumni racers and questions I am now sitting in myself. Click HERE for word document link
- What was the best part of your 11 months? Your personal high?
- What was the hardest part of your 11 months? Your personal low?
- What is one thing that surprised you over the past 11 months?
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- What are some of the major celebrations of living in a community/working in a team environment? What are challenges you faced being a team/community member?
- How can these things that you learned be incorporated into your daily community life at home? This could be work /school /family /friends /etc.
- What did you learn about communication? How do you think that you can incorporate good communication in the future to prevent challenges arising from something as simple as communication?
- What did you learn about yourself over the past 11 months? What have you been healed/ walked away from that is different from before these past 11 months?
- What was your favorite ministry?
- How do you view yourself now? How has your identity changed on past 11 months?
This can be important because the friends/family at home remember the old you and haven’t seen the new you in action yet just like we remember the old of others and haven’t seen the new. It is good to “know” yourself so you won’t be tempted to fall back into the old habits or personality traits but still be able to show your community at home who you are.
- What was your favorite adventure?
- How have you changed? (Spiritually, emotionally, and physically)
- What did you learn about God this year? What is something God showed you and you don’t want to forget? How does God view you?
- How was your race/ 11 months?
We all know that is a loaded question but the person asking is giving us full control to answer how we want. Really try to answer this question in a way that you will be satisfied. If you want to say your favorite story, say how God moved, ministry, country, literally whatever you choose just don’t be disappointed or get your panties in a wad because of the response or lack of interest the person who you are talking to gives. Remember that you get to tell them what you want and be satisfied with it.
- What was your favorite country?
- What is the toughest thing you saw?
- When you return what is one thing (or more) you will be glad to leave behind? What is the one thing (or more) that is difficult to leave behind or something you will miss?
- What was the weirdest food you ate?
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1. What did you learn about leadership this year? How will you incorporate that into your life at home?
2. If you had a leadership role what did you learn? If you didn’t, what did you learn about leadership that will help you lead?
- What is the most significant thing you personally experienced? Impactful moments
- What have you learned about your own spiritual gifting? How will this change the way you live and act in your home community and church?
- What dreams and passions has God opened up for you?
- What skill would you like to gain or grow in the next season of life?
- What was your favorite excursion?
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- What did your supporters do to show you that they are there for you on the field?
- How are you going to tell them thank you when arriving home?
- How do you plan on implementing this for the people you support in the future? Writing a letter? A blog comment? Financially? Monthly email?
- Do you have accountability partners or an action plan to incorporate what you have learned over the past 11 months in your daily life?
Don’t think so much that you become the director of the plan but letting God lead… this question is more so that you have a plan for an accountability system and to NOT get away from what God has for you. It is easy to go back into the world’s desires and standards. How can this be avoided?
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What do you need most from your team/squad and family (separately) as we make the transition back home?
Please BE REALISTIC, this could hurt your feelings if high expectations are set and ultimately alter friendships
- Do you need more from AIM, squad mentors or squad parents to receive closure from these past 11 months? Feedback
- 1. Are there things that you need to go back through and process? These questions will hopefully help with that but maybe there is another topic that wasn’t touched on. What about people on the squad or people at home that you need to forgive? Have you had any past hurts/ pain/ feelings of forgotten ness/ gossip/ lying/ literally anything? Do conversations need to happen with your brother and sisters on the team/ squad prior to going home? Do you need to simply say I am sorry?.Overall what are you still holding onto? Remember back to in month 6 Nepal when Jay (our squad parent)gave us a talk and asked, “What have you not baptized to Christ?” He held his hands above his head and used the example of someone holding a sword above the water. What are you still holding onto and not surrendering to him?
2. Overall what are you still holding onto? Back in month 6 our squad parent gave us a talk and asked, “What have you not baptized to Christ?” He held his hands above his head and used the example of someone holding a sword above the water. What are you still holding onto and not surrendering to him?
28. What do you desire your life to look like? What is your week, month, 3 month, etc goals?
29. What are you doing with your life now?
