I’m sorry for the lack of blogging recently. I’ve been somewhat frustrated with the World Race these past few months. I’m no stranger to the real world and thus I expected certain disagreements and frustrations to take place over the course of the year. In order to move on, I will very briefly list my biggest frustrations because they are a part of this journey that you have signed up to follow and leaving them out would be misleading. The sooner I can get these out the sooner I can focus on real blogging again.
Challenges:
1) The World race is not the great adventure it is marketed to be and much of the ministry has been boring. Now, short of jumping out of planes and riding motorcycles into remote hill tribe villages every day while dodging spears, poison darts, exploding arrows and gunfire, I would probably be bored to some degree anyway. However, this has been more like “spend a month of ministry watching paint or concrete dry” boring, which is a far cry from what the World Race does such a great job of advertising itself as. The upside is that it has caused me to focus less on what I see and more on what Jesus sees. I know Jesus is the core focus and purpose for all that we do. I just figured we would be doing more direct ministry. Mostly it’s just my attitude of being bored and frustrated. I can accept that. Nonetheless, it has been a challenge.
2) The dreaded BUDDY system. We are required to be with another racer at all times. Now, if we are in a rural village in Cambodia or the Red Light District of Bangkok or some slum in Africa, or in a street market at night, it makes perfect sense to always have a buddy. However, last month for instance while we were in Saigon, I could not go a block away and do my morning exercise alone in a huge community park in broad daylight with hundreds of people around; nor could I walk around the corner from the hostel to grab a bite to eat or cup of coffee without a “buddy”. In some circumstances, a buddy system makes sense. In others, it doesn’t. When an organization fails to identify the difference between different types of situations and instead follows a blanket-statement policy, it causes challenges and shows a lack of leadership, courage, trust, and flexibility. An organization which is unable to treat adults like adults during a year-long trip that is marketed directly towards adults is bound to face conflict from its people or to ultimately end up recruiting only the type of people who are okay with extremely limited freedoms and trust. So, I do understand that it is their job to ensure our safety and well-being; however, if they had told us about the buddy system before our Training Camp, I probably would have found another organization instead.
3) So. Much. Estrogen. Our team for the last 3 months consisted of 5 girls and 2 guys; and the other guy was married. I love and appreciate women very much and I know I have a lot to learn about living with women. With that said, I will keep this short: being on a team with a 70% female ratio was a massive challenge.
4) Quantity over quality. It seems to me that the World race has lost focus of what made it special in the first place and has diverted much of its time and attention to launching as many people onto the missions field as quickly as possible rather than concentrating on the basics. I won’t dig too deeply into that as I think it sounds pretty self-explanatory.
I don’t believe in proposing complaints without solutions. Hence, here are my hopes for the Race in the near and long-term future.
My Hopes:
1) The World Race will get back to its roots of providing an adventure that is not for the faint of heart, that reaches the most remote people, and sets itself apart as a missions trip unrivalled in sending young adults on great spiritual adventures for the Kingdom.
2) Come up with a reasonable buddy system and treat racers like adults. Risks are inherent. Show leadership trough good judgment, trust, and flexibility rather than applying blanket-policies which don’t make sense in all situations.
3) Bring more men onto the Race. How? See 1&2 above. Do it better.
4) Growth is great. But don’t ever lose focus on the basics and on your core values and beliefs as an organization. If you only launch 6 well-prepared squads instead of 10 or 12 mish-mash squads with unknown contacts at their locations, that’s a good thing. You cannot mass-produce good ministry.
There it is, my gripes and complaints. Keeping those in mind as my common struggles, I hope you will enjoy my new blog updates on Vietnam and Northern Ireland, which will be posted soon. I am still enjoying the race, I still want to be here, and I still look very much forward to seeing how God will continue to lead us, grow us, and mould us into his plans and image. However, as I said, this blog would be misleading if I said I did not face challenges with the Race itself. Hopefully some of those things will change for future Racers.
NOTE: I realize this is another “all about me” post. Take that for what it’s worth and realize that says ALOT about this post. Jesus has been less of a focus these last few months and that has definitely been the root of all my biggest struggles. Realizing that is more than half the battle on my end. I didn’t come here for a vacation and I think that like many other Racers, my head drifts into the wrong place when ministry seems boring.
THIS BLOG POST PROBABLY WARRANTS SOME SERIOUS QUESTIONS. PLEASE SEND YOUR COMMENTS AND I WILL ANSWER THEM.
