To Anyone Thinking About the Race:
Okay. I’m a mind-reader. Let me guess what you are thinking.
You are thinking about doing the Race, right? There is something in you that you can tell you are called to more. You have a hunger that can’t quite be satiated by what the world says should fill you. You are tired of the 9-5 job that isn’t fulfilling.
So, you want to do a 11 month mission trip?
You want to travel to 11 different countries and do missions and possibly even grow closer to God?
Well, beware–this catchy #11n11 #worldrace is not a mission trip.
It’s a discipleship program.
This is literally the best description of the World Race I have heard thanks to Dani, our SCM (squad content manager).
If you go into the Race with this expectation, it will be a lot easier for you.
You DO get to do missions, but it is SO much more about you being transformed into who God truly calls you to be so you can live like Jesus whether you are called to be a full-time missionary or not.
What does being in this discipleship program look like?
-You are stripped of what is comfortable. You may get a bed or you may get your sleeping pad. You may get air conditioning or you may not get anything in 90 degrees except a fan. You may get the food you like or you may get rice three times a day for the month. You may get Wi-Fi or you may not get it at all for the whole month (so no Facebook, email, Twitter, Snapchat, Insta, family or friends from back home). You may have a western toliet or a squatty potty.
-You live in constant community. You live on a team of 6-8 others and then a squad (mine is 50). It is a lot of people. But you MAY get space from each other, but you probably won’t. Sometimes the building each other up/the iron sharpening iron feels like a nails on chalk board.
-There is a lot of free time. You may have a lot of ministry to fill that time or you may not. That means, the things you have tried to stuff down deep inside and the things you have tried to hide from yourself and God and others WILL most likely come up. And then you have to face it.
-Your ministry may or may not be what you would call glamorous. It may be loving on kiddos in an orphanage or talking to women in dance bars OR it may be chopping vegetables and trimming shrubs at a AID’s clinic.
So then why do it?
-You are stripped of what is comfortable. BUT, when you are uncomfortable, you have two choices. To press into the Father where there is a lot of growth or go to your old habits (if that is an option, even).
-You live in constant community. You are constantly living with people who see you at your best and at your very worst. They can encourage and uplift you in the strengths you knew about and the strengths you didn’t even know were there. They show you areas that you need to work on–areas that when you take it back to the Father, will make you more like Him.
-There is a lot of free time. This forces you to be even more in community and it forces you to work on things you ran away from in the US–on the Race you can’t run from it and now you have a team that, if you allow them in, can help you walk through the good, the bad, and the ugly. You have a family.
If you are craving for more, you aren’t going to get it from an 11 month mission trip. As much as it is nice to see other countries and to serve others, that won’t last when you get back to the US.
If you want change by doing the Race, you have to want and choose to change. You have to allow God to conform you to His image and who He is calling you to be. A more fulfilling life comes from a deeply intimate relationship with God–not crazy adventures. And I’ll be honest, you can do the 11 months and go back home not changed. But it is up to you. You have to chose what you want to get from it and if you want to press in or not.
The World Race is challenging. It honestly sucks sometimes. But if you are willing to walk through fire and be refined, it will be worth it despite the hardships.
