I know that so much of the World Race is learning along the way, but if you are a future or newbie racer and want to make things a little easier on yourself (and your teammates) here is my advice (some of these won’t make sense until you’ve been to training camp or launch):
Feedback – is the real deal. It’s important to get over the fear of people not liking you – I wish it hadn’t taken me so long. If I had told my teammates the character flaws I saw in them from the start it would have made things easier for them, it would have helped our relationship, and it would have ushered the kingdom of God in sooner. Feedback should be given often, for we are all far from perfect, amen?
Equally as important as giving feedback is accepting it humbly – even if people are wrong about you. I’ve had teammates feedback me about things that were not true – misconceptions and such. Instead of defending myself I had to swallow my pride, say “thank you,” and remind myself that God knows my heart and that’s all that matters. I think one of the best ways to accept feedback is to ask for it – to once a month ask your teammates for ways you could improve and grow and whatnot.
I recommend giving feedback during your daily feedback meeting, as opposed to one-on-one. My team did one-on-one feedback for a while (we thought it wasn’t necessary to bring things up in front of the whole group if it didn’t concern them.) But it always concerns the whole group when you’re living in such close community. Really, it does. When we began feedbacking one another in front of each other our team became a much, much safer place.
Note: when people aren’t feedbacking each other, it’s a pretty sure sign that the mood on your team will be tense. Because everyone knows what’s going on but no one is talking about it (or even worse, certain people are talking about it with each other – aka gossiping/defiling.)
Also, I believe that meeting every night for feedback is significant. At first many of my squadmates and I had issues with this – we would complain that we were adults, so why do we have to be forced to have a meeting every single night? We aren’t wired to work that way, we would say. My squad had teams that stopped meeting or would only meet a few times a week, but I as the race continued I found it extremely beneficial to end the day as a team – it helped us bond together in a deeper way. It’s a sacrifice – so much of the time we were tired or just wanted alone time, but choosing to have a good attitude about it made our team greater than if we didn’t do it or complained about it.
Morning prayer – is vital. This was a hard one for us to grasp. People (myself included) were tired and grumpy in the morning, and again, why were we being forced to pray? But once we were all broken or humbled or whatever, we started buying into morning prayer and it became such a beautiful time on our team. Often we would sing songs a capella (our main one being “When I Think About the Lord,” by Shane and Shane or whoever really wrote it). Morning prayer doesn’t have to be boring and monotonous, you can spice it up and cater to your team dynamics.
If you don’t like someone on your team – push through it. It may seem impossible to get along with them at the time, but I believe that God can redeem any relationship if you allow him to. The thing is, you have to try. You have to put yourself out there – you have to pursue the person even if they don’t pursue you, even if they are the complete opposite of you. Don’t accept that you just won’t get along – there are far greater things in store for you two. They have Jesus Christ in them, so how can you not find something in them to love? Trust me, it’s hard, but it’s so, so worth it in the end. Some of the teammates that I didn’t get along with at first became my closest, most dear friends. It didn’t happen naturally – we had to fight for it and I’m so glad we did. Take note: when someone doesn’t like another person on the team it holds the entire team back from reaching deeper intimacy and community (and therefore holds back the kingdom of God.)
If you have a bff on your team – make sure not to cling to him/her. Get to know and love your other teammates. I had a bff on my team, and we often made our other teammates feel left out. Not cool. After being feedbacked enough times we eventually learned how to find the balance between maintaining our close friendship and loving our other teammates.
If you have a crush on a boy (or girl) on your team – be very careful. Even though your first instinct might be to run to him or her when something happy or sad happens – don’t. If you want to sit next to him/her on a long, overnight bus ride – don’t. If you want to stay up late having deep conversations about life – don’t. If you want to take an afternoon walk down the coast of the Indian Ocean together – don’t. If you indulge in such desires your focus will be taken off Jesus Christ and consequently your purpose for being on the race will be lost. Grab a teammate of the same sex and hang out with them instead. It will save you so much heartache. Trust me. If you are meant to be together, or whatever, don’t “awaken love until it so desires” (aka until the END OF THE RACE…like they tell you.) There is a couple that came out of my squad (they were on the same team), and they did it right and waited until the end. None of us could even fully predict their relationship because they played by the rules, and didn’t spend tons of time alone together or anything. Now they have a beautiful relationship.
Girls: be cautious in your one-on-one friendships with the guys on your squad. They will show you love in many ways – by listening to you, encouraging you, surprising you, sacrificing for you, supporting you, defending you, spending alone time with you – but this doesn’t mean they have a romantic interest in you. I can easily list half a dozen girls from my squad who were under the impression that certain guys liked them and wanted to pursue them after the race. The guys usually had no idea – they thought they were just friends. When the girls realized the guys had no real interest their hearts were a bit broken.
Guys: be cautious in the way you interact with girls. You may think you are merely being a brother to us, but often times lines can be blurred and we can view it as something more. Be careful not to flirt with us and to not cross emotional boundaries – to you it may be fine, but like I said, it can often mean something else to us.
If you aren’t leader – and this bothers you, don’t let it. I spent the first half of my race feeling insignificant and worthless because I wasn’t given a leadership position. Finally I grasped the idea that even though I wasn’t a leader in AIM’s eyes, I was a leader in God’s eyes (sounds cheesy, I know. But it’s true!) The race became so much more enjoyable for me at this time – I was sure of who I was in Christ. And you know what? Then I was made team leader. Not saying this will happen for you, but still.
If you are leader – don’t strive to lead, only strive to follow after God and everything will fall into place after that. It may not happen right away and things may be really messy on your team, but I believe that as leaders (or as anyone, really) the only thing we are in charge of is making sure we follow Jesus Christ – the perfect leader. We are only accountable for our own actions – we can’t control our teammates. Don’t try to change anyone but yourself. Very important: don’t allow yourself to be frustrated with your team. Always believe in their potential, even if they show no sign of change.
Dive into ministry – no matter what. There were so many times on my race when I wondered what the point of the ministry even was and doubted that my efforts would result in anything effective. So I would make a half-hearted attempt in order to make it through the month. Don’t do this. The best months on the race were when I gave my all in ministry – despite how useless it seemed at the time. Wear yourself out each day and you will have a great month.
Don’t blame AIM/the World Race – or anyone particular person for things that go wrong or that you don’t like. Let me assure you of this: things will go wrong (often) and there will be many aspects of the World Race that you will not like. They tried to prepare us for this at training camp – leave your expectations behind, they told us. Hah. We didn’t. We were upset when our ministries and countries fell through and when miscommunication happened and when the World Race “made us worse versions of ourselves.” We are only accountable for our own actions – no one or no thing can make us a worse person – only we have that kind of power in our lives. People in the AIM office will mess up, but I believe fully that they and everyone else on staff have our best interest at hand. They want us to have the best World Race experience possible.
Believe the best about your teammates – this is advice Michael Hindes gave our squad at our halfway debrief, when we all were so sick of each other. He told us to put 10s over everyone’s head each morning – though at the time we thought he said “tents.” After much confusion, we discovered what he meant is to give each person the benefit of the doubt, no matter how many times they let you down or disappoint or betray you the day before. It’s beautiful wisdom, which means, of course, that it’s really hard to carry out. My team took his words to heart, and we would call each other out when we weren’t believing the best about each other. When I was team leader one of my teammates pulled me aside and told me she didn’t think I was believing the best about our team, that I wasn’t putting 10s over everyone’s head. She was right, and when I realized it I was able to change, and our team became a much better place. Feedback, people. If she hasn’t talked to me things would have only gotten worse.
Don’t complain – it will be hot, the bugs will bite, you will be hungry. Things will go wrong. Talking about it won’t make a difference – it will only allow you to focus on the negative. Train your mind to think about whatever is true, noble, right, lovely, pure, etcetera etcetera.
Internet/computer – don’t let this become a coping mechanism when you are having a difficult time (or any other time, for that matter.) It’s fun and fine to Skype and email home, to watch movies and to sort photos, but it can easily become a waste of time. My squad had a two-week internet fast (which caused much chaos to break out), but at the end of it most people agreed it was worth it. Many relationships were deepened during that time. We read more. We explored more. Sometimes when you haven’t communicated with home in a while it can feel like you are forgotten and the world has ended. It hasn’t. Home will come soon enough (even though it may feel like years away), so be sure to make the most of every opportunity on the race, because when it’s over. It’s over. Home will always be there.
Share – what goes around comes around. You will borrow all of your teammate’s stuff and they will borrow all of yours. They will eat off your plate. You will sleep on top of them. If you are used to having your own material possessions and personal space…try to let that go. Soon.
Money – I suggest trying to live off the World Race food budget. It’s hard, especially when other people are buying Cokes and Big Macs, but I believe the sacrifice is part of the whole World Race experience…hence why they keep our budget at $1.25 per meal. They could easily raise the budget and have us bring in a little more financial support, but they choose not to. The World Race is a great time to break ourselves of our American mentality, that we deserve whatever we want whenever we want it (especially when we’re hungry.) It’s nice to treat yourself every once in a while – and when you do your food tastes so much better and you savor it so much longer.
Bring clothes – that are comfortable, but also represent you. You don’t really need North Face pants or special camping clothing. Whatever clothes you bring will eventually get ruined – from being worn/hand-washed so much and from drying in the sun too many times, among other reasons. Note: Chacos aren’t for everyone.
Alone time – is extremely hard to come by (the whole don’t-go-anywhere-alone rule kind of ruins the possibility), but try to carve out time for yourself more frequently than not. I’m not necessarily talking about spending time with God (always do that), I’m talking about taking time to sit and be alone, to reflect, to listen to music, to read, to have no agenda. I’m an extrovert, so I naturally adore being around people. But toward the end of the race I really suffered because I hadn’t taken enough time for myself – I pretty much hid in my room for all of final debrief. I don’t recommend it. On the other hand, if you are naturally introverted, this is the perfect time and place to push yourself out of your comfort zone.
Write things down – blogging is great, but be sure to write down memories and certain feelings that you carry with each day, or at least every few days. I believe this is a good idea because a) it will be there for you to remember forever and b) you can see more clearly the way God is moving in your life. Maybe you can do this during your alone time…
If you think you won’t get burnt during a day off at the beach in Africa – think again. If you think the burn won’t hurt badly, think again. WEAR SUNSCREEN ALWAYS. Reapply often and much!
…so basically, everything they teach you at training camp and launch is TRUE. I just happened to learn many things the hard way (which consequently led to much grieving.) Every World Race experience differs to an extent – this is my advice from my journey. Hopefully it will be of some use to you…if not, at least it was good for me to write down and reflect upon 🙂
