Only on the World Race…
Do you go into a convenience store in South Africa only to spray yourself with the tester perfume, walk out, and get back on your 35 hour bus ride
Do you eat every meal as if it might be your last
Will you tell everyone to get all their farts out in the Pick and Pay before getting back on the bus
Do most of your phone calls begin with “can you hear me, I am only getting every other word” and end abruptly when the internet goes out
Do you take baths and wash your clothes in the same creek
Do you realize that you are running out of drinking water and your filter you need to purify more is broken
Do men pay to dance with you at a wedding in The Philippines
Do you ballroom dance with a man who speaks no English, at a park in China
Do you sing praises of joy while pooping excessively and your team cheers outside the bathroom door
Do you learn to survive by headlamp, because the electric is often out
Do people ask to take pictures with you because you’re white
Do you sleep on the aisle floor of a 20 hour Chinese train ride
Do you seize every opportunity to eat, even when you have no clue what it is
Do you live off of less than 3 USD per day for food
Do you sit with your legs in the air on travel days to avoid “elephant feet”
Do you receive tons of compliments on how nice you look for changing your shirt or brushing your hair
Do you put all of your broken electronics in the middle of the circle and start praying for them to be resurrected
Do you not go ANYWHERE without your water bottle – the bathroom, the grocery store, the next room… etc
Do you long for people at restaurants to give you their scraps instead of throwing them in the trash
Do you (as a vegetarian) accidentally eat meat three times in one week
Do you brush your teeth and have Bible study under a mango tree
Do you watch children play softball with limes
Do you learn how to make Mexican flour tortillas… in China
Is peanut butter a delicacy
Do you choose to forgo showering, because it is 105 degrees and you know you will be dripping sweat again in five minutes
Do all of your friends get weaves put in their hair for the Christmas Card Photo
Do your prayers start to become a lot more desperate
Do you take the extra sugar packets from the tables at restaurants and store them in your backpack for your oatmeal or coffee later
Do you know people who have malaria and go to bed scared that you will get it the next time you get bit.
Do your outfits look like something that should be on “what not to wear” on a daily basis
Do you make up your own terminology that only your teammates understand
Do you talk really slow, loud, and simplified because you’re so used to people not speaking English
Do you sleep in over 30 locations and ride more than 25 different forms of transportation in less than 4 months.
Are you served fish and chips for Thanksgiving and chicken and chips for Christmas
Do you go up to a vender selling ramen in China and bawk and flap your arms like a chicken to ask if the ramen is chicken flavored
Does your entire perspective on money and how you spend it change
Does you entire life (including housing, a bed, clothes, and meds) all fit on your back.
Does feedback, honor and preference become a part of your daily life
Do you find the prophetic meaning in everything
Do you learn to live, challenge and grow with people like you would never believe
Do you constantly ask yourself “Is this really my life?”
Does God somehow make raising $15,000 easy
Do you spend Halloween in China, Thanksgiving in South Africa, and Christmas in Mozambique
Do you leave your family, home, job, and grad school simply because God told you to
Do you take the liberty to walk in the middle of the road everywhere you go
Do you walk for an hour to get chocolate, diet coke, and more hair for your weave
Do you find a way to live in harmony with three other women in a concrete room about the size of your bathroom at home with all of their belongings plus 4 mosquito nets hanging from the ceiling and questionable electricity
Does facebook become a lot less interesting
Do you wear the equivalent of one or two weeks’ worth of clothes in the States for 11 months straight
Do you become so much more aware of the favor of God because you have a lot less of an opportunity to “find” your own favor
Does your definition of “missionary” completely change
Do you realize that YOU are who God wants to use to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to earth
Do you hunger and thirst for God like never before
