Well then, that was uncomfortable. You know that time where
you sit and think, “Man, that wasn’t what I thought it would be.� That’s kind
of the place we have to go on the Race, that place where who you were meets who
you are. That place where you have to realize that you are not that person who
you define yourself to be. That’s the Race. Real, Raw, Authentic Community.
Open communication beyond the walls of comfort and fear.
We just shared our stories, laid it out, opened up, take me
as I am because this is me, kind of stories. Those stories that you long to
tell, those stories that you long for someone to trust you enough to share …
But those stories that you’ve pushed down for years. Thos stories that we bury
for fear of how we will be received. Those stories that tear us up to relive,
but that we have to address to walk in the freedom that Christ has called us to
walk in. That kind of story time is real. That kind of story time is not the
fairy tale, not the scripted fluent tale of our lives, but rather it’s a mess.
A hot mess. It’s not “I’m fine� … It’s not “Golden� (inside joke) … It’s “this
is all the broken parts of me, the parts of me that need to be redeemed, the
parts of me that Christ has covered in His blood, the parts of me that define
who I was and my need to become someone who I have never been.�
That’s what it looks like to tell your story. That’s what it
looks like to take six individuals with their own stories and bring them
together as a family, a beautiful, messy, life bringing family. Yep, that’s
what our stories do. That’s what the Race does. It’s changing our lives so we
can effect change in the lives of others.
What is your story? What is your
messy, broken, shattered compilation of life that has made you who you are?
What is that part of your life that you think you have to hide? What is that
part of your life that you don’t understand? What is that part of your life
that yearns to be told? What is the
story of your life?
So, on a lighter note: A story about travel. On the Race we like to see who can get the worst seat on the vehicle that we take. Recently Matatu’s have been a crowd favorite, basically, a 14 passenger van. And after we left ministry on Monday we hit a record number on a single Matatu. 24 adults, 2 babies, and 1 live chicken. Win. To give you a better picture, just imagine four of the six people on my team in two seats. Liz and Myself shared a seat, and then, Laura sat on Brian’s lap. This is Africa. This is the same team who after having our Squad Leaders with us, decided to cram oh 8 of us and a driver, in a passenger vehicle. Win, again.
In a future blog, because the African internet doesn’t really want to reconcile this relationship between myself and it, I will share more about how we travel in Africa with pictures. So until then, let me share a picture of me and one of the cutest little African girls, the first one who sat in my lap! Love!
(I’m a little burnt, my skin isn’t really adapting to Africa)
