World Race Moment

A couple days ago, I had a “World Race Moment;” one of those
moments where it hits a little bit harder that I really am out here doing this
crazy adventure. I am not sure why these moments don’t happen more often. It is
not very hard to remember when I was at home in Nashville or Midland,
obsessively reading through blogs, desperate for incredible stories, the spirit
of Life and adventure stirring inside me. And now here I am, living it – the Spirit of life now splashing over me and pouring out of me.

My squad has been in Ukraine for about a week. On Day One, I
went to a Children’s Hospital and held a couple of abandoned babies for hours.
One of them was a Roma (gypsy) named Jaena; he was about 8 months old. He
stared me down the entire time I was in the room (a couple hours), even when,
maybe especially when, I wasn’t holding him. We are best friends. On Day Two,
my team went with our contacts to visit a handful of castles. The contacts are
old youth pastors (which has been energizing to my soul) and the castles
dated back to the Knights’ Templar and the 12^th century. On Day
Four, I sat for three hours and helped teach English at a school. I had a great
conversation with a student about how to love and honor teenagers. Another
student invited us to church on Sunday. On Day Five, I went to a youth Bible
Study and my heart melted. It felt like home.

And, on Day Six, we went to a worship session with a group
of Messianic Jews. It was beautiful. We danced around in circles, got to say
fun phrases like “Shabbat Shalom,” sang the most fascinating syllables I have
heard in any language, got prayed for under the covering of a traditional
Jewish prayer shawl, and had a feast (oh, and Michael and I got invited to a
clothing-optional Russian spa). This was when my World Race Moment finally
happened (not about the spa, during the service). Dancing around in a
circle, holding hands with teammates and strangers, all friends in the body of
Christ.

It is a beautiful thing, the Kingdom of God. The incredible
places it takes us. The fascinating people it carries us next to. It is
wonderfully weird and strangely comforting. I love those moments when it hits
me like a ton of bricks. When what we are doing all over the world intersects
tangibly with what we are doing in the moment; big picture and real life
intertwined.

I am on the World Race. Really here, really doing this.

More importantly, I am living Life. Not a cookie-cutter,
water-downed, medicated version of existence. Life. I am out here, facing
darkness, confronting my sins, stretching my perception of Christ, seeing love
manifested innumerably, hurting, growing, celebrating.

These moments when I am hearing a Hungarian pastor preach
(translated into Ukranian, then translated to English for us), seeing Cherry
Blossoms paint a community, laugh until I cry with my new family, seeing
beautiful faces I never knew existed, and hearing sounds I could never imagine,
it makes me shake my head and think, “I can’t believe this is my life.”

I hope it does not stop and I hope it does not go by too
fast. Because being here on the WR for 4 months has helped me appreciate that
the Body of Christ is not me, nor is it you, but it is all of us, together.
Woven in a tapestry too huge for us to perceive, too beautiful for us to
imagine.