You eagerly anticipate their arrival. You’ve finally heard that they really are coming home soon, and those hugs in the airport are the ones you’ve been dreaming of. 11 months ago, you put them on a plane and told them to go after whatever Jesus had for them. You surrendered the control of their lives and let them live in countries that most parents could never dream of letting their children travel to, much less live in. You are counting down the days until they are home again, while they are thousands of miles away experiencing every emotion that comes with coming home after 11 months away.
You lay in bed and wonder if they made it safely to their next country. You googled what time zone they were living in; you wanted to know about the teams they were on. You asked God questions about surrender that take on a whole new meaning when they landed in a country that it was illegal for them to share the gospel in. You learned to trust the Lord through this crazy process called the World Race, despite never being a Racer yourself.
And now, you begin another journey. In a few short weeks, you’ll hear them breathing in their bedroom again. You’ll hear them spend too long in the shower again because the water is hot for the first time in months. You’ll hear them comment about the kids they met, the men who changed their viewpoint, and the realities they faced. You’ll hear them shriek in excitement of the return of friends who they haven’t seen in a year. You’ll see them walk out the door again, begging you to be alone, because they haven’t in 11 months.
You’ll hear them recount stories from the last year. They come home from the field different people; they are often thankful for the little things and see God in all things. They have moments that are simply too painful to recount just yet. They had goodbyes where they couldn’t stop crying and moments that the pain from the injustice in the world is just hard. You’ll begin to see the unsettling that happened in them this year. You’ll realize that they preached the gospel to crowds, that they met the needy, and they confronted realities that scared them.
Most racers confronted some of their greatest fears, and because of it, they are no longer the same, just like you aren’t the same.
They are about to face a world that they haven’t faced in 11 months. They have to eat food that costs them more than twice what they ate on for the last year. They have to realize the cost of being home has impacts they are far beyond the financial. They are going to be trying to reconcile what it means to be born into a life of privilege after seeing real poverty. They are trying to make sense of a world that you have lived in for the last year that feels a million miles away from the reality they know.
Give them space. They are grieving, whether they cry tears you see or not. They were just with their community that they haven’t left in 11 months; they were just with kids who changed their viewpoint on being a parent, who they will never forget. They were charged with the privilege of being Jesus with skin on to people around the world, and now they are aiming to do that in their world they are now living in, to the reality they are now facing. They’ve been preparing for these moments the best they can when they were living thousands of miles away. They will tell you stories in the coming days. They will laugh of things that don’t seem funny, and do things that they never did before.
Their race might have ended, but their journey has just begun. Continue to join them in the journey. Remember the days on the race that they just didn’t talk to you, and know that some of those same days will happen even when they are back on American soil. You didn’t lose your child this year; you’ve had the chance to send them out to a world that needs to hear more and more about who the living King is, Now they are home again, if for a short season or a long one, and they will still be doing the same, just in a different place this time.
You are in my prayers as you begin the journey of transitioning to a family reunited.
