This was community for me pre-World Race. This was what I lived for as I served God at “work”and made a living. On my weekends and time off I was with these guys having fun and living life to the fullest. This was my community I surrounded myself with. When I left Manitoba in January, I left my community. I left those who knew me the most. They knew what made me mad, what made me cry, and what I needed to grow. These guys were my family….a brotherhood! Of course there was more than these 4 friends. I’m not about to name them all, but the video above os just to give you an idea of what life was like with those I trusted, cared for, and loved.
The World Race taught me many new things about community. About true community outside the walls and safety net I had around me. You may be wondering what I mean by that, so let me explain: At home I had a choice. I could choose anyone I wanted to be my friends. I could call people I wanted to hang out with and I could ignore other people I didn’t like. I could open myself up to whoever I wanted and stay surface level with conversations with people I didn’t trust. I had my own car, my own job, and my own “call” so I had freedom. I wasn’t bound by anybody or anything. I was on the loose to pick and choose who I would surround myself with.
Now on January 4th, everything changed. I was put on a team with 4 other people I barely knew. They didn’t even know me. So here we are, 5 random people put on a team on the verge of traveling around the world serving the nations together! We all had different views of things such as politics, ministry, and even Christian doctrine, traditions, etc. On a surfacy level we didn’t even know each other’s backgrounds, our reasons for joining this program, or what we thought the year would look like. I called it a “leap of faith” joining this trip and that’s exactly what I got. I took a leap into the unknown for me. People I didn’t know and had no choice but to love them for who they were.
Right off the bat I started to form relationships with squad mates. We spent the first 3 months together, all 27 of us. I could hangout with those I could relate to and ignore those I had nothing in common with. No problems. Our team met to do a bible study and that was about it. No strings attached. I enjoyed my team. I enjoyed learning from them. I saw amazing possibilities with us. But the time to be “stuck”with one another wouldn’t happen until we hit Africa. And in the vast country of Botswana it all started. I had to choose!
My teammates are quite different from me. Only one plays sports. I have only one option for male bonding. I have a teammate that is very quiet, not like me at all. And my idea of roughing it and going off the “beaten path”is quite opposite from everyone on my team. I don’t have the people I would normally choose around me. I’m placed with my team. And that’s when I hit a breaking point after a month as team in Botswana. I was faced with a choice. The options were pretty simple: Either I lay down the law and just give up on others and myself by not getting involved in anything around me (which wasn’t much to begin with), or I get over myself and give up my expectations in what I thought the World Race was and press in to what was in front of us.
When I look back I see it as the hardest thing I ever had to do…give up my right to be right! I had to lay down my self and say that I would follow my leader in whatever decision she made for us as a team. I would not over shadow any of my teammates and I would give my energy into the common goal…even if it wasn’t my idea in the first place. This took humility and alot of courage to lay down my pride. And essentially I was starting to let Christ (through my teammates) into my life!
Since my time in the vast Kalihari Desert in Botswana and Namibia with my team, I have still had challenges. I have learned to take one day at time and pursue what Jesus has in store for me in my teammates. They are my friends, my brothers and sisters, and my family. We have argued over so many minute things, and also enjoyed amazing sights and experiences only unique to the 5 of us this year. I would not trade any of them for anyone else. If I can love those who are nothing like me, I should be able to love those closest to me. My heart has changed in regards to what love for a neighbor looks like and now I continue to pursue that. It all started with my team. It started with my team, OPEN ROAD; Kimbee, Meridith, Kelton, and Michelle. And it ends with those I will be rejoicing with in Heaven!
The second part of the year after going through the school of hard knocks of sorts, has opened up my eyes to the community around me. From the pastors I met walking miles a day to share the love of Jesus in Malawi, to the nationals reaching their own people in the remote Thailand highlands, to the numerous refugees in India, I have seen the church more clearly than ever before. I have seen what the body of Christ is.
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit just as you were called to one hope when you were called one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Eph. 4)
Paul urges us to life in unity. It’s the only way we can truly be connected as the Kingdom of God. We need each other. It doesn’t matter what job you do in the church, what your view of what church should look like, it comes down to loving your neighbor. So often we are looking at the people on the streets, but we miss those sitting in the pew next to us on Sunday morning. We need to understand what is happening in the church down the street, in the city across the province, and the countries around the world. We are called to unified as ONE. Not two, not half, as ONE! Make every effort to keep the unity (choose others when you don’t like them). Be completely humble (admit you are wrong). Be patient (give space to think and process). We like to use scripture as a measuring rod…well there you go! I have a hard time understanding why churches in America are splitting up over how something should be done in a church service when on the other side of the world a church body of small congregations is unified so stragetically to the point where governments can’t track them.
I have woken up from my idea of community this year. I love my friends back home who just plain old “get me”. But I have also fallen in love with those I have little to no common ground with. That is because we are all part of ONE body. We serve ONE God. and we are all led by ONE spirit! That my friends is the Lesson #5 of my World Race experience!
To see what else COMMUNITY has meant to me this year check this blog from the past: FAMILY.
