167 Days
5 ½ months
13 countries
Halfway
It’s official; I have experienced more days on the race than I have left. Half of my World Race life is over. I have been to more countries than ones I have left to visit. So much has happened since I left home on July 11th:
I got to share my testimony and build up churches, both physically and spiritually, in El Carmen, Ecuador.
I went door-to-door and shared the Word of Christ with the townspeople of Chao, Peru.
I served hundreds of campers and made close bonds with the ladies of the kitchen in Monteblanco, Bolivia.
I worked with Campus Crusade in sharing the gospel to college students in Korce, Albania.
I dug trenches for new houses while also digging deeper into community with my squadmates in Oradea, Romania.
I’m currently loving kids without a hope on the beaches and soccer fields of Muizenberg, South Africa.
But that’s not all. I’ve grown close to two different teams full of awesome people, and shared life with them. I am now great friends with people I didn’t know 8 months ago. We’ve had our laughs and our struggles, but in the end, we’re pushing each other to greatness in the Lord.
We're in it through thick and thin
I’ve experienced freedom from the shackles in my heart and to this world. I’m finding joy in the Lord in ways that I never have before. I’m becoming more bold in my faith and my relationship with the Creator of the Universe. I’ve been able to proclaim truth over myself and my squadmates, knowing that God doesn’t want us trapped in prisons of our old selves.
Go Big or go home, right?
I have seen the Lord proclaimed around the world in all languages. I’ve been in worship services where several languages are being sung at the same time; and it’s beautiful. I’ve had life spoken over me. I’ve been encouraged by being called out with the difficult things.
I’ve seen a transformation in myself that will leave me forever changed.
But I’m not content with where I’m at.
Yes, it has been an incredible 5 ½ months, but I want more these next 5 ½ months. Sure, if I went home today, I would be a different person than I was in July. However, there is more I want to see changed. There is more junk in my life that I want out. There is deeper intimacy that I crave with God, my teammates, my squadmates, my family, and my friends back home.
Pile on the Community!
Not only do I want to see personal transformation, but I want even more freedom proclaimed over the hopeless of the World. This isn’t a time to be stagnant, but to actively seek out change in this whatever country I happen to be in.
I’ve jumped into the shallow end of what God has for me this year, but I want to go off the high dive right into the deep end.
I’m not trying to say that I’m not content with what’s happened on the race so far, or that I regret what’s happened so far. Just the opposite. I’ve seen what good can come out of this year, and I want more of this. I don’t want to land in LAX next June and say “that was a cool trip. I saw God do a few things.” I want to be completely blown away by how great our Father is and desire to bring what I experience these 11 months back to the States. I can see, at the pace I’m doing, that I won’t be satisfied at the end of this race.
I want to go deeper with my team. I want to be vulnerable with them and experience true intimacy. I want the lies that the world and I have told myself and replace them with the Truths of Christ. I want to proclaim big truths over nations and people. I want to see God move in ways I didn’t think possible. I want my jaw to drop when I see God bring hundreds into His kingdom, or jump for joy when we see whole towns healed of sickness. I want to be able to worship God in everything I do, and not care if people think I’m crazy.
Why wouldn't you open up to these people?
The freedom that God has for us looks funky, but it is like a cool drink of water on a hot day. I want to look weird in the eyes of the World but like an heir of the Most High to my heavenly Father.
I’m halfway there, and I want to live on a prayer these next 5 ½ months. God’s ready for some crazy things to happen in my life and the lives of people around me.
Am I?
