Things I Never Knew I Could Do (but did…):
Go to the bathroom without toilet paper
Go to the bathroom without running water
Go to the bathroom without a toilet
Go to the bathroom without a door
Go to the bathroom without a…room
Shower with ice water in winter
Shower without running water
Shower with water I had to boil on a stove
Shower over a squatty-potty
Travel with 9 people in a mini van
Travel with 10 people in a mini van
Travel with 16 people in a mini van
Travel like a sardine on a Chicken Bus
Travel like a sardine on a Coach Bus
Travel like a sardine in a Tuk-Tuk
Spend the night on a bus
Spend the night on a train
Spend the night on a plane
Spend the night on the floor of a campground bathroom
Spend the night on the floor of an airport
Spend the night on the floor of a grade school classroom
Bathe myself with baby wipes
Wash my face from a water bottle
Brush my teeth from a water bottle
Drink water from the tap in Botswana, Africa
Drink water from the tap in general
Drive a car on the left side of the road
Drive stick on the left side of the road
Eat a diet based on corn tortillas
Eat a diet based on rice
Eat a diet based on chapatti
Eat rice for breakfast
Eat rice with my hands
Go two weeks without washing my hair
Go two weeks with two outfits
Go two weeks without washing my two outfits (….I couldn’t help it, don’t judge me)
Washing my clothes in a bucket
Washing my clothes in the sink
Washing my clothes under a spicket
Spend 10 hours on a bus
Spend 16 hours on a bus
Spend 24 hours on a bus
Live in a church
Live in a mud hut
Live in a tent
Read a new book every month
Learn to play guitar
Go without internet for three weeks
Hike for two days with a 65-liter pack
Pick up and move every month
Pick up and move every week
Live in community 24/7….twenty-four-seven…
Never be alone except when in the bathroom
Travel in ways that make me uncomfortable
Eat in places and conditions that make me uncomfortable
Live in places and conditions that make me uncomfortable
Live, eat, sleep, and work with complete strangers
Choose complete strangers
Pursue complete strangers
Be absolutely translucent and vulnerable with complete strangers
Come to love complete strangers
This year has been by far the most challenging, exciting, scary, challenging, adventurous, inspiring, challenging, life-changing, growth-producing, unpredictable, humbling, extraordinary years of my life.
I have done things, gone places and lived in conditions I never, ever thought I would.
Was it hard? The hardest. Could I do it again? Honestly, I don’t think I’d want to. But I am thankful God called me to the Race. I am thankful I said yes and that I saw it through. I cried, I fought, I struggled, and I thrived. I am a better person because of it, I am a tougher person because of it, and I am a far more humble, grounded person because of it.
This year has brought me to my knees time and time again without fail. It wasn’t easy, but I met my God there; in the driest of deserts, in the deepest of valleys, and on the highest of mountains. I not only learned of, but I saw with my own eyes, and experienced with my own self, His love, His presence, His continuity, His goodness in all things, and His never ending pursuance of His beloved children.
I’m going to go home and people will likely ask me ‘how was the Race?’ seeing it as ‘one trip’. But it’s not just ‘one trip’, it is almost an entire year of my life. How do I begin to put into words, how do I begin to explain the 23rd year of my existence? You ask me, how the Race was? I can’t tell you, I feel 800 different emotions in a single day. You ask me, what it was like? Can’t tell you, day-to-day it looks radically different. But you ask me what the Race was for me? I’ll say this was an 11-month season of my life, in which my Heavenly Father pursued me without end, loved me, oh how he loved me without fault, and brought me to a place where I can and do know Him so very intimately; where I will now go forth and strive to rely on Him always, love Him always, choose Him always, seek out His will, listen for the sound of His voice, and live for Him, humbly, every day of my life.
I don’t expect everyone I meet to fully understand. But my Papa took me, His daughter, on a year long trip around the globe to see and experience His creation, to learn of the vast depths of His love for me, and to enter into a new intimate relationship with Him, and I will never turn back.
