Launch is now complete and I’m staying with half of A-Sqaud in downtown Atlanta for this last night before leaving early tomorrow morning for Romania! We should arrive in Bucharest by Monday… it's going to take us forever to get there, but it should be a fun journey.
My team and I will be at a camp in western Romania in the Transylvanian city of Arad (near the Hungarian border) where we will “help” with stuff around camp. Stay tuned for more on what kind of “helping” this will be as soon as I find out what that means. So far we’ve heard good things from other Racers that have been there.
As for these past few days of launch, we've stayed at a church north of Atlanta along with Z-Squad. This area was a predominantly Mexican community, so we ate tacos every single day for a $1 each. It was probably some of the most glorious Mexican food I’ve ever had and worked wonderfully with our $3/day per person food budget. I even slept through the countless trains that plowed right by church every night… maybe I am becoming a better World Racer that can sleep anywhere & everywhere even sooner than I thought.
Launch has really been a great time to define who we are as A-Squad & Team Toaster (Team Shemah). I could tell you numerous times over that I am so thankful to be on A-Squad. I am beyond stoked by the bond that we have with each other and the thought of how much is going to be worked out in the world because of the unity we share.
The first A-Squad, the very first group of World Racers, launched in 2007 and now a full alphabet of WR squads has been run through. Now this A-Squad is beginning a new generation of World Racers. I think there is significance to that which really defines our squad. There is a distinctiveness about us, and I know we’re on the cusp of something huge. What's been defined isn't even yet realized. We’re going to be infectious in the way that we pursue Christ and in the set apart lives that we live. We’re going to get controversial about things that really matter: in the way that we forgive and the way that we love one another.
We’ve decided that teaching the Gospel without demonstrating the gospel in not enough.
Good preaching, good doctrine, being good people is not enough.
We’ve decided that having a good church club is not enough.
Good fellowship is not enough.
And just being a member of that club is not enough.
We’ve decided that having good Bible studies is good, but not good enough.
That just making it to heaven is not our goal, and that knowing about God without truly knowing and experiencing God is meaningless.
We’ve decided that having good programs is not enough; that change without transformation is intolerable.
And that staying the same is not an option.
We’ve decided that gifting without character is futile.
We’ve decided that singing songs without worshiping is hollow and having meetings without God showing up is pointless.
We’ve decided that having faith without works is not enough and having works without love is not acceptable – that our function comes out of our relationship first with the Father and second with each other.
We’ve decided that reading about the book of Acts without living the book of Acts is unthinkable.
We’ve decided that confident faith is good, but bold faith is better.
We’ve decided that hearing about the Holy Spirit without experiencing Him is silly.
That believing in healing without seeing people healed, is absurd.
And that believing in deliverance without people being delivered, is absolutely ridiculous.
We’ve decided to be Holy Spirit filled, Holy Spirit led, and Holy Spirit empowered – anything less doesn’t work for us.
We’ve decided to be the ones telling the stories of God’s power – not the ones hearing about them.
We’ve decided that living saved, but not supernatural is living below our privilege and short of what Christ died for.
[lines from Graham Cooke's Decisions That Define Us]
