1. Remember to ask around if anyone needs to use the toilet before attempting to take a shower
2. There is no such thing as personal space because there just isn’t any room
3. Be sure to take your take-out container out of the room as the smell of chicken fried rice tends to linger for some time
4. To go along with #3, be sure to eat all of what you open asap if it’s not in a sealed-tight container because it won’t take long before an army of uninvited roomies move in
5. Make sure there’s at least enough tp for the next person in line for the bathroom
6. For a more pleasant sleep at night, always have ear plugs handy because there’s sure to be a symphony of snores performing each evening. Also, an extra pillow is great to have readily available to shield you from momentary blindness when someone hits the bathroom light in the middle of the night.
7. Should nature call late in the night, make sure you’re awake enough to perform acrobatic moves to avoid tripping over sleeping bodies to get to the bathroom in time
8. Casting lots to decide who will be the saints to wake up extra early the next morning to walk to the market and buy breakfast for the team. Ok, so we didn’t really cast lots, but we learned about the virtue of self-sacrifice in giving up an extra hour or so of sleep so that others had something to eat.
9. If you buy Mentos, you need to share with everyone else. 🙂
Although the above list is reality in rooming with 6 other people on the World Race, the biggest things that I’ve learned for successful community living is surrendering your rights and ridding any bit of selfishness. Never before has it been so important to put other’s needs before my own. Shutting off the light at night because someone is really tired even though you are wide awake and could read for another couple hours or sleeping on the floor so that someone else can have the bed for a good night’s rest become commonplace. There are tremendous benefits to living in close quarters with people that you love and consider brothers and sisters. We have an even greater opportunity to “be real” with one another, dealing with issues as they come up rather than ignoring them until they’re too big to be avoided. With living in a single room, you are able to see people in the midst of their personal struggles and can then lift them up in prayer. Because of this, our prayers for each other are more frequent and more fervent because the person caught in the middle of whatever struggle is sleeping only a foot or two away. These lessons of self-sacrifice and being intentional in lifting people up in prayer that I’ve learned more of in boarding with 6 other people can be applied to my role in the body of Christ.
“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.” Ephesians 4:2-3
