I have officially been home now for a few months. I launched just over 1 year ago! I tried my best to be prepared and embrace re-entry as much as possible. I had to remember to drive on the correct side of the road, had to constantly ask my parents to borrow money or the car, had to figure out how to use a cell phone and I had to catch up and answer questions to family and friends.
I have reconnected with friends and family and they helped me process some things. I was reminded how blessed I am to have an at home community of people around me to help me in transitioning back to the states. My schedule very quickly filled up from the moment I came home until now (I have almost completed my scheduled calendar).
I was also told that once we got back that we might have melt downs. I had a few meltdowns, one in particular was when I had to unpack boxes upon boxes of my stuff to move into my parents new house in my new room and got so overwhelmed and on the verge of tears that my mom walked in just at the right time to tell me to just close the box and not worry about it. I could not stop my mind from feeling overwhelmed by the amount of “things” that I have and closing the box wasn’t going to make my stuff go away. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath and took it one step at a time until the task didn’t seem so overwhelming.
I have been going back and forth from Michigan and Georgia in the past 2 months. I can officially now say that I can’t do the drive anymore; I might explode. I did fly once back and forth for a weekend for a wedding and I’m sure that by flying instead of driving that I got to keep my sanity just for a bit longer. I love travelling, the world race gave me a deeper love of it, but also gave me a deeper love of flying over driving.
I was blessed by my mother who bought me tickets to go to the Passion 2017 Conference this year. I knew that going would be a great time for the lord and I to connect and just a great experience in general. I was so excited for this amazing weekend to happen and it was all that and more. But I also felt my world race world and real world connect in a way that showed me who Jenrae is in one moment that happened over the weekend.
One day we had a few hours to go out and grab lunch in the city, so I went to McDonalds. As I was walking up I saw this man with a suitcase struggling to open the door and get his stuff in, his hand were very full. So I ran up and grabbed the handle and said “here let me get that for you”. Once we both got in we find a spot in the very long line and start talking. He started by thanking me for my kindness and for helping him, which to me seems like a no brainer; someone needs help and I help them. Then we found a common love for the lord, and chatted about that for a bit. He did 95% of the talking and barely let me get a word in, he was saying a lot of truths about the lord and the bible, but also got a little crazy on my and talking about seeing signs and knowing that God is coming back soon. Once I finally got a word in I found out his name was Robert and that he has had some back experiences in life but his love for God never ended.
I got my food and honestly wanted to get away from this crazy man but I thought I would be crazy myself and sit with him; a complete stranger. We got to have an actual back and forth conversation, I learned a lot about him and his story and we talked about what it really means to be children of God; be kind, be love, be compassionate, be Christ-like. I very much enjoyed this conversation and just meeting my brother of the kingdom. He is a fighter, he is in his 50’s, he’s been to jail a few times, he has a hard time finding work, but he had a home, he had a family, and he had a heart on fire for God.
To me Robert was a symbol of my two worlds finally colliding. The race made me a person who can get outside of their comfort zone, someone who can talk about Jesus to complete strangers, and even someone who cares about living the life God has created me to live. When I got home I didn’t know how I could do those things in my everyday life and something as simple as going to McDonalds created that opportunity and showed me that just being the person that I want to be is possible. I can now notice in everyday life where God is in the moments, who he wants me to talk to, who I need to share him with, and even who needs to just feel loved. Him and I can be every second of every moment of everyday and nothing has to change just because I’m back home.
