There is a harsh realization I’ve been learning to accept: the majority of the people you meet in life are only there for a season. It’s something I’ve seen before the World Race. Every time I came home from college I had fewer friends to hang out with than the last time I was home. Friends from college moved far away, changing our friendship from seeing each other on a daily basis to facebooking and calling on occasion. It’s hard when someone who is meaningful in your life just can’t be that person for you anymore. The World Race has really intensified this realization for me. I meet people, love them, and then say goodbye. Month, after month, after month. My squad is the most amazing community I have ever been apart of, but we only have 11 months together. We have already had to say goodbye to one of my squadmates as she had to go home for surgery and will not be returning. We also had to say goodbye to our squad leader, Kelsey, as she only had plans to be with us for the first 5 months (at least we will still get to see her at our debriefs). I also have to spend my months away from half of my old team, Fearless Laughter. We spent every single day together for 4 months and now they are doing different ministry on the opposite side of the country. Needless to say, I’ve just about had it with saying goodbye. As we were meeting our new ministry contacts here in Malaysia, I felt myself starting to fall in love with them but then as soon as it happened, I felt a wall come up. I didn’t want to love them. I wanted to be able to leave them and feel indifferent without tears, just to give my heart a break. I came to God, desperate, asking, “How can I do this 6 more months?” Even with my new team, Kairos, we brought up one day that some of us have wondered if it’s worth it to open up to each other and get close because we may only be a team for a couple months and after the Race, we will be spread across different parts of the world. So what are we to do? Is loving and fully investing in relationships worth the painful goodbye? It’s worth it if you know with all your heart that people are in your life at a specific time for a specific reason. The mentors I had in High School were who I needed at the time, but thet’re not who I need now. My friends from college taught me and blessed me in the ways I needed during that time. Now F Squad is showing me what a truly Christ-seeking community looks like and some day I’ll take what they taught me and spread it to others who need it. God has been using the love I’ve been giving each month in Ministry to plant seeds and open doors, the seeds and doors that they needed in that season of life. If I don’t do it, God will use someone else, but why on earth would I want to miss out on that opportunity? Mary Chandler, the girl on my squad who had to go home, sent us a video at just the time when I was struggling though these questions. She encouraged us that when we’re hot and tired and don’t want to go to ministry, to remember that what we get to do is such a blessing. It’s so true. There is no other place I would rather be and there is nothing else I would rather be doing than being on the World Race right now. I have had so many incredible experiences, have gotten to be apart of so many beautiful people’s lives, learned so much, have gotten to know God so much better, and when I return home, I will be a different person for the better. The people who are in your life right now are there for a reason, so take full advantage of the ways you can bless them and the ways they can bless you. If going on the World Race is something you’re considering but you wonder if short term missions does any good, I promise you, it does. God uses your month, or even just a one time meeting with someones, to lead people to Christ or to bless them so much that they cry when you leave. I look back on my last 5 months and I’m in awe of how much I’ve been blessed. I have no regret. I get to do this crazy, amazing thing for 6 more months and I don’t want to waste them. I want to take full advantage of what God has for me in each place. Is it going to be hard at times? Will I get hurt? Yes. But the great thing about being a Christian is that you never really say goodbye, just see you later, because we’ll all be together some day in Heaven for eternity.
