Last month, my team sat down and started talking about all the general questions people have asked us about the Race and how difficult they are to answer. I love getting and answering questions, but sometimes the questions I get are so broad that I find it especially challenging to come up with adequate answers.
Think about the past year of your life and think about what your answer would be to, “So, how was it?” or “Tell me about your time.” Your answer would probably be vague, confusing, or not descriptive enough to satisfy the questioner.
I will be home shortly (about three weeks!) and my team and I spent a great deal of time coming up with some questions that might get the conversation going. Of course, this isn’t to assume you have to ask questions or even want to. If, however, that is a desire of yours (whether to learn more about the Race, to learn more about me, to learn more about God, etc.) these are just some suggestions of questions that are more specific and, therefore, are more suited for the answers you are probably actually looking for. It’s kind of cheesy (okay, extremely), but trust me, you’ll get more out of me this way!
So, here are some questions to avoid and some types of questions to get started. Of course, please feel free to ask any and everything whether in person or through email. This is just a general guideline of questions we thought up and there are many more; so don’t be shy!
Vague questions to be re-worded:
1. How was your trip?/How was it?
2. Tell me about your time.
3. What did you do?
4. How did you like it?
More specific questions:
1. What was one of your favorite moments?
2. What was one of your most challenging parts?
3. Did you ever get homesick?
4. Did you get sick?
5. Did you feel safe?
6. Did you experience any persecution?
7. How did you deal with being with a ministry contact that you didn’t enjoy?
8. What was it like living in community?
9. Will you ever go back to any of those countries?
10. What was the weather like? Food? Living conditions?
11. Who are the people you came into contact with?
12. How did you handle the hard goodbyes/leaving each month?
13. Did you have any near-death experiences?
14. What are things you missed about America? What things didn’t you miss?
15. Was it difficult transitioning back home?
16. What did you learn about yourself?
17. What did you learn about God?
18. What did you learn about people?
19. What did you learn about missions?
20. Do you have any funny stories?
21. What different ministries did you do?
22. What was your favorite ministry?
23. Did you experience culture shock?
24. What similarities/differences did you experience in the church overseas?
25. And, of course, if you don’t understand the World Race or how it works, I’m an expert now at explaining that as well!
I challenge you ALL to come up with one fun and one serious question to ask me that isn’t a part of this list as well. You can post them here or message/ask me individually as well! I appreciate knowing you care to hear about my time – but there is no obligation whatsoever!
Much love and see you soon,
Taylor
