Dear Family and Friends,
I am back on American soil! And now have been for about three weeks. It is kind of crazy being home. Everything is familiar again, but nothing is the same, including myself. I have used these first few weeks to relax, take a few long, hot showers, unpack my backpack, do laundry (aka throw most of my Race clothes away), and eat all the foods I have missed!
Although the World Race was a huge endeavor and a big trip, in reality I was just living my life abroad. I woke up, brushed my teeth, ate, hung out with friends, told people about Jesus, and worked – just in a different country. It was a different environment living in constant community but please don’t think this trip was any more special than the last year that you experienced as well.
There was adventure, hard times, lots of fun, tears shed, disagreements, crazy breakthroughs, and truths revealed. The World Race was more than just a mission trip. It was a discipleship program that taught all of us how to love each other and God in new and incredible ways.
Thank you so much for helping me go on this trip. If it wasn’t for you, I never would have been able to lead someone to Christ in Vietnam, teach in a Bible school in Cambodia, learn how to cook better in Bulgaria, pray for the homeless in Greece, bungee jump in Zimbabwe, cage dive in South Africa or so many other things. God was moving this year, in all 50 of the lives of everyone on my squad.
Vietnam was my favorite country on the trip. It was beautiful (basically the whole country is on the beach), the people were so kind, the food was AMAZING, and even though it is a closed communist country, my team and I were able to see more people saved that month than any other. Greece was probably my second favorite country we went to. My team and I lived in Athens, Greece for the month. The city is incredible. We had so much fun figuring out the metro system, exploring the historic places, feeling like a tourist at the Parthenon, and ultimately spending most of our time working with refugees.
The biggest lessons I learned on the Race:
- How to live life missionally – we are called to be the light of Jesus wherever we go. We don’t need to be on the other side of the world in order to do that. Every single person we come in contact with deserves to be treated like they are God’s son or daughter, because they are!
- God is in control of everything – this was something especially helpful to remember during the Race when so many things were NOT in my control (where I slept, where I ate, what my day looked like etc). If God wants you to get somewhere, you will get there. If you are meant to do something, you will do it, with God’s help! And still putting in your own effort of course. Pray like it depends on God, work like it depends on you – The Circle Maker.
- I need to give God everything – easier said than done. Giving God everything…I often had to stop and think about what that even meant. But on the Race for me it meant: giving God my mom, my grandma and her health, my parents coming to visit me in Africa, my plans for Thanksgiving with my squadmates, coming home etc. These were a few of the specific things that God asked me to give up to Him. It made me nervous to give these things to God because none of them were guaranteed to happen. But it was much easier to approach these things knowing God had them in His hands rather than only in mine.
- How to set goals – before the Race I was afraid to set goals. If I set a goal and didn’t accomplish it, then I was a failure. But during the Race I learned to set goals and accomplish them and if I didn’t, accepting that fact and being okay with it. I started by setting easier goals that I knew I could accomplish such as reading the book of Matthew and Mark in one month, all the way to running a half marathon which took a ton of training. I knew I could do that because I had taken baby steps along the way. Now after the Race I am going to continue to set monthly goals.
There are so many more lessons that I have learned during this last year, but these are the four main ones. I have tons of stories to share and experiences I could tell you about. If you want to get together I would also love to hear about your last year as well! Thank you so much for supporting me on this World Race. The next step in my journey is to get my old job back as a Nursing Assistant at the hospital and then hopefully nursing school in the Fall! God bless you and enjoy this holiday season.
Blessings,
Emily Brinkman
