Believe it or not, I’ve finally arrived in Santiago, Chile, where my team will live and serve alongside Team Humbly United for the next two months! Expect more details of this month’s ministry soon, but for now I’m excited to share one of the ways the Spirit has been showing me Abba’s love while I’ve been on the Race. I’m calling them “Easter Eggs.”
You know about Easter Eggs in movies and video games, right? They’re small, fun things editors, directors, and editors will put into a film or game, knowing most people won’t notice. For example, director Peter Jackson has cameos in all 3 of the Lord of the Rings films, and Pixar movies frequently feature references to other movies in the Pixar world.
Most of us are familiar with this concept when it comes to movies, but I think this is also a way God loves to speak to his children. He knows each of us more intimately than we can imagine—all our backstories, funny moments, friendships, loves, dislikes, and strange oddities that we may hide from others. And because he’s our Father, God absolutely loves to use these quirks to show us his love for us, as long as we’re willing to listen and notice. For me, these Easter Eggs have taken the form of fall leaves, Ratatouille, pistachio ice cream, French music, willow trees, and obscure indie bands nobody knows about.
One of the ways the Father loved me in the small things this month was the simple gift of friendship. I cannot even begin to tell you how wonderful the people of Ukraine are! I can’t think of a social encounter I had with hardly anyone this month that didn’t involve someone sharing their food or tea (often both) with the other and spending time asking questions getting to know each other. After a month in Romania where we had few friends our own age, it was a real gift to serve alongside other 19 and 20 year-olds. We even got to see one of these friends come to know Jesus as her friend and Savior!
The Lord poured his love on us through these people—through them, He told me how much He sees me in my willingness to leave my friends back home (shout out to any of y’all reading this). Jesus says in Mark 10, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.” I always trusted him in this verse—but how rare it is to actually see some of what he promises come about this side of eternity!
Another way the Father showed me his love came at the end of our 3rd week in Ukraine, when we took our adult English class out to a camp for a weekend outing. The first night after dinner, the Lord sent a beautiful surprise that I knew he prepared for me specifically.
You see, one of the things I knew would be hardest about being away from home this year was Christmas. In particular, I knew I’d miss my family’s unique traditions we’ve made over the years. One of my favorite traditions is our Christmas Eve dinner—every year we get together with my Aunt and Uncle’s family and share fondue. It’s the only time of year we eat fondue, and I knew this would be the year I missed it.
So imagine my surprise when, after dinner the first night of camp, our host Tania surprises the camp with a special meal—cheese fondue with bread, followed up by chocolate fondue and fruit to dip in it, just like my family eats at home. It was the smallest of things, but it was made exactly as my family has it every year, and I was surprised by the Father’s intentionality in showing he cares about me. Seriously, what a friend he is! He knows all of our strange quirks and oddities, every part of our story that nobody else could know, but only ever uses those things to show us how he cherishes our company.
The last of these little Easter Eggs the Lord gave me actually showed up at a time where love was the last thing I expected—travel days. On the Race, you learn pretty quickly that travel days are the time when it’s easiest to get completely exhausted and overwhelmed. We travel a lot—and when I say a lot, I mean it’s the start of month 3 and my team has literally accumulated eight full days of flights, layovers, train and bus rides (yep, you read that right). On the other hand, travel days are one of the few times we get to see our entire squad, as most months we’re living with just our team, so it’s also a pretty exciting opportunity to catch up with old friends. But dang, I can’t exaggerate when I say these days are just flat out exhausting.
On our travel to Chile, the Father showed me his love in my seating assignment on flights. Every time, he put me exactly where I needed to be in order to be filled up. At one point I was worried I wouldn’t find time with my friend Justus on Team Phileo to actually connect and talk through what the Lord has done in us this last month. So it was a great surprise when I ended up sitting right next to him on our flight from Kyiv, Ukraine, to Istanbul, Turkey! The next flight my seat was next to Colby from Humbly United, who I hadn’t really talked to in much depth since we left Georgia. He’s also a point person on his team, and we had a great talk about what leadership has looked like and how we’re growing closer to the Father—and this month, it turns out our teams are living together, so Colby and I are leading alongside one another these next two months. Finally, our last flight rolled around and I was really craving some time with the Lord to pray and journal, and he surprised me with an entire row to myself on our flight from Colombia to Chile. I was able to drink in his presence and rest so, so well.
I just want to say it again—the Spirit is literally always speaking to us and showing us the Father’s love in ways only we can understand. If I shared every way he’s done this on the Race alone I’d literally never stop writing. He speaks in small moments and funny times and the strangest things that only we can understand.
I know I’m not the only one who hears from the Lord in these Easter Eggs, though, so I’d love to hear what this looks like for you. How is he speaking to you in the small things? What do your personal Easter Eggs look like? Comment below!
Love y’all, and as always I’m so thankful for your support!
~Joel
