Have you ever gone 200 days without being in a room by yourself? Sounds awful, right? Surely you would go insane. Well… that’s exactly what the World Race is.
Living in community is hard. Really, really hard. Nothing can really prepare you for it, especially living in community on the race. I’m trying to think of something that compares to this – but nothing does. Part of being on the race means you will living in community 24/7. Not only when you feel like it, but all of the time. Every second of the day. There is no way out. It sounds scary because it is.
I make up a team of 6 people. I live with these people, sleep inches from them on the floor, eat with them, you name it. It’s basically a year-long sleepover. Community is a beautiful thing. But it can also drive you insane. There will never be a moment you aren’t attached to each other’s hips. That means you will be sleeping in a tiny room together, on the floor, shoulder to shoulder. Or maybe your sleeping arrangements that month means, by the grace of God, 3 bunk-beds somehow fit in a room about the size of an American bathroom. It also means you eat breakfast, lunch and dinner with each other. Depending on the month, you also spend hours a day cooking those meals together. It means you change clothes in front of each other, snore in front of each other, cry in front of each other and throw up in front of each other (happens a lot, trust me).
Sometimes you want to go to sleep so badly, but you share a room with 5 other people and it’s only 9PM. You can’t ask to turn the lights off, because it’s not your room. You can’t ask them to stop talking, because it’s not your room. So you curl up in your sleeping bag with your eye mask on and headphones in, hoping to block out all the light and noise. Community sometimes means sitting in a room together, all doing your own thing. You’re fully aware that there is 5 other people around you, but you’re in your own little world. Sometimes community means taking a shower while someone is in the bathroom. Or just telling everyone, “hey, I’m not in the best mood right now. I just need alone time.” It means taking your daily malaria meds together. It means sharing absolutely everything you have. It means watching movies and tv shows together. It means brushing your teeth together. It means going out together, it means staying in together. It also means sitting down as a team and having really difficult conversations together. You share what someone did that day that bothered you. You share how someone can improve. You share feedback that has been festering up inside your head for months. My team has even had to sit back from ministry one day to talk as a team and settle things so that we could move forward.
Living in community can be really, really tough. There have been moments when the sound of someone’s voice literally sends shivers down my spine. I so badly want to sit in silence, but other people do not. There have been times when I put my headphones in, turn the volume all the way up, and block out everything. There have been times when my entire team goes into town together, but once we get there we all split ways so that we can be alone. (if we’re allowed to be alone that month, sometimes our host does not allow it). There have been times when we sit and eat meals together in complete silence, because we are just tired.
The World Race gives you a unique opportunity to live in community with people who believe the same things you do. It’s an incredible blessing. My teammates have built me up in ways no one else in the world could. They have seen my best moments and also my worst. I cannot hide from them. They know what I need when I need it. Most of the time I don’t even have to say anything, they just know. After a while, you get to know your team on such an intimate level. You know their quirks, you know their likes and dislikes, you know when to talk to them and when they need to be left alone. You know their favorite foods, how they like their coffee or tea in the morning, when they wake up, when they go to sleep, and every article of clothing they own. You begin to know everything, nothing is secret. I’ve learned that there is so much grace in that. We know the deepest parts of each other but continue to fight for each other everyday.
Being surrounded by Christ-followers who have dedicated one year of their life for the Kingdom is an incredible thing to be a part of. We are all going through something that our friends and family will never understand. Blogs are brushing the surface of what happens on the race. Community living is an experience I will never forget and the thought of going home to an entirely different community terrifies me. I truly cannot explain to you the love I have for these people. We have been through so much together. They have cheered me on when I preached my first sermon (and the 5 other ones after that). They were my biggest supporters when I gave my first session to the squad at debrief. They listen every single time I tell my testimony, even though they have head it literally 100 times. I love them so much. I hope you enjoy the pics of the people I have lived in community with 🙂
