This first month of the World Race has the word abandon written all over it. The World Race in general does, but this one is the beginning of learning a new normal.
We have been in Colombia for two weeks now and I am beginning this blog to write my thoughts so far and I will add to it during the second half of the month.
The custom before was that if you were going on the World Race you were asked to fast from social media during the first month of the race.
It is now January 27th and we have only one more week of being at our ministry here in Colombia! This month has flown by but at the same time it feels like we have been here forever. Like I wrote before, it used to be the custom that all racers fast from Social Media for the first month of the race. When I heard this I felt conviction and like I needed to follow suit. I had also heard of someone who was fasting from social media during their birthday and that is was freeing so I decided even if we were still in the USA at all on my birthday that I would start my fast then. They said we would all hear about this social media fast later at launch but that never happened, but I still felt the need to abandon knowing what is going on at home and be completely present here in Colombia. My fast will have occurred during our entire time in Colombia, so debrief will be included.
This time has been freeing, difficult, sometimes even stressful. I have had people reach out to me asking how I am since they don’t see the activity on Facebook and felt the urge to just get on for a second to share a blog for my supporters. One of our free days I was in a coffee shop for five hours… That time was meant to post a blog and connect with family but I was finished with that quickly. I am also trying to be present by not overly connecting with home. That day was hard. I had the temptation to facetime family and friends, check Facebook, and Instagram. I had a lot of people reaching out and telling me that there were no pictures of me being shared. After that I started asking my squadmates if they would tag me when they posted pictures or blogs or vlogs so people back home can at least get a small taste of what is going on here in Colombia. As of right now I have not been able to connect with anyone since then so I am hoping they have seen some of the awesome things God has allowed us to do and ordained us to do as well.
Now that it is February and we are at debrief here in Colombia I am happy with my decision to stay off social media even at debrief because this is our last all squad time for a little while. Also there have been lots of my team mates that have told me they posted pictures for me so I feel as if my supporters and family can be connected even if I am not on there for them.
Some of the things God has been showing me while I have been fasting social media are:
- I found enjoyment in showing “cool” areas of my life to people on social media
- Awesome things still happen even if they are not shared on social media
- The amount of times I felt the urge to just look at my phone when we first got here, during a lull in conversation, or during free times was more than I thought it would be.
- Not having phone service or WIFI leads to being present and has increased my listening skills
- After week one my screen time on my phone went down 57%
- You never have to charge your phone if you never use it!!
- Being phone free is freeing!! Especially in areas known for theft…
- I can rely on others to take pictures for me
- One of the biggest things I learned was how much social media does connect people.
- I was not able to have FOMO (fear of missing out) from people back home because I did not know what I was missing out on.
- I felt disconnected from knowing updates from my extended family.
- I had to rely on God that He would reveal areas to pray for family and friends without knowing the exact reason why. This was a big area for me. I wrote down the dates I prayed for people and I will check their feeds and catch up with them once I am back on social media in a few days.
- When the time came that I needed to connect with people back home God provided a way!
We are now in Ecuador! So I can get back on social media! It was exactly 30 days that I was “offline” and this transition to no longer purposefully staying off social media leads me to need more self control. We do not have wifi where we are staying this month so I believe that will be beneficial for this transition. The question of how to re-enter the world of social media is a tricky one. Do I want to spend hours trying to see all that I missed? No. Do I want to post everything that happened this month? Yes! But, do I want to bombard everyone’s feeds with pictures and posts? No. So, I will start with a simple post sharing this blog. For those of you that want to see everything I will post more I promise, there will be videos and a highlights story on my Instagram of the month soon!
Thank you all for your patience! I hope, if you haven’t, that you also take the time to read the blogs that I posted earlier this month but did not share on Facebook!
God did a lot in Colombia and showed up on the daily!
Love you all!
