- Sometimes ministry, as a short term missionary, is just loving and supporting the long term missionaries and that’s okay. Love and support carries the same kingdom weight whether it’s being given to orphans in Africa or missionaries in Romania.
- Living with thirty people is both a dream come true and my worst nightmare all in one. Fighting FOMO to get quiet/alone time is no fun at all, but you have thirty people to be with you in good times and bad times
- Diversity can build you up or destroy you. When issues arise, handle them with respect. Realizing that people don’t give feedback for things that don’t carry weight for them and learning to give those things the same weight and respect has been a growing experience. The little things that bother me don’t bother some of my teammates and things that don’t bother me bother them; when we value each other and give them space for their preferences it builds a strong community.
- Nobody came on the World Race to disregard or exclude people from their team or silence their voice. Everyone is a valuable asset to the team and they cultivate so much growth in the team as a whole, their teammates as individuals, and their own self when they use their voice.
- Vulnerability will not be the end of you. Your team wants to love you; they can’t love you if you don’t let them into the hard stuff.
- Feedback isn’t “the most dreadful thing on Earth”. My team has come to a realization that feedback is all of the aspects of a healthy dialogue put into one statement. Feedback is designed so vague statements in need of clarification aren’t passed off as communication.
- People are relational. They want to know that you care before they let you in. Sometimes this can take 2 minutes, other times it can take 2 weeks.
- Cultural views make a HUGE difference. If you don’t understand the culture, you will struggle to speak into the people.
- It’s okay to ask people why they believe what they believe and why they don’t believe what they don’t believe. A lot of people don’t know why their beliefs are what they are and simply asking them “why do you believe that” opens the door to a much more meaningful conversation.
- The politics of religion aren’t an excuse for you to discontinue a relationship with God. Religion does not equate a relationship with God. Religion, today, is more of a check list of what to do, what not to do, what sins are actually sins, etc. The important things to know is:
- God loves you
- You do sin
- Jesus paid the debt of your sins
- You should live for God
- You cannot expect God to move and work in your life while simultaneously staying in the box, labeled Sundays 9:30-10:30, that you try to keep Him in. You cannot shut Him out of parts of your life and discredit Him for not working in those areas.
- God will show up in the way that you most need. (Ex. The Shack. God shows up as a mother when he needs a comforter and a father when he needs a leader to guide him through the hard stuff.) Don’t expect Him to only show up in a specific role simply because He showed up that way in the past.
- Don’t pray* if you believe nothing will happen. James talks about how he who asks of the Lord should have faith that he will be given what he asks. If you ask God but don’t back up your request with faith then you are selling yourself short when God doesn’t deliver.
- Loving others costs you nothing. It doesn’t put you any farther behind to show someone love.
- God will you give you a way to communicate through language barriers. Sometimes this is through a random person walking by that happens to offer to translate or through divine communication.
- Your weaknesses will be the biggest targets. If there’s one thing Satan knows how to do it’s put someone down. Those feelings of unworthiness, bitterness, comparison, etc. are not from God. God will not tell you that you are unworthy. Don’t believe those negative things as they are meant to turn you from the Kingdom.
*You should still talk to God but know that He is not Santa. You will not get things that are on your list despite your disbelief. Praying isn’t just a list of requests, it’s a conversation. You should still pray but don’t make faithless requests.
