It’s hard to summarize everything that I learned at training camp for the World Race; because well, it’s been a whirlwind of lessons and challenges. One thing that is for sure is that I learned how important the Body is. Not just my body, but the Body of Christ which includes all of us. Preparing to travel the world for an 11 month adventure with nothing but a backpack and tent, one starts to feel pretty small. The trials to come are hard to imagine and we have no idea what is in store for us. This is similar to the training we received this week, as we never really knew what we were doing hour to hour. Pretty intimidating…..right? The good thing is, we did not do this alone. We have the body of Christ as number one, but we also have a team of six other amazing people to do this with. We are all agreeing to leave the ‘normal’, leave what is comfortable, and head into the unknown. So just how important is the Body? Pretty important!
This camp has opened my eyes to the idea of grafting (probably because I have been reading Watchman Nee). A farmer who grows trees knows grafting well, because without it his crop would die. He must lop off the top of a healthy tree and cleave it to the other trees, in order for them to grow better fruit. This is the only way that one tree can bear the fruit of other trees. So, in essence there is the father tree and all the other trees have a part of that tree connected to them. We are the body of Christ and we all have a piece of his son grafted into us, so that we can bear “healthy fruit.”
In relation to my teammates, we all have a piece of Christ’s sacrifice in us. He is doing works in us that we can not necessarily see but they are there. As a whole we are connected in body and spirit; and we are going to rely on each other. We have to take the good parts of each other and help our sister or brother bear “healthy fruit.” Help each other help the people we are meeting along the way, so that this cycle of radiant life continues. It’s time for us to use our knowledge, individual skills, love, and compassion to help those around the world lead healthier lives. We do this as one body, one body in Christ.
“Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” Romans 12:4-5
