E L I J A H
Elijah and I have known each other since we were BABIES … ever since my family moved to New York in 2007. We went to the same youth group in High School, and he did the Race after he graduated in 2016. He spoke really highly of his experience, which is one of the reasons I decided to do the Race in 2017. After two years of not seeing each other, we somehow ended up in the same country on the same leadership team. When I found out that we would be Team Leading together, I kept saying to our Squad Mentor, “I’m so excited to see the ways that he’s changed in the past two years.” The Lord has transformed him. He no longer calls himself a “Christian” for the sake of attention and labels. He has experienced pressing and crushing from the Lord; the death of worldly things in him so that he can be more like Jesus. He chose to surrender his hunger for control, his pride, and his desire for affirmation so that he could have more of the Father. Through this process of surrender, humility has risen up so strongly in him; he is so transparent about where/when he’s struggling. One of my favorite things about Elijah is that he thinks simply, but not in a way that negates God’s complexity. In the past two years, he’s gone from being attention and power hungry to aware and humble.
I’m thankful for his honesty and willingness to admit where he’s at emotionally and spiritually.
WHAT’S HIS ROLE? Alumni Team Leader. There are anywhere from two to four team leaders on each gap year squad, all of whom have done the world race gap year before. They’re anywhere from the ages of 19 to 21. Their role is to form intentional relationships with the Racers, run team times, work side-by-side with their team during ministry, and provide guidance for assimilation into “world race life.”
What do you offer people?
I believe that I bring an eternal perspective through childlike faith and childlike joy. I know how to have innocent fun without compromising integrity. I also bring strong conviction and a different opinion.
