When I first started the Race, I heard something that really stuck with me– “on the Race, the days are longs and the months are short.” I didn’t fully realize how true this was until after I finished my Race. We do SO many things any given day. Our days are full of memories and lots of hard work, but the months just FLY by. And even though I capitalized that, it still feels like it is the understatement of the century.
This is especially true for my last 3 months of the Race. Have you noticed that the first couple months of a year can seem like they take forever, but then when you get to the holiday season time seems to speed up? Yeah. That’s kinda how it felt. By month 9 of the Race, most of the year was behind me by that point. The rest of the year came lightning fast.
Despite how fast they went by, the Lord continued to give me themes for these months as well! Again, this is just the “bare bones” of what I learned each month, and each month ended up being SUPER significant for my spiritual growth! Read below to see how!
Ethiopia (Month 9) – “Beauty”
When we were on the bus from the airport to our debrief location, I was struck by the beauty I was seeing outside… and I don’t just mean the landscapes! I mean the people! Ethiopians are some of the most beautiful people on the planet. I’m not convinced of this. Coming out of a more challenging month, I was looking to God for hope and reassurance that this month was going to be ok. And the word He gave me for the month was “beauty.” So needless to say, I was very excited.
When we got to our debrief location, I quickly began to second guess that. Our guest house was… less than stellar. In fact, we actually ended up having a lot of problems there with health and safety, so we had to switch hostels at the last minute. And you know what the next guest house was?
BEAUTIFUL.
We started the month off with an incredibly edifying time with the Lord. Debriefs can be a wonderful time, but this debrief was something else entirely. We saw powerful moves of God even in our worship. Immediately after debrief finished, a handful of my squad had the opportunity to do another “ask the Lord” (or “ATL”) time. I got to spend time with some awesome people that month that I didn’t really get to spend a lot of time with before. And we saw the Lord show up there too! It was definitely beautiful. But the best was yet to come.
About a week in, my team and I traveled to one of the most beautiful ministries we have ever gotten to partner with: HOPEthiopia. We were able to work with children for a good chunk of the month, which was amazing. And these kids are something special, too. They all have such beautiful faces and even more beautiful hearts. The way the Lord has been growing them into who they are meant to be is incredible. And we got to just love on the kids. How awesome is that?
That month, the Lord started to grow me in even wilder obedience. He asked me to do some of the wildest things this month and spoke to me a lot through them (including a 24-hour talking fast). It was this month that I read the book of Jeremiah (which was incredibly healing for me). I felt the Lord place Jeremiah on my heart and say that He was calling me to act more like Jeremiah– to be bold and walk in radical obedience to the Lord (even if the words he had to deliver were HARD words).
Romania (Month 10) – “Redemption”
Wow. As if Ethiopia wasn’t beautiful enough, the Lord gave me yet another incredible month in Romania. Romania was everything that I didn’t expect it to be but also everything it needed to be for me. To be honest, I wasn’t excited about Romanian originally, but my parents are from Romania and I grew up in the Romanian-American culture. You would expect me to be very excited. But I wasn’t. In fact, I kind of dreaded Romania.
For a variety of reasons, I wasn’t excited to go to “the motherland.” But the Lord, knowing that fear in me, was saying, “I am going to redeem this for you. It is not ok for you to be dreading a country like this, much less the people in this country.” And BOY did He. I loved everything about this country– the people, the food, the BLUNTNESS (what? That’s a huge surprise for ME of all people). I literally didn’t have a problem with any of the Romanian culture or people. It ended up being one of my favorite months by far.
Romania was also our man-istry month (a month where only the guys on my squad do ministry together). I used to hate being with other guys. I felt like I didn’t have a way to connect with other guys, so I just kind of avoided them. But the men of S Squad are something else. They pressed through the hard times WITH me and showed me actual LOVE. The Lord had been healing this wound in me for a long time, and Romania was the time that He decided to redeem it even further.
But the ministry itself was something else entirely. The host and his family practically adopted me as one of their own. My host even acknowledged this and asked me, “Why is it that I like you so much? Explain this to me,” to which I responded, “I think it’s because we are both excited to see what God has for us at any given moment.” He also told me that they had been praying for a long time for the Lord to send them a man who knows the Romanian lan ages and loves to pray. Like what? Are you kidding me? That’s literally me! Ok, God! I see You! This month ended up leaving me with a potential ministry to still stay connected with even long after the World Race is over. I already feel like I want to go back, but that will all have to be in the Lord’s timing!
Portugal/Spain (Month 11) – “Let’s do this together”
Oh boy. This one is a doozy. For this month, my squad was given freedom to travel in whatever groups we wanted (or no group at all, if we so chose) to hike El Camino, a 160+ mile hike from Porto, Portugal to Santiago, Spain. It was going to be a hard time physically, and the Lord wanted me to press into Him for strength. But this month was gonna be a hard month in other ways as well.
One thing that was really difficult to find time for was my daily quiet time. I spent so much time hiking every day that it was hard to spend as much time in the Word as I would have liked. I probably NEEDED more time with Jesus as well. I began to feel a little discouraged some days and really began to feel the effects of letting my intimacy with Jesus wane. This month showed me exactly what it can look like if I DON’T press into the Lord– I lack motivation and I get irritable (two things I hate feeling). You can’t live your best life unless you spend time with God. You have to do it TOGETHER with Him!
Still, I also saw the beauty that can only be found when we really DO go about life together with the Lord. During El Camino, it rained just about EVERY day that we hiked. Imagine hiking 15 miles a day in the pouring rain. Yeah. It’s tough. But rain is also super significant. It signifies the Lord’s ability to provide and make things grow. And there was one particular day where I saw this happen for myself.
During that day, I spent the whole day with the Lord. I walked at my own pace without anyone else in my squad, and I spent a good chunk of my time just talking to God. It was honestly the best of times. About halfway through the day, as it was pouring rain, I felt the Lord tell me to stop for a minute. I still remember that He told me, “Just wait until 10:35, and then you can keep going.” I remember praying, “Ok God. But can you please stop the rain for me.” AND HE DID. Literally 5 minutes was all it took to go from pouring rain to CLEAR blue skies! See what happens when we do things with God? He literally changes weather patterns for you!
It was cool that this happened to be my theme for my last month on the Race. This wasn’t like the rest of my themes. It wasn’t just about UNDERSTANDING a concept. It was about how to live your best life– together WITH the Lord!
BONUS: Re-entry into the United States – “Missed Connections”
I’ve been back home for a few weeks now, and it has been a wild ride. The Lord has been providing in some powerful ways. I have met some incredibly awesome people and had a chance to catch up with people that I (more or less) lost touch with during the Race. So really, “missed connections” is the best way to define this transition home anyway!
God doesn’t want us to live our lives with missed connections. He doesn’t want us to have regrets in community. He wants us to have life and have it more abundantly! That’s why Jesus came and died in the first place! Is there something in your life that you want to pursue? Maybe it’s a friendship with someone that you haven’t talked to in a while but is still important to you. Maybe it’s a deeper relationships with Him. Maybe it’s someone that you don’t know personally that the Lord is highlighting to you. Whatever it is that you need, don’t let it be just another “missed connection.” Press through. Reach out. BE LOVE to them. There may be a reason that they are so heavy on your heart. If you’re anything like me, you will find that these “missed connections” are just as important for THEM as it is for you.
That just about wraps up my themes for this past year on the World Race. It has been such an incredible journey and huge honor to get to serve the Lord this year. He impacted my own life and helped me grow in ways I did not expect in the slightest. I haven’t become a different person on the Race; I have realized by TRUE identity. I am more myself than I ever was before, and I owe it all to the Lord.
Thank you guys all so much for following my journey this year. I pray that you will consider supporting me and following my journey again next year on World Race America! I cannot wait to see how the Lord will move to powerfully bring revival to the States! It’s gonna be such a wild ride!
In all things, be blessed!
AG
