In good ways and not so good ways the World Race has not at all been what I expected. In some ways it’s easier, but in others ways it’s much harder.
Before the race I was not given much information of what this would all entail, and even now I don’t have much information on what the second half will even look like (now I just have experience to use to guess what it will look like).
So, I want to give you a look into what the actual World Race is versus what I thought it would be:
First off, I thought I was going on a yearlong missions trip. I thought for the first time in my life I was transitioning from short-term to long-term missions.
Lol nope. That didn’t happen.
Now don’t go get your panties in a wad freaking out about where your generously donated money went (and please hear the humor in my text!). I am on a missions trip, but it’s not a yearlong/long-term trip. It’s actually 11, mini, short-term, month-long trips. They all just happen to be back to back.
I did not at all think about how this was going to affect me in the long run. 6 months have come and gone, along with 6 different ministries, 6 months of relationships, 6 months of integrating into new cultures, just to have them all seemingly ripped away as soon as I settled down into one.
6 months of a constant broken heart as I create new relationships with people in each country just to have them end after a few short weeks. A continuous journey of opening up my heart to new people and new ministries just to be left with a small gap in my heart as each month comes to an end.
This makes the race so much harder than I expected. I thought the constant jumping from country to country would keep things interesting and fun- and although that part is true- I think now I’d much rather have 11 months in one place in order to really build and grow relationships in a more meaningful, lasting way.
(Just a fun shameless plug to the big guy upstairs, through the constant moving, leaving, changing, etc. I have really experienced in such a fresh way the realness of the truth that God is constant. Our only real constant in this world. I’ve seen how he stays constant and consistent no matter what continent I’m on, what city I’m in today, what time zone it is, versus where we were yesterday. He is the same and wow that’s a comfort to hold onto as everything else changes so frequently).
I also thought I was going to just be thrown into the deep end, on my own in the world. I thought they were just placing a group of random people from the US in each country and then just wishing them good luck to do what they can.
Thankfully this didn’t happen. We have a whole organization with hierarchy in leadership filled with people looking out for us. There are people who work daily in the office in Georgia who coordinate each month of ministry, check in with each team, pray for us as we’re on the field, and contact each ministry host before we get there.
They also very carefully and prayerfully assigned leadership roles on the teams after they had broken us up into teams. Each person on the squad essentially gets a role who all answers to someone in higher roles at the office. There are roles such as logistics who plans all our travel days, treasurers who handle our monthly team budgets in order to pay for our food and lodging with each ministry host and also for our travels, Team Leaders who are the point of contact of each team to the office back home, worship leaders, storyteller leaders, etc.
So, I thought we’d be figuring out everything on our own as we went along, but actually we went through extensive training between training camp and launch on each of our roles (which, however, do change periodically as team changes occur or people step down from their roles). Even though it is us as squadmates/ teammates who are leading each other on a day to day basis, each person in each role had very thorough training in order to not be “all on our own” and actually have a game plan on how to do things as we are on the field.
Additionally, I didn’t realize we’d be partnered with ministry hosts who already have local ministries in each place; I thought it’d be all up to us to just ask the Lord everyday what to do for ministry and allow him to create opportunities for us to do ministry in. (Although this does happen time to time when a team doesn’t get assigned a ministry host, but rather is assigned ATL month which essentially is exactly what I just described. However, most of our months are spent in partnership to help grow and strengthen a ministry that is already planted in order to further what the Lord is already doing there because he is in each place before we even get there!) I didn’t realize we’d be partnered with existing local ministries because I also believed a misconception that I’d be living in a tent for the whole year. But no…that’s not true either. (I’m sorry to those of you which I shared that with, I believed this under false pretenses).
We weren’t given much information going into the race, and even now we don’t have any more information! So, when I looked at the packing list and saw I needed a tent I assumed that meant we’d be living in it all year! Also based off of training camp, assuming that training camp was mimicking the race, I thought we’d use a tent and be taking bucket showers everyday. However that’s not the case. Apparently this changes based on each route, and who your host is, but I haven’t even touched my tent since training camp! We don’t find out our city, or ministry each month until a week or two before we get there, so even now, I’m still uncertain if we’ll need a tent for the second half of the race! This isn’t bad though. I’ve been thankful to have a real roof and running water (even if it’s not always hot). Most months we’ve even had bunk beds! But from the lack of information I was misinformed of how I’d be “roughing it.” In that aspect it’s actually much easier than I expected.
(There are actually many more humorous misconceptions I believed leading up to the World Race, like hiking every day with everything we own to get from our sleeping/camp site to our ministry site (this doesn’t happen either) that I would love to share, just ask!)
Two other combined misconceptions that I had were that I thought through roughing it, we’d only be in 3rd world, isolated, way out there, undeveloped cities. Now that has happened, but people in big cities need Jesus just as much! I’ve been in Capital cities, 3rd world cities, rural cities and urban cities.The poor and the rich both need Jesus equally, along with the educated and uneducated.
Following this false fact of only being in rural, 3rd world cities, I somehow believed I’d never see a store again, never be able to buy toiletries or a new shirt. I’m not sure how I was under the impression that no one overseas needed shampoo or used toothpaste, but I tried to pack enough for year, and that was a big mistake! Also, turns out to not be a problem at all. People use toiletries all over the world just like we do in America, even in small villages. And I feel really silly even to admit that I believed this!
This last one is the hardest to wrestle with. Before I left on the race, everyone I knew basically talked me up to be a superhero, and I was off to save the world! I’m not sure if I believed this for myself or just because everyone else said it and it made me feel good, but that’s most definitely not been the case. I haven’t seen a single healing, or even a single person I’ve lead to Christ. I feel like I’ve let everyone down, like I’ve let myself down. I mean, afterall, this is the whole idea about being on a missions trip in the first place. But the thing is, salvation, miracles, healings, etc, aren’t up to me. Not up to my strength. Not according to what I do. I’m not the superhero. I’m simply the servant following the lead of the real hero. Obeying and doing what he says for me to do, and trusting that he’s doing everything he needs and wants to do. All the while, I’m just along for the ride to jump when he says jump and preach when he says preach.
One other thing (my personal opinion I’ve learned from experience): missions trips aren’t all about miracles and salvations. Because that isn’t up to us. That’s up to God’s perfect timing and supernatural ability. But what he left for us to do is to bring heaven to earth. We are to spread his kingdom here by making earth look more like Heaven everyday. We do this by showing love to the unloved, by seeing the unseen, by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the homeless, serving the least of these, and living like Jesus did. Every single day that Jesus walked the earth he showed love and brought the atmosphere and culture of heaven to earth. This is what I’m doing here.
As I don’t see any miracle, healing, salvation, etc. in the natural, he’s growing my faith. Now be careful what you pray for kids, because when you ask for more faith, it’s not going to come in the shape of a huge miracle. It’s going to come invisible! Because faith is believing in the unseen. So I know in this time God is just growing my faith and teaching me endurance and perseverance to continue to press in to him, to trust him, to rely on him, even when I can’t see him! You see, I thought that I’d solely be outward focused and get to partner in the many miraculous works of Jesus as he’s still moving on this earth today. However, this trip has been just as inwardly focused as it is outward. This one surprised me the most. God has been working in me even when I can’t see it, and is working just as much in the rest of the world even when I can’t see it. I know my job this far has been to plant and water seeds of those who have come before me. The harvest is for another season for other workers. Right now, from me, God just wants my faithful obedience and allow him to work in his strength to do his miracles in his timing.
And let me tell you, that’s just not at all what I expected of the World Race.
