THINGS I’M LEARNING THIS MONTH: 

I’m still learning about community living. I lived it for 11 months on my World Race and even as a Squad Leader it’s still my biggest challenge. I not only live in community with 41 Gap Year racers but also with my leadership team. A book I’m reading has a lot of great things to say about it:

“But that doesn’t mean community is easy. For everything in this world tries to pull us away from community, pushes us to choose ourselves over others, to choose independence over interdependence, to choose great things over small things, to choose going fast alone over going far together. The simple way is not the easy way. No one ever promised us that community or Christian discipleship would be easy. There’s a commonly mistranslated verse where Jesus tells the disciples, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. . . . For my yoke is good and my burden is light.” People take that to mean that if we come to Jesus, everything will be easy. (The word good is often mistranslated as “easy.”) Ha, that’s funny.”

Excerpt From: Claiborne, Shane. “The Irresistible Revolution”

 

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This week we have been in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic. We have been having our first debrief where we have the chance to rest. This looks like having teaching sessions, morning devotionals, team debriefs and of course fun times with the whole squad. 

We celebrated Halloween early and a really great Gap Year racer decided to dress up as his favorite squad leader! ME! You know what Oscar Wilde says, 

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” 

So I take it as a complement : )

 (He stole my favorite joggers and comfy long sleeve, he also wrote on a bag “carrots” and the other side, “popcorn”)