One might think, “You are traveling the world… doing awesome missions works for the Lord… meeting incredible people and experiencing distant foreign cultures. What more could you want? Are you crazy? Wanting to come home. I would trade you ANY day. Are you going to give up before your trip is done?”
One might be right in thinking those things. While traveling to beautiful countries all around the world, meeting amazing individuals both in and out of ministry and experiencing diverse cultures is always an amazing experience, it’s not always happy go lucky. Not that bad or dangerous things happen or that difficult circumstances arise, but simply life away from the people you love and the place you call home wears on you.
I miss making progress in life. Whether in relationships, a career, financially or whatever, it burns you out to work so hard for a month only for nearly everything to be reset again at the beginning of each month.
I miss my family and all the comforts of home.
I miss holding my girlfriend and telling her about each day. I miss both giving and receiving affection from someone I truly love.
I miss my friends and the fond memories of sincere friendship and fellowship.
Just about every month we make a great deal of progress in one way or another, whether in ministry, as individuals, spiritually or as adults, even as teams or as a squad. We have had places that felt like home. J Squad is a family. There are great friendships formed. We are there for each other to hug if someone needs a hug, or to sit and talk about the good things and the bad. But… it’s just not the same.
The Race is hard. Living as we are, while so cool and only temporary is still hard. The realities of life after the race begin to set in and it leads you to dwell on friends, family, and home.
It’s so easy to drown in the ‘What’s next?’ and in the people back home when you have been gone for so long, repeating the same steps over and over again and then topping it off with seemingly stunted growth in the Lord after such a rush in terms of personal and spiritual growth through the first bunch of months.
But that’s the point isn’t it? It is hard! So many of the good things in life come through the hard stuff. Pushing through when times get tough and you are tired. When you hit a plateau you need to change things up in order to keep growing. Persevere. How often we are called in the Bible to persevere. We are promised life will be hard, especially as followers of Christ. We are told though that we must continue running, with perseverance, the race marked out for us. That hardship should be endured as discipline by the Lord on the road to humility and holiness. Being made holy, like Christ is holy, so that more glory may be given to God.
I’m not going home. I never actually considered going home but I do miss home and the people I love back there.
I’m not giving up on this opportunity God has given me. I know God has more growth in store for me. I know that the work we have done and will continue to do affects and means more than we could imagine. There are too many people in this world that need to experience the incredible love of Christ for me to quit because of me, myself, and I. When in reality, it’s not about ME at all.
Though, I would greatly appreciate prayer during this time. That the Lord would show himself mighty and alive to me. That I would see the fruit of our work. That I would feel his hand moving in my life. That he would give me reassurance of the path I am walking and insight into which direction to keep walking in. That through the hardship He would be kept in the throne of my life and that no other person or thing would become an idol in my life. That I can stay present. That I can finish this journey strong!
______________________________________________________________________
P.S.
There are still a few individuals who need financial support to stay on the race!
My good friend Francis still needs support and can be checked up on and donated to on his blog, http://francisfaucher.theworldrace.org
