I have found that the World Race is not so accurately depicted in the pictures that I have seen online. The testimonials that I have heard are all filled with fun, parties, adventure, and of course Jesus. I have been on the Race for 4 months now and I would like to share some things that others do not share about the life of a racer. Maybe you are thinking about applying for the race, maybe you are a parent or friend of a racer, I encourage you to read with an open heart and mind. The life of the racer is not always fun and it is rarely easy so maybe this will give you an insight to life on the race. The World race sometimes sucks.
[Disclaimer: The World Race is amazing]
1: I feel alone, a lot.
Loneliness is heavy on the heart. Leaving your friends and family doesn’t seem that bad until you don’t have a way to talk to them when you need them the most. There is wifi some places but depending on where you are, it can be pretty bad or even nonexistent. When you are in a crowded church full of people worshiping and you still feel lonely you know that the loneness is real. You might have a community/team with you but its not exactly the same as your family.
2: Community is all sunshine and rainbows, said no one ever.
What can I say about living in community with 6 strangers? It’s not easy. You will NOT all be best friends. Some of you will be disgusted with each other because of a pet peeve that someone else on the team does. Don’t even think about eating her peanut butter without asking or we might have a WWIII on our hands. Coed teams are even worse because guys and girls don’t think the same. A direct message from a male to a female could be devastating and a passive comment from a female to a male will just make things worse. You see these people all day everyday and on top of that we have to have something called team time where we hang out even more, joy.
3: Feedback can go very badly.
For those who don’t know, feedback is calling someone forth in their walk with Christ. Sometimes feedback can look like encouraging someone in something that they are doing well, but feedback can also look like redirecting someone to change what they are doing because what they are doing does not resemble Christ. The bad thing is that feedback sometimes is given out of anger and that never ends well. Feedback can also be received wrongly by building a defense to defend your issues. If this happens it is no longer feedback, it’s an argument. Feedback not given or received well can create a bad day for the team.
4: Sometimes ministry isn’t the ministry that you envisioned.
We have all seen the World Race pictures where racers are holding kids laughing on the top of a mountain with the sunset in the background captioned with “Jesus loves the little children, all the little children in the world”. The reality of this picture might be that they took this picture with this child on their 2 mile walk back to their host’s house because they walked up the mountain to do door to door evangelism in a village for 3 hours and then they did hard construction work building a church for 3 hours and of course ended their ministry with the race ministry favorite which is monotonous painting. Ministry is sometimes extremely exhausting and not always fun. You might get to church and the pastor introduces you as the preacher and you must give an hour sermon. Surprise, you get to preach!
5: What is this privacy that you speak of?
On the other hand of feeling alone is the feeling that you never get alone time. You don’t have your own room that you can go to and shut the door, you are lucky if you have only 1-2 room mates. My team of 7 shared 1 room for the first 2 months! I think it was terrible, I can only imagine how our married couple must have felt. One does not simply get privacy on the World Race. One of our ministries didn’t even have a door or curtain on the shower, how’s that for privacy?
6: Foreigners are a target.
All foreigners are a target for getting taken advantage of. Every time you get in any form of public transportation including and not limited to a taxi, bajaj, boda boda, tuk tuk, bicycle, ect be prepared for the driver to try to rip you off. Another thing about being a foreigner is that all of the attention is on you. I can’t tell if people are looking at me because I am white, I have a beard, I am tall, or because I have something on my face. If you don’t like people staring at you and calling to you every second you are in public then good luck on your race.
7: Food is questionable at times.
Do you remember when you were in middle school and Thursdays were always the unknown meal? The race is a never ending middle school Thursday lunch. Mystery meat is a real thing here, I am really not sure what all has passed through my body, and I’m not sure that I want to know. When your host cooks for you then you are at the mercy of their meal of choice. My advice to you is to buy some hot sauce at the local market and put that stuff on everything.
8: You will get sick.
I was unfortunate enough to get sick the first day of my race. I have been face down with my head hovering over the hole of a squaty potty and if you have ever been in a squaty potty then you feel my pain. I was also the recipient of a mosquito bite containing malaria. That was a week that I never want to experience again. When you are sick on the race, you go to a sketchy clinic and they give you questionable drugs. You cannot get your normal comfort items like a ginger ale or even a bed, you get to lay on the floor and drink boiled water, enjoy.
9: Wrestling with God.
I have seen things that I never wanted to see. When you see a child sniffing glue laying in the gutter of a street with torn clothes and no food or water, you can’t un-see it. When you go to do ministry in the slums and the people ask you to pray that God will provide for them because they don’t feel provided for, your heart will break. Where is God and why is He letting this happen to His children? These questions will cross your mind more often than you think. You will wrestle with God but God will always win, good luck.
10: Give and give and give and give and give.
You don’t get much rest from ministry. You signed up for full time ministry and full time ministry is what you are going to get. You will be constantly pouring into others. You will always be asked to preach and teach because you are there for ministry. Get ready to pour into a lot of people and try not to run dry by seeking out Jesus to fill you back up. Church will almost never be in English so even if you don’t preach, you will not understand what they are saying. I suggest podcasts, bible reading, and a lot of prayer.
These are only the high points of what really sucks about being on the World Race. I don’t have time to name all of the stuff that a racer goes through. I need to say that the World Race is not for the faint of heart, but it is an amazing mission. How beautiful are the feet that bring the good news! There are also good things that come from these 10 bad points. Loneliness means that you get to depend on God. Community is a beautiful thing because these people are there to encourage you in Christ. Feedback, when done well, is an encouraging and loving redirection towards Christ. Getting to see different ministries gives us a new perspective on how to reach people for Jesus. No privacy gives you a chance to be open and vulnerable with your team mates, thus allowing you to grow. As a foreigner, all eyes are on you and that gives you the opportunity to direct people towards Christ and away from yourself. The different foods you get to eat is experiencing the culture at its finest. Sickness in a foreign country can strengthen your prayer life, trust me, I know from experience. Seeing the hurt and suffering in the world has brought me to my knees and made me love the people of the nations so much more; if I love these people this much, how much more does the creator love them, wrestling with God always ends with Him winning! God calls you to the race so that you can pour into others, God gives so that you can give to others. The World Race is not easy but I will rejoice in the fact that I get the privilege to go to the nations and show the love of God. The World Race might suck at times but it is totally worth it! I encourage you to embrace the calling and take a leap of faith if you are thinking about applying for the World Race. If you are on the World Race right now I want to encourage you to look towards Jesus and know that He is with you always, you got this because He has you. Lastly for those who are supporters of those who are on the race, I encourage you to pray for these missionaries, they need some prayer. I would even suggest sending them an encouraging email or Facebook message; it makes our day when we get some encouragement from people that we love.
Thank you to all of my supporters, because of you I am FULLY FUNDED!!!!!
