Dear Family, Friends and Other Rando's we come in contact with:
The following blog contains many a suggestion in relation to how to love your racer better. These are my raw thoughts, tread lightly. This is just to invite and provide awareness to our needs, as racers. I appreciate your time, thank you for loving me. This might help you love me better. (:
1.We can’t talk to you as much as you’d like us to.
We love you, all of you. But there is no way for us to get in touch with y’all all the time outside of facebook. Send us a message, we’ll do our best to respond but a lot of times we don’t have internet unless we walk to it and pay for it. We don’t have a lot of time to devote to calling home. Don’t be hurt. Be encouraging. We WANT to talk to you, but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way.
2.Sometimes we rely more on God for safety and protection than you think is feasible.
As missionaries on the World Race we agreed to the fact that we aren’t in a cushy desk job any more. We no longer play within the confines of comfort and safety. Sometimes we’re sleeping outside in tents in sketch places, sometimes we are in tuktuks in Asia that don’t know the meaning of breaks or lanes or one way traffic. It all goes down, God has a hedge of protection surrounding us.
Don’t worry. STOP Worrying!
(just my tuktuk dashing across 3 lanes of traffic, in the rain)
3.We are prone to start a dance party, just about anywhere.
This. Is. A. Fact. Grocery Stores, Elevators, Escalators, buses, any and all transportation, Churches, Streets, Meeting Spaces, Bathrooms, in the middle of worship, upon finding out good news, knowing we’re about to eat, seeing other squad mates after a month. Dancing has become a natural reaction and its an internationally recognized way of celebrating. Please embrace this behavior. Your participation isn't necessary but it could change your life. Maybe.
(Dancing in some random restaurant in Thailand.)
4.We talk about each other a lot.
When we call you and you ask what we’re up to, we could go on for hours talking about our teammates. We love each other. We’re excited about where they’re at almost as much as they are. We can tell you full stories about our teammates and not even know we’ve taken up 20 minutes and not spoken a word about ourselves. These people are our lives. We spend every waking moment with each other. Learn their names, creep on their blogs. Don't change the subject to us, this IS us.
(My Team: Jeff, Caity, Devin, Bug(ME), Trever, Pamela)
5.We want to tell you our stories.
If you message and/or call us. Please know that we’ve been dying to tell you our stories. The simple question, “What’s something interesting that happened this month?”, “Tell me a story.”, “What critters have you run into in _insert current country_”. These questions and really any specific questions show you’re interested and really open us up to giving you more than what you get to read in our blogs.
6.ON that NOTE – Our blogs mean a lot to us.
One of the quickest ways to a racers heart is through a blog comment. It says that you took the time to read our thoughts and stories and you appreciate the time and effort it takes to write, also sharing our blogs and liking them – RACER HEART GOLD.
(Marielle losing her mind, "liking" everything)
7.Nothing warms our hearts more than a RANDO message from you.
We LOVE hearing from home. Especially a google+ chat, an e-mail, or personal message on facebook. They’re like tiny kittens being dropped in our laps. (this is a good feeling, just to clarify) It’s sweet and personal and encouraging. WE LOVE THEM!
(Stinky made my day by google+ing me!)
8. Our favorite subject is poop. Human excrement, dropping trou, where its done, how long its been since your last and the texture. We talk about dropping the kids off at the pool like normal people talk about the weather. It’s the perfect way to break the ice with someone. It’s also very affirming to know that you’re not alone in you current malfunction.
“Yeah, I haven’t pooped in 2 weeks either”
– helps soothe the agony more than you would think. Nobody wants to be alone in that.
Sooo, when this comes up. Please show us some grace and humor us with your own fecal story.
(Actual Sign in a Malaysia bathroom)
9.We really don’t know about recent events in America, let alone our home towns.. please update us when big things happen. On the other hand, use discretion. We probably don’t need to know that Kim Kardashian and Kanye are fighting or that the middle school is updating the science wing. But the important things like Grandma getting her ears pierces and the Heat vs. the Pacers – let us know.
(MawMaw getting her ears pierced.)
10. We might feedback you on accident, don’t worry we all hated it at first too.
If you haven’t heard about feedback yet, well you don’t talk to us enough or you aren’t listening. Feedback is something that forever changes you. This is the first time(For some of us) that people in your life who love you call you up to live a life more like Christ and they do it by telling you things in your life that don’t line up with Christ. We are pretty good at it by this point, so we might get you.
Just Receive It.
11.This last one is kind of a pet peeve. KNOW what country we’re in. It’s not difficult to look at facebook or at the previous blog post to see what country is posted at the bottom of every status we type or probably in the status somewhere, scroll, you’ll find it. Not knowing just sends the message that you don’t care enough to keep track of what COUNTRY, not even the city or anything, just the country. THAT being said – I’m in Cambodia and next month I’ll be in Rwanda.
THANK YOU so much for taking time to read this blog, I had fun writing it. It’s all straight from the heart and honest as I’ll get out. If any of these things offended you, stop being offend-able.
I love you guys!
ALSO I’m about $2000 short of my Final deadline, JULY 1st. If you feel led to donate to me HERE is how you should go about doing so:
To Give by Credit Card – You can click the Support Me tab on the left of my blog.
To send a check – Make it out to AIM and on the memo line write LAWSONTAYLOR
Send that baby to:
Adventures In Missions
PO Box 534470
Atlanta, GA, 30353-4470
