I don’t know how to do this. I really, honestly don’t know how to do any of this.
So much of me wants to hide that from all of you. To keep up some Instragram Christian facade that has it all together, that confidently trusts the Lord in all things always and has picturesque quiet time daily as the sunrises. (Imma be real, sometimes my most fervent prayers happen in fear as I’m running from the raccoons that find their home in my summer camp’s dumpster while throwing the trash out late at night)
I don’t know how to go to 11 countries in 11 months well, how to love others in these difference cultural contexts in ways that Jesus loves them, how to share the Gospel in Romanian or Vietnamese or in a way that Bolivians click with.
I don’t know.
But I want to. (I’m eager to learn, like real eager.)
And my God does. He knows it all.
Before I throw out some false humility, let me be real with you. I do have experience sharing the Gospel in different cultural contexts, with people very similar and very different then me. I’ve done this abroad in Europe and in South America as well as here at home. I’ve worked with college ministries geared towards college students broadly as well as international students specifically while at Michigan State. I’ve traveled a bit. I’ve loved Jesus a lot. I’ve shared the Gospel in my first and my second language. (Though let’s be real, the second language one definitely involved a bit of drawing and a lot of negotiating for meaning) I’ve been growing in being comfortable in getting uncomfortable.
I might not know exactly how this will all play out (I mean, who apart from God really does?) but I’m confident this’ll be something that the Lord can use for his glory.
“Wow, that’s a lot of transitions” is something that’s been said to me a time or two when I share the fact I’ll be switching countries this next year about every month. Now I don’t know exactly what that’ll be like but there definitely have been some ways the Lord has prepared me for this.
Even like way back in elementary school. I switched schools every year. From a private Catholic school to public schools in the inner city and suburbs… there were some seriously cultural shifts early on in my life.
And as I grew, life was never short of transitions. Since coming to college, my parents’ address has changed four times. From Michigan to Nebraska to Florida to back to Michigan all before I graduated.
We could even look at this camp I work at. My first year, when I was a counselor, I would spend only a week at a time in a cabin and then pack everything up and move to a new one. Week after week for an entire summer.
Transition? (I want to say “psh, it’s nothing” but I don’t want to be prideful about it and not acknowledge how different this coming adventure will be from all that have come before it. That being said, I have confidence that the Lord will be enough. In the best and not so best moments and days, weeks even months… I know the Lord and that He will be there in every adventure and misadventure.)
And so, I might not know how to do this. How to blog, how to transition, how to do this whole “World Race” thing but I can rest and rely on the Lord that is.
And hey, worst comes to worst, I’ll still have Jesus so it’s all going to be ok.
Trusting and hoping (and so in need of prayers and Jesus),
Caitlyn Buell
