It’s finally here!
My final blog from the field and my last month on the World Race April Expedition through the “10/40 Window.” I’m happy the finish line is in sight – happy to return to my home country, happy to be with my family and have the same bed for more than three weeks, happy to spend my final month in Indonesia serving refugees. I’m also sad. I’m losing my community, the people I’ve learned to laugh, love, and live with everyday for the past 11 months.
Our journey started 10 months ago in Spain. 21 people who had never met before converged in NYC to spend the next 11 months traveling through and serving in 11 different countries with 11 different languages and cultures. We had high hopes and many expectations but no clue how to create a safe and trusting community. All we knew was God had placed a voice in our hearts that screamed, “Leave!” so we did – homely comforts, relationships, careers, and more, to serve people in the most unreached areas of the world.
Looking back, I realize how few of us used logic to make this decision. . . “Hey, let’s travel to 11 countries with people we’ve never met before and live together 24/7.” What a splendidly terrible idea! We are a very eclectic group and we have our good days and bad. The sum of these days has been a catastrophe in the best way possible. My former perspective, mindset, and values have been devastated. From that reason, the World Race has been my most important life experience to date.
Now the inevitable question: What did you learn from this experience?
I’m going to break this into two separate blogs: pre-finish line (this blog) and post-finish line (next blog). Here we go!
The past 11 months I’ve learned…
Our squad hiked to unreached people groups in Nepal to share the Good News.
- What I think about God affects everything in my life.
- Nothing I do or fail to do will change God’s love for me.
- God likes me; so, I can like me. I’m “good people!”
- Adopting God’s kindness, goodness, and gentleness with the most embarrassing and shameful parts of myself and my life were the key to self-acceptance, self-discovery, and transformation.
Our team volunteered at a school in Myanmar with these joyful youngsters!
- Your transparency on social media affects your family and friends.
- Don’t deal with bad thoughts and habits. Replace them with better ones.
- “We fall and we rise, and both are the mercy of God.” A failed Army career followed by life-changing year of travel. It’s all God’s mercy.
- Trials are opportunities to grow into who God is calling me to be. God’s allowing it to happen, so what am I learning?
John Morgan and I volunteered with these ladies at Zion Cafe. They were a blast!
- Those most different from you are a gift to teach you God’s heart.
- How to reprove others – be direct and give them a new way.
- How I deal with immaturity demonstrates my own maturity.
- Knowledge of God without experience is untransformed living. Experience of God without knowledge is subjective and unwise. I need both.
Lukas Drummond and I with our Moroccan friends ran a surf camp for orphans.
- Boundaries in relationships are necessary. They allow people to wisely share vulnerabilities and patiently cultivate a friendship.
- Pursuing vulnerability is not an excuse to dismiss boundaries.
- Meditate: Learn to sit with yourself, drop your expectations, still your mind, and focus your attention inward – that’s where God lives (John 14:23).
There you have it!
Those are some of the many lessons have changed the way I live and think. Many are simple, but I know they’re true in my heart. Thank you all for the wonderful support I’ve received on this journey. I am blessed to have such a kind and generous group of veterans, family, friends, and spiritual brothers and sisters supporting me.
