In November, just before I left for the World Race, my best friend from college, her new fiancé, and I spent an amazing day at Disney’s Magic Kingdom in Orlando. It was April’s (my aforementioned best friend’s) first time at Disney World, so I made it my personal mission to make sure she had the true Disney Experience. We took the necessary pictures, ate ice cream shaped like the famous mouse, and, of course, rode all of the classic Disney rides. If you know anything about the Most Magical Place on Earth, you know that no trip is complete without a ride on “It’s a Small World.” This is a lesson my grandparents instilled in me early on. “It’s a Small World” is my grandmother’s favorite ride, and so no trip to the park is complete without riding it at least once. For those of you who are not familiar, this slow-moving water ride takes passengers on a tour of the world and provides the spectators with a brief glimpse into the cultures that one might find on a trip around the planet. Riding in November felt particularly nostalgic, as I knew I was about to embark on my own journey around this seemingly not so small earth.
Hopefully, those who have ridden this timeless classic and those of you who have not, do know the tune that accompanies the ride. Yes, that repetitive one that will be stuck in your head for days. Are you singing it? Good. Because if there is one thing I have learned on this race, it is that the world, is, in fact, incredibly small.
Let’s start with Daniel, a former teammate and now raised-up squad leader. He knows a girl with whom I went to that small college in Kentucky. They went to high school together.
While in El Salvador, Stacie (my former team leader) and I had the opportunity to go out to dinner with the family of one of Stacie’s family friends. Not only had they been to Stacie’s own town and knew the people there, but they ALSO knew our ministry host through a mutual friend (we got to meet said mutual friend the next week). Stacie may have the opportunity to see this family again in Zambia next month, as they will be doing their own mission trip in the same country (only made possible by a route reordering).
In Buglaria, my teammate Chelsea found a girl who was from her specific suburb of Seattle and knew her brother’s girlfriend. They had been in the same college class.
Heather and Kelly, two girls from C-Squad, discovered at launch that they are, in fact, distant cousins.
And this is perhaps one of my favorite stories from the race: When we arrived in Albania (the first time) after many hours of travel, we spent the night in the Albanian airport due to bus times. Though many of us were embarking to Bulgaria, one team was staying in Albania. They planned to sleep in the airport that night and make their way to their contact the next morning. After only an hour or so, a man came into the airport. Imagine yourself walking into 44 Americans sprawled out on the airport floor. Being American himself, he curiously approached us and asked us what we were doing there. A squad leader explained to him the World Race and our current situation. This man, who was only at the airport to pick up another American, was a point of contact for the team staying in Albania. He was able to immediately arrange for them to be picked up. But God was not finished there. When the person whom he had been waiting for arrived, he explained to her who we were. She excitedly exclaimed that she knew what the World Race was, because her cousin’s son, Nathan Borntrager, was on the World Race right now! So the squad leader reached over and woke up the same Nathan Borntrager, who was sleeping only a few feet away.
Through all of these experiences, I cannot help but excitedly exclaim “THE WORLD IS SO SMALL!”
God is repeatedly putting this fact in my face. We come from a million different places. We are all so very different. But in a fundamental way, we are all the same. We are all God’s children. We are all placed on this earth for a reason. We are all connected (in the circle of life! Too much Disney? Sorry.) In all seriousness, God continues to grant me the privilege of seeing His church in a whole new way. The church is international. The church is intertwined. The church is multilingual and multicultural. The church is full of people who, despite their circumstances, are just like me. We all sin. We all fall short. We all experience God’s love and grace and mercy in our own unique and beautiful ways. And this year I have the opportunity to hear those stories and be a part of those people’s lives. I count myself immeasurably blessed to see how small this world really is.
“It’s a world of laughter
A world of tears
It’s a world of hopes
And a world of fears
There’s so much that we share
That its time we’re aware
It’s a small world after all.”
So for those of you still singing the song, think about the lyrics. Really focus on them and read them. Ask God for your own awareness and revelation of how small the world is. Though the task of sharing His love with the WHOLE world seems daunting, start one person at a time. Start with your neighbor, start with your coworker, start with the person right in front of you. If we all do that, and follow where God leads us, we can see that it is a small world after all.
