So yesterday 11/3/16 was our 300th day on the race. Yep, you read that right…300th day… a lot has happened in that time. We’ve been gone for three hundred days. You guys have been without us for three hundred days.
In 300 days I’ve…
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Fallen in love with 11 different countries…some more than others, but they all hold a special place in my heart.
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I’ve witnessed people come to christ…but I’ve also witnessed people turn from him, to deny who he is…
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I’ve had my heart broken more time than I can count…but God has also been healing my heart this year.
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I’ve learned to forgive, to live and let go….
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I’ve learned to accept me as me
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I’ve traveled to places I never thought I would
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I’ve learned…or rather attempted to learn to say “Hello,” and “Goodbye” in 11 countries and roughly 8 languages.
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I’ve gotten used to throwing toilet paper away rather than flushing…I’ve also gotten pretty good at the squatty potty…
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Head shoulders knees and toes…I’m Inside outside… Father Abraham…Make A Melody…all songs I know by heart now…
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Gotten good at playing 4 corners and Simon says as well
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I’ve hiked in the Andes…and Gone Trekking in the Mountains of Chile
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I’ve prayed for free food…and free housing….and Gotten them both
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I’ve preached multiple times….given my testimony more times than I can count…I even did it in Spanish in Peru.
300 days…a lot can happen…
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I’ve missed the birth of my two nephews Wesley (yes luke I’m counting him as a nephew) and Isaac…
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I’ve missed several friends getting married.
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I’ve missed my grandpa going through brain surgery and radiation for his cancer…
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I’ve missed birthdays and anniversaries…
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I’ve missed my youth kids …
But…
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I’ve gotten to hang out with more kids then I can count this year.
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I’ve gotten to love on kids who might not otherwise get loved on.
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I’ve eaten “normal foods” and foods like crickets, guinea pigs, and chicken feet this year.
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I’ve gotten to live in 11 new countries, and yet I still get to come home to the good ole’ USofA in a few weeks.
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I’ve gotten to serve and be served.
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I’ve gotten to love on people of other nations and be loved on by other people of nations.
But beyond seeing, going and experiencing things in the last 300 days God has been teaching me a lot. Something he’s been teaching me these last few days is how even though we’ve been on the field for three hundred days, and we will be back on State soil in a little over two weeks. We’re not done being missionaries when we step back foot on to that soil. I know as racers we’re all in a phase where we’re excited to be coming home, grieving what we’re about to lose in terms of community, lifestyle, friends, experience…etc…but I want us all to remember something, yes, we came out onto the field for 11 months, and then we’re headed home…but we’re not headed home the same people. We’re headed home as people who’ve gotten their hearts broken, who’ve witnessed men and women coming to Christ, who’ve prayed for healing, who have loved those we did not know, who have served and been served….we did it all over the world for the last 11 months now let’s go home and do it there too.
I recently sent a message to my Squad Mentor Beka’s new squad…it said:
“This year won’t “fix” you. But it can heal you. It can show you what’s broke. It can give you the tools to change, to grow [and] to repair. This year won’t “fix” you because you’re not meant to be fixed. God created you the way you were intended and he created you in His image.”
I got these words for Beka’s news squad, but the more I thought about them the more I realized their applicable not to just them, but to myself, to other racers and future racers…and to people back home…300 days is a lot, a lot can happen… a lot has happened in that 300 days that we’ve been gone, not just to us but to you back home. On the field we’ve learned how to lean on community; learn to give and receive feedback–both the encouraging and the tough feedback; we’ve learned to live without expectation, to be served and to serve…we’ve learned the tools of how to grow, of how to learn to change, and how to begin to repair what’s been broken…we’ve learned a lot…as we come home, let us show you what we’ve learned…let us continue to be missionaries off the field to you, let us make the UNITED STATES our new mission field…one where we can teach you that you don’t need to be “fixed,” that yes, you make have brokenness n you, but rather than “fixng you,” God wants you to heal, to repair, to grow and to change…YOU were made in his image let him continue to mold you in that image; to show you as he SEES you.
So I’m headed home in two weeks…by the time I get home I will have been on the field for 11 months, just around 320 days…I’ve done a lot, seen alot, experienced a lot, grown a lot and learned a lot…when I get home, don’t expect me to turn off the missionary switch…there isn’t one, because one of the greatest things I’ve learned this year, is that I can be a missionary a year…so be aware United States…Be Aware Oregon…Be Aware La Grande…I’m coming home, and I’m not turning off the switch, I’m not just no longer a missionary, instead of being out on the “field” all over the world, the field is now there…the field is now my home…the field is the USofA, the field is Oregon…the field is La Grande…the field is YOU.
300 DAYS ISN’T ENOUGH. I WON’T LET IT BE.
