Four and a half years ago my husband and I left with heavy packs on our backs, and anticipation in our hearts. We had high expectations for the Lord to do great things as we went out and changed the world in our eleven month journey.
One cannot do the World Race and come back unchanged.
However, my life did not begin and end with the World Race.
I will say that best and most challenging year of my life was not the World Race. In fact, life has just gotten richer and more intense since. Shortly after coming home, I became pregnant. I’m now a mommy to a two and a half year old boy. Motherhood is the most beautiful and challenging experience yet. Being involved in a local church, making a commitment to a city for the long haul, having open eyes and hearts to further His Kingdom in the U.S….as the years go by, and the older I get, I realize that life gets more full. It gets better.
But the lessons I learned during that period of time have shaped my character and who I am for the rest of my life. It was hard for me to pinpoint just one way the WR changed my life. There are so many! Living in intense community taught me how to give feedback and work through conflict in a healthy way. Having nothing but what was inside my pack taught me to be resourceful. I came to realize that putting God first and my marriage second was not just ok, but healthy and necessary. My desire to be in control was radically rocked as there was very little I could control those eleven months.
However, the biggest takeaway for me was the power of one.
In the Gospels, Jesus talks in a parable about a Shepard leaving the 99 to go after the one lost sheep.
There is also the parable of the woman looking for the one lost coin.
You see, my husband and I thought we were going to change the world, the Lord was going to use us to pray for the multitudes to be healed and saved…
But let’s be real, World Racers. The World Race is not that glamorous.
The blogs and videos are! In fact I want to go again when I watch the promo videos. 🙂 But the daily grind, is far from it. It’s tiring on travel days. There’s hunger when you’ve been living off beans for three months straight in Africa. Some days you just want to be able to watch a movie and not pretend to be so in love with your team at the end of the day. Some days you are just so spiritually drained that you can’t handle praying for one more person, and six other team mates already prayed for that person! Didn’t you all think you would do different ministry besides teaching English and door to door? After all, I signed up to make a difference, to impact the nations for Jesus!
But, the power of one…
Our first month was India. There was a woman that we prayed for in a small village that received her sight after being blind for years. If my World Race trip was meant for that one woman, it was enough. Her life was radically transformed because of my obedience to that call.
A friend of mine on a different squad prayed for a woman in Malaysia to conceive a child. ONE YEAR LATER, that woman contacted my friend on facebook and told her that her prayer was answered. If just that one woman was impacted by my friend during her WR journey, she was enough.
I became extremely close with one girl on my team. I had the privilege of watching the Lord radically transform her with His love those eleven months. She was worth it.
You see, sometimes we measure success in numbers. But God’s math is different than our math. Sometimes one is enough.
Since leaving the World Race, I’ve been asking the Lord to provide one person each year for me to invest in-to share the gospel, disciple, encourage, and come alongside.
If I impacted one person every year for the rest of my life…well one plus one plus one…eventually it adds up.
