Hi friends! Since I last wrote I’ve moved from Armenia to the farthest side of Kazakhstan by way of more trains, buses, and taxis than I care to count, and one ferry across the Caspian Sea. We traveled for a week to get to our host in Kazakhstan. We’ve traveled over 2,300 miles in Kazakhstan alone. This country is beautiful and cold. Just over half of the population is the local ethnic group Kazakhs, and about a quarter are Russian, so it’s an interesting mix of cultures and languages. The major religion is Islam.
It’s going to be so difficult when I get home to explain what the Race has been like. It’s already been difficult to even blog about it. Every day can be so vastly different, it’s hard to explain sometimes. I think Kazakhstan for me has been a good picture of just how varied each month can be. I’d like to share a bit about what we do every day on the Race based on my experiences here.
Outward
For over 11 years, the World Race has been sending thousands of Christians to some of the most spiritually dark places around the world. We are teams of believers who have decided to give a year to serving God in this unique way, and we are experiencing what the first generation of disciples did: feeding the hungry, evangelizing, preaching, and telling people that the Kingdom of God has come near to them, that there is eternal Hope for them, and unending Love, and we get to tell them about Jesus and all that He’s done for us. I’ve shared about Jesus and the Gospel while hiking tens of miles with people in Spain, on buses, in taxis, in parks, in churches, in the homes of refugees in Jordan, on a cardboard box in Paris, in bars, in hostels, in McDonalds, in the middle of a group of men who I think were drug dealers (lol, that one was interesting. Don’t worry, the guys on my team were with me), in a pizza parlor, in cafes, on the streets, and more.
We got to minister to and pray for a new believer who was leaving a rehab center in Kazakhstan with his new faith in Jesus and hope for a better future.
I don’t have pictures to show you of people that I’ve become friends with and that I’ve told about Jesus and shared the Gospel with (that would be weird haha), but it is a regular occurrence for me, my team, and my squad. This is the reason behind everything. The Gospel, the Good News that there is forgiveness for sin through faith in Jesus Christ. Today is Good Friday, and I’ve been reminded all day of what a privilege it is to share this Good News with people throughout the 10/40 Window, the largest area of the world that has the least access to the Gospel. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a super human. It’s not like every single day I have talked to a new friend about Jesus. I think of the Race more as a marathon than a Race… just like I think of my life back home. You have to have balance, you have to rest, you have to pursue your relationship with the Lord and with your community. This isn’t a one week mission trip, and you can’t expect to push through full-force the entire time. But in each month the goal is the same: to love God and to love people, and to share the Gospel. Jesus and the Good News is the reason for the trip. We want to be a light in the spiritually dark places of the world. We can maximize our short-term impact by partnering with an established ministry, but God is also using our squad (Expedition, which isn’t tied to a host every month) to find new ministry hosts for future Racers to partner with, and to serve and love people without being connected to an established ministry.
In Kazakhstan we have been able to serve in a soup kitchen and serve at a men’s rehab center. At both of these we had the opportunity to share with groups of people stories from the Bible and we led worship. We also got to teach English. The English teacher can’t tell them about Christ in school, but she invited the kids to a pizza party, and I got to sit with one of the coolest kids I’ve ever met, and his older sister who is my age. I got to talk with her for a long time about her life, and then had the chance to pray over her and her family. Sometimes God uses us to outright share the Good News, sometimes we get to share stories from the Bible, or have long conversations with people about faith, sometimes we get to share worship and praise, sometimes we get to pray for people, some people on my squad have seen people come to Christ, some have seen people healed. All of it is pointing to the goodness and greatness of our God, and God is using us as a light wherever we go. We may not be the best at what we’re doing, but we are here, waiting with expectation for God to use us, and He does.
Sometimes we even get to use very specific skill sets to further God’s kingdom. For those who know me, you know that I spent over 4 years in Vegas serving the victims of sex trafficking. I did a lot of the “boots on the ground” work, but God also gave me a very unique skill set in mobilizing churches to this work. Coming on the Race I fully believed that I wouldn’t be able to use this skill set at all, that my over 4 years of ministry experience in this field would not be utilized to it’s fullest potential. I knew that I would be able to pray for victims on the streets, and I have, but I have a huge passion for training other Christians how to prevent trafficking and how to minister to trafficking victims. And wouldn’t you know, God opened a door for me to use this skill set! There is a Christian group in Kazakhstan who is hoping to learn how to make a big impact in their community and churches to fight against trafficking, and to share the Gospel with trafficking victims, and I got to spend several hours telling them about the work that we did in Vegas! I’m going back again in a few days to give them even more detailed training on this kind of work. Wow. God allowed me to use even a very unique skill like that on the Race, and I literally can’t even imagine the kind of impact this group is going to make on their community. I never would have thought that this could happen. God can use any and everything you have at any time or place to build His Kingdom, even in Kazakhstan. If you say “yes” God will use you!
The Christian group I got to train in Kazakhstan (and some of my awesome squadmates)! I still haven’t really processed that this happened.
Inward
On trains in Kazakhstan, in each wagon there are dozens of bunk beds, and it so happens that even as short as I am, my feet usually stick out a little bit into the aisle where people are trying to walk, and I’m usually on the top bunk, so if you’re walking by… there’s my feet. One time on a train, my friend told me “I knew it was you in that bed, I know your feet!”. It was at the moment that I knew I had reached a new level with my squad haha… living in community on the World Race really is unlike anything else I’ve ever experienced, except family. And that’s what it is. We are all family in Christ, brothers and sisters. We live together, eat together, work together, laugh together, cry together, and when you’re on an all-girl team, you share each other’s clothes constantly. We have conflicts and we work them out. We study the Word together. People start to get to know you well enough that they can recognize you by your feet.
Most of the girls on my team, Team Jubilee, +1 Kiana 🙂 Sam, where were you?!
This is another component of the World Race. Yes, we definitely want/need to be pouring out into the world doing “outward” ministry, but we also devote time to growing together as a team and squad. We take a 4-5 day break every two months as squad to debrief, think about what happened in the past few months and how we can move forward together refreshed and in unity. We have daily or weekly time set aside for feedback, where we get to talk about the hard stuff that comes with living in community like this, and we get to practice that whole iron-sharpens-iron thing. We get the chance to hear and understand things that hold us back from wholeness in Christ. We go on adventures together and have fun together during team time. We have Bible Studies together. We eat meals together. One of the girl’s on my team unfortunately lost her father in month two of the Race, and she felt led to come back to finish the Race, even though she is going through a tremendously difficult grieving process. As her team and family, we grieve with her and comfort her. Again, we’re not perfect at this community life, there are struggles, but this is the body of Christ, living and breathing. We show grace to each other, we practice loving and serving each other. We are honest about our struggles and know that we are accepted as we are, but we push each other to further intimacy with the Lord. We pray for each other. This inward ministry is so important, not just for the Race, but for the body of Christ everywhere. If we can’t love and serve each other well, how can we possibly imagine trying to love and serve the lost well?
Every day on the Race we do literally the most boring things you can imagine, just like anyone else. We take out the trash, we do the dishes, we do laundry, we cook, etc. Another aspect is the different roles that each of us fill. For instance, for the past few months I have been my team’s treasurer. I could not think of a more mind-numbing task to do on this mission trip, but, it’s a role that needs to be filled in order for our team to be good stewards of what God has given us, and I happily fill the role, because I know that it’s an important piece of our team moving forward on the World Race. There’s many things that we have to do just as a part of every day life, just like if we were at home.
This may in fact be the most boring picture I’ve ever uploaded, but I can’t tell you how many hours over the last 3 months I’ve written out receipts like this and uploaded them online so that the AIM staff can report to the IRS accurately. Future Racers… all I can say is treasure your treasurer!
Another part of our inward ministry is ministering to the body of Christ around the world. I can’t count how many times Christians in different churches have told us that they are inspired and encouraged by our stories of what God has done, that they are encouraged tremendously that God would send us to them, that they are blessed when we lead worship and teach/preach the Word, that they are filled up by us, that they see Jesus in us, and they are exposed to the wider body of Christ because of us. It’s a blessing to get to encourage and pray for the long-term Christian workers and churches that we serve alongside. In Kazakhstan I got the opportunity to lead worship for Christians and in church 6 times in one week! I’ve also gotten to share my testimony and teach from the Word in church, at the soup kitchen, and at the men’s rehab center. How amazing to be used by God to help strengthen and encourage those who are planted and steady in each country.
I got to lead worship 6 times in Kazakhstan, sometimes in small groups like this women’s Bible study, sometimes in front of the church on a microphone. It’s a blessing to use the gifts God has given me to uplift the Church.
Upward
Last, but definitely not least, we must have our focus always on God and our relationship with Him. We spend time in prayer and worship, and reading the Bible together and separately. I have experienced God in each country the same as I have back in the States. He is the same no matter where I go or what I’m doing. The honest truth is that, for me, there has been nothing so amazing or adventurous or wonderful that I have seen in the world with my eyes, nothing that even comes close to the Majesty of God. In my own journey, this trip has helped to deeply reinforce what I already believed on a very deep level, that no matter where I am in the world, or what amazing landscape I see, or what expanse of stars I gaze at, and no matter what I am doing or what happens in my life, God remains the same. He is constant, and I am happy that I can also see His attributes and character in the Bible. There‘s nothing as completely satisfying in my life as my relationship with Jesus, and the beauty and wonder about God to be found in the Bible. He speaks to me through His Word, through prayer, through worship, and through every day situations. I have gotten to experience really precious moments on the Race with God, but that’s because of who He is, not because of where I am or what I’m doing. He’s marvelous, wonderful, amazing, beautiful, intriguing, mysterious, and plain-as-day brilliant. I have experienced a deeper appreciation of the Bible, seeing how restricted access is to believers in different countries. I loved the Word before the Race, but especially now, I literally have not seen any beautiful thing in the world that even comes close to the beauty and wonder that I see in the Word of God.
“From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised! Psalm 113:3
Ok, this baby goat may come close to how beautiful God is (haha completely jk, but it was really cute). This was one of the sweetest moments I’ve had with God on the Race though, just getting to hold His creation on the first day of it’s life. It’s the little things sometimes. We named her Jubilee after our team 🙂
I’ve found it especially difficult to find the balance between this Up, In, and Out on the World Race, but I firmly believe that that’s what the Race is all about, and it’s what drives what we do every day. The focus of these three was already how I lived my life before the World Race, and I’ve heard World Race staff say “Forget the Race, we believe in these principles for our entire lives.” Ultimately, the staff wants Racers to use this year as a launching point to dive deeper into the Up, In, and Out for the rest of our lives, if we haven’t already been living that way.
For me at least, I find all of these aspects in Jesus’ life, and I try to balance them well in my own. When I’m in days or weeks of focusing only on In & Out, or Up & Out, or Up & In, there’s something majorly lacking in my life. I really try to find the balance between the three. What do you do every day? Do you find that there’s a balance, or that you’re focusing on only one or two of these?
I hope that you have been encouraged by my blog in some way. I also want to point out that yes, the World Race is a very unique mission trip, but it’s not to be elevated higher than any other season of our Christian lives. I’m excited to get back home and continue to live my life serving and loving others, and continuing to get to go on this grand adventure with God for the rest of my earthly life and into eternity! Please don’t read my blogs and think that your faith-walk is any less adventurous or challenging than this year has been for me. Be encouraged that God has each of us on the journey that He wants us to be on, and keep following Him wherever He leads! 🙂
