The world is made up of stories: fairy tales for young children,
witty anecdotes shared with friends, news headlines scrolling across our televisions, epic narratives of adventure and
intrigue, memories of years gone by told by old, wrinkled women, or simply a Tweet. From our
earliest breaths to our last days, we crave stories. They are our means of passing along information, sustaining our cultural traditions, entertaining a crowd, teaching life lessons, expressing what is in our hearts, and speaking life into situations of darkness. In a world where words have more impact than wars, stories are our greatest weapons for truth, life, and hope, and to tell good ones is to fight for those things. Stories are so powerful that they were Jesus’s weapon of choice. Instead of knives or political action, he came armed with love and stories to give hope to the world.
Although it took me until recently to realize this, I’ve always been a story teller. As a child, I used to write plays for all the kids in our neighborhood to memorize and perform for our parents. I am the one in my family who can always be relied on for a humorous (if somewhat exaggerated) retelling of whatever I did that day over dinner. If you are friends with me, you know that I can’t resist texting you something funny or special that I saw that reminds me of you. If I see a story happening, even if it’s just something small, I have to share it with someone. Sometimes I can’t even sleep at night because I have so many stories inside me just bubbling up to be told.
This past year on the World Race I got to live and see some amazing stories. I also had the blessing of having a built-in way to pass them along. As someone who grew up saying that I would never write for a living, being required to keep a blog for a whole year was not something I was very excited for, but I decided to commit to it anyway. I decided that if God had chosen me out of all people to be the one to travel around the world and live those stories, the least I could do was share them with whoever wanted to listen. So that’s what I did. I wrote about spiritual warfare in the DR, healing in the jungles of Ecuador, God’s protection of us in Peru, deadly illness in Nicaragua, seeing God move in El Salvador, my heart for the orphans of Guatemala, redemption for prostitutes in Thailand, watering seeds planted in Kenya, God’s faithful provision in Uganda, standing in the gap for others in Tanzania, life in the midst of persecution in Laos, and a hope for a new future for Cambodia.
I told stories, but not just with words. In addition to being a born story teller, I am also an artist. Though I’ve spent a lot of my life limiting my self-expression to left-brained intellectual pursuits, in my heart I love to make beautiful things. I love to paint, take pictures, make spaces into desirable places to spend time, and more recently, to capture what I experience on video. I hear the world in words and languages, but I see it in angles, colors, and light patterns, and my mind is constantly working on ways to capture those and share them with other people. I discovered that not only did I love to tell stories, but I loved to tell them creatively and visually. I saw God do some pretty cool things with those stories, and I realized that I could do this forever.
This year I found my voice. I realized that I have a voice that not everyone has, and that my voice, my words, and the beautiful things I make can be used to set people free, bring them hope, and give them new life. As citizens of the Kingdom who also live in a broken world, we are called to be salt and light. Salt is a catalyst, which means it makes things happen. We are also called to love justice because we serve a God who loves justice. Finally, we are called to be a city on a hill and a beacon of hope to those in darkness. So as someone who wants to makes things happen, loves justice, and desires to be an ambassador of hope what is my responsibility to the people whose stories I see and hear? I believe I am called to do more than just see and hear stories and write them down. I am called to bear witness to the pain and injustice in the world by giving a voice to the voiceless. I am called to couple my passion for justice with my love of creativity to use people’s own stories to offer them change, justice, and hope for new life.
For this next season of my life, God has called me to spend some time learning how to tell a better story and how to use stories to advocate for justice and bring about change. I will be starting an apprenticeship with the World Race marketing and media team in Gainesville, GA on May 7th that will last 8 months. That’s right…I’m unpacking my bags, hanging my clothes up in an actual closet, and putting down some roots, at least for a little while. I will be working at the Adventures in Missions office Monday-Friday in the marketing department writing for AIM and learning to use video and photography to tell a better story. I’ll be mentored by some amazing story tellers and live in community with the other apprentices. We’ll be challenged as a group and as individuals to grow closer to God and move toward accomplishing the dreams he has placed on our hearts to advance the Kingdom. I’m taking this time to be still in one place and learn from some gifted people so that I will be better equipped to live out my Kingdom dream.
I have had the privilege of living an incredible story that God is writing, and I have been so honored to have all of you follow along with my journey this past year and be the ones to read and watch the stories I’ve told. I would be equally honored if you would continue on this journey with me of learning how to better capture stories that make a difference. I invite you to keep reading and watching, to pray for me in this next step that God has called me to, and to financially support me if God calls you to. Since almost all positions at Adventures in Missions are considered missions positions, we are all required to raise support for a living. For this apprenticeship, I need to raise $1500/month for 8 months, which will cover my rent, food, living expenses, and program costs. Donations are still tax deductible, just like they were for the World Race, and you can still donate by clicking on the Support Me tab along the left side of this blog under my picture. One time gifts are always helpful, but my greatest need in this new journey is for monthly supporters. If 60 people pledged $25/month, I would be completely funded for the whole apprenticeship. That ends up only being $200 per person over the course of 8 months. Monthly donations in any amount can be set up through the same Support Me tab. Because I only committed to this apprenticeship in the last week, I only have two weeks to get the bulk of my support raising done. I have seen God provide far more money in far less time, so I trust that he will meet my needs. I would love to talk to any of you to answer any questions you might have or simply to catch up now that I’m back in Georgia for more than a couple weeks for the first time in years. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your involvement in my life and my dreams, and I hope that we can continue writing amazing stories together.
“Sacred stories are those of transformation, they are stories that draw us closer to the Lord, and they help us to see our connection to all things. There’s a saying in the Jewish tradition that the shortest distance between a human and God is through a story. So if storytelling is a journey, sacred storytelling is a pilgrimage–a pilgrimage to a place called Hope.”
-Andy Fraenkel
